Casablanca

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2015)

I didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would. I was a little bit confused at times about who was who, what they wanted, where they were from, and where they wanted to go. Casablanca is about a man from America named Rick who owns a very popular nightclub in Casablanca, a town full of people from all over the place trying to get to America but it's not that easy because World War II was going on. The beginning of the movie involves the police rounding up suspects who might have possession of letters of transit because they were stolen after the murder of two German officials. The letters of transit allowed whoever had them to travel freely which would make it easy for whoever had them to get to America. Rick met a girl, Ilsa, while he was in Paris before he came to Casablanca who he really loved and she planned to run away with him but when Rick went to leave she was nowhere to be found. One night Ilsa and her husband showed up at Rick's café. He was shocked, he thought he would never see her again. Rick was tipped of that she was there when the piano player at his café started to play a song that he told him never to play but Ilsa requested it. Ilsa needs the letters to get to America but Rick didn't give them to her at first. She then held a gun to him and demanded he give her the letters and when she didn't shoot him she admitted that she still loved him and that when they meet in Paris she thought her husband died at a concentration camp. However, she found out he was actually alive and that was why she didn't go with Rick that morning and didn't give him any explanation. At the end, it seemed like Ilsa was going to stay with Rick but when they got to the airport Rick made her get on the plane with her husband even though she wanted to stay with him. He told her she would regret it if she didn't get on the plane so she eventually did but not before an officer got in the way and tried to stop them from boarding the plane. Rick shot him and Ilsa and her husband got on the plane. When the other police arrive, the officer who witnessed the shooting told them to round up the usual suspects in order to protect Rick from getting in trouble for shooting him. The end shows Rick walking away with the man who didn't turn him in and Rick saying the famous line of "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." I didn't hate this movie but it definitely wasn't one of my favorites. The acting was great but I thought it was kind of boring and it didn't really change setting too much, the whole movie pretty much took place in Rick's café.