Holds its own against most Shakespeare plays

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2011)

Looking at the list or compilation here on IMDb of notable quotes from the film CASABLANCA, I was reminded of at least 28 sayings that have become part of the American lexicon or our shared cultural literacy in the nearly 7 decades since this movie's release (a time period similar to the one that Abraham Lincoln observed had elapsed between the Declaration of Independence and his own Gettysburg Address). The 30-odd plays attributed to William Shakespeare have some advantages over CASABLANCA in terms of grasping "market share" in our collective mentality: namely, they've had six times as long to take root in our imaginative vocabulary, which consequently has yielded far more adaptations (think current release GNOMEO AND JULIET) than time has proffered to the script which earned screen writing Oscars for the Epstein twins. On the other hand, only serious Shakespeare scholars would be able to identify two dozen memorable turns of phrase from the entire body of the bard's work, and many of these professorial types probably would be stumped to repeat ANY bon mot from 10 or 20 of the lesser known plays (all of which necessarily suffer from archaic words or meanings caused by the passage of the centuries). As stated in the quote section here, some CASABLANCA trademarks ("Here's looking at you, kid") predate the movie, while other famous lines ("Play it again, Sam") have been "edited" for conciseness in the public mind. Back in school, I learned enough about Shakespeare to know the exact same thing applies to most of his famous one-liners: he was primarily popularizing stories and sayings that predated the dramas performed under his brand. (Much of the foregoing also could be applied to biblical scholarship, but I will leave it to the next reviewer to extrapolate between CASABLANCA and comparative religion.)
More likely than not, the works of Shakespeare will be much more obscure 100 years from now, while phrases and images from such movies as GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ will be even more iconic then compared with now. But I have no doubt that CASABLANCA will remain right at the top in terms of defining how Americans think, speak, and remember a common lingo.