What is really good about goodbye!

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2000)

The tears-in-your-throat-moment of this movie is when Rick finally realises that his hurting was not a love lost, but just male vanity because he was dumped by Ilsa. It was a short, silly affair that threatened him to destroy himself.
Further he realises that he doesn't love her like Victor, and he accepts his own egoism. The truth is, he would never have made a proposal like Victor's (made reciprocally by Ilsa, by the way) to remain himself in Casablanca to rescue the beloved.
So, he really is the hero of this movie. He won the war, just not WW2.
To interpret the movie as about the sacrifice of Rick would be wrong, because such a sacrifice would not make him a hero, at all, just another bad loser not wanting to win.