As time goes by Casablanca is timeless

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 2012)

Most films about WWII made during WWII are so rah-rah over the top that at midpoint you want to stand up and say "OK, I get it already, the Nazis are eeeeeevil." This one is different. There are bad guys - Conrad Veidt's Major Strasser who practically slithers on his belly and hisses like a snake he is so vile, guys that are so good that their teeth sparkle in the sunlight - Heinreid's Victor Lazlo, and a whole bunch of gray characters just trying to get by - the kind of guys who vote for who they think the winner is going to be in a Presidential election. Maybe these gray characters are truly out for themselves and see it as a game or a matter of survival - Claude Rains's Captain Renault, or maybe they were fighters for the good fight at one time and when karma dealt them a bad blow they became cynical - Bogart's Rick Blaine.
You've got a great supporting cast - Greenstreet, Lorre, Sakall, and Dooley Wilson as Sam, a guy with a rare level head who looks out for Rick and seems to see Rick's cynicism as an illness he has to be nursed through while tickling those ivories - a rare humanizing role for an African American in 1942.
Plus this thing defies all laws of synergy - it works on a grand scale as an entire work of art, but you can break out individual scenes and enjoy them divorced from the rest of the film, and there are great individual lines suitable for framing "I stick my neck out for no man" and " I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here" says Captain Renault as he closes down Rick's and stuffs gambling winnings into his pocket - this last line has almost become a metaphor for American politics and politicians.
Bottom line - Rick Blaine is Han Solo. Both characters were vital to the success of the films in which they starred. People always love a romance/adventure involving a talented cynical loner who ultimately joins or rejoins the good fight for the right reasons, a guy who is a bit too good to be true, and a woman who is torn between actually loving the first kind of man and feeling like she should really love the second kind of man. That is Casablanca and that is Star Wars, but Star Wars does not have Captain Renault and Casablanca does! Wow, I've always been afraid of reviewing Casablanca because I didn't know where to start, and it looks like I just did.