Well made, but not as relevant as it was at the time (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2004)

"Casablanca" is quite rightly hailed by many as a wartime film classic. If you can enjoy your movies without dollops of sex and violence as is the trend these days, there's much about "Casablanca" to enjoy.

The setting of Morocco town Casablanca, where refugees fleeing the Nazis wait up to years to secure letters of transit to America, sees cold-hearted nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) get involved in the wartime struggle when his old flame Ilse Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his club on the arm of her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), a sought-after resistance leader. Blaine is in possession of two letters of transit, and Ilse and Lazslo persuade Blaine to hand them over, all the while eluding the attentions of the snake-like German Colonel Strasser (Conrad Veidt) and Captain Renault (Claude Rains), the duplicitious chief-of-police...
The script is a joy. Not a word is wasted, and nearly every line is memorable. The acting is excellent. Bogart is well-cast as Rick, and Claude Rains enjoys himself as the jovial Captain Renault. Ingrid Bergman is divinely beautiful and as a leading lady has an onscreen grace denied most of her modern contemporaries. Paul Henreid acquits himself well as the honourable Laszlo.
The only problem with the story today is its political undertones, which implies that America is an isolationist state that should be more involved with world affairs. That may have been true during World War II, but it isn't the case now. The recent war on Iraq, along with a history of US interventionism, renders this part of the story dated and misguidedly patriotic.
Regardless, it is hard to find a film today as well-written and acted as "Casablanca".