Casablanca, ahh Romance, Bravery, Loyalty, Decency!

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2002)

Some have commented that movies like "American Beauty" or "Fight Club" should be listed above this on the AFI list of movies. I loved both those films but there is no way you can compare a modern Babbitt (sad and pitiful as he is) or some post-modern fantasizing about how to get out of your credit-card bill with someone giving up Ingrid Bergman (!) and the coolest job in the world to go fight Nazis in the desert.
I think loving this film is a matter of wanting to see a universality on film that speaks to the better angels of our nature, not just the pretty decent ones, but qualities of honor that are hard to find in modern film.
Also Bogie Kicks *ss. And the Love Story is de-voon.
I remember when I made my best friend watch it (we were 15 and I'd already seen it a dozen times). As Louis and Rick walk away and the music comes up she smacked me and yelled "He lets her leave?? HOW could you let me watch this and he let's her LEAVE?!"
The movie is poetry. Plain and simple.
and remember: there are vultures, vultures everywhere.