One of the best American films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2005)

Casablanca is certainly one of the best and admired American films ever made. A subtle yet enthralling adventure set against the backdrop of World War II in Morrocco, it simultaneously plays as a romance film, an exotic intrigue film, and a wartime drama. However, the sum of it's parts produce a film that eludes straightforward classification.
Directed by the talented Hungarian director Michael Curtiz and shot almost entirely on studio sets, the film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot, in spite of the fact that the script was written each day as it was filmed and no one-not even the director-knew the ending. Curtiz debated up until the last day of filming who would use the two exit visas in order to escape. Apparently three weeks after the principal shooting ended, the producer Hal Wallis contributed the famous final line, and the last shot was taken on a fog-shrouded runway.
Casablanca is such a flawless film and a testament to the fundamentals of film-making, cinematic narrative, acting, directing, and editing, it is inconceivable that it could ever be remade.