A Classic War Movie That Doesn't Seem Like A War Movie

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2008)

Having somehow never seen this classic movie, I was glad to have finally had the chance to watch it, and understand why it's seen as a classic. What I liked most about it was what it wasn't. Unlike most war movies that I've seen that were actually made during World War II, this has no battle scenes and no overtly patriotic binges (and what patriotism there is is French rather than American, which I found refreshing.) It comes across not as propaganda, but as a very human and very well done story about the struggles of living in Casablanca (governed by Vichy France) during the Second World War.
Humphrey Bogart seemed to me to be perfectly cast as Rick Blaine - the owner of an American cafe in Casablanca who for the most part tries to stay out of politics, although his contempt for the Germans clearly comes across in a variety of scenes. Ingrid Bergman also did a great job as Ilsa, a former love interest of Rick's who desperately needs Rick's help to escape to America with her husband (played by Paul Henreid) who is a leader of the anti-Nazi underground and has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Bogart and Bergman were great together; to be honest I thought Bergman and Henreid were less so, although what I sensed as the awkwardness between them may well have been a deliberate way of portraying Ilsa's confusion about her feelings for Rick. Claude Rains I thought did a great job playing Police Prefect Renault. He seemed to capture the dilemma of most officials of Vichy France - as he said himself, he blows "with the wind, and for the moment the wind is blowing from Vichy." His relationship with the Germans is deferential, and yet one gets the impression that basically, trapped in a tough situation, he's looking out for himself, which is probably what many Vichy officials did.
With a strong cast and a strong story featuring believable characters you end up with a very strong movie. It's interesting rather than exciting, and much better than most of the standard anti-Nazi patriotic binges that I've seen from the war years. (Having seen "Casablanca" I may now be inclined to watch some of Bogart's other war era movies.) 8/10