Casablanca

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2009)

Casablanca has always been one of my favorite movies. It is a bit cliqued, but perhaps it was not that way when it was first released, but over the years the lines have been repeated so much that it has become that way. This is a wonderful, complex story, which is one of the things I like about it and other movies with great plots. But it was not too confusing. There were things that I had not noticed on previous viewings, one of which is the use of lighting. I found myself wondering what it meant when they showed Rick's shadow much larger than himself in one scene. Did it mean that he was a mere shadow of himself after Elsa left him alone at the train station? I've never really paid much attention to the beginning scene and realize how it really set the stage for the rest of the film (the mise on scene). It really was quite disturbing how the German invasion impacted all of Europe and all of the refugees were forced to Casablanca. This sort of contrasted with the setting of Rick's-brightly lit, music, drinking. etc. The best scene is when Rick lets the young girl's husband win enough at the Roulette table to buy letters to allow them to leave Casablanca-a real tear jerker