Cynicism, cowardice,,,or courage?...no room for moderates!

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2002)

I recently saw this entire film (after 9/11).
Bogart plays the chief freedom fighter turned cynic. Major and minor characters have apparently aligned themselves with the Nazis, or, like Bogart's character, refuse to choose sides at all.
It's a microcosm of the early World War II world...where the evil ones (remarkably free of the sins of laziness, indifference, or sloth) are devouring peoples right and left.
But Bogart, and the rest of the seedy characters of his bar, are pushed on two sides towards a moral choice... On one hand, the great Resistance LeaderVictor Lazlo & his wife Elsa and what they need... On the other hand, the Nazis and what they demand. No, there is no safe place for you who flee responsibility.
I enjoy watching the characters struggle with "what to do, what to do."...Sometimes there is no middle road...no moderate choice.