Simply, one of the classic movies and still superb after all these years.

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2003)

"Who thinks 'Casablanca' is the number one movie of all time?" That is a game many play, but I refuse to play it, because I don't think it matters. I have seen many movies over the past five decades, and 'Casablanca' is one of my all time favorites. It is set in a mysterious place at a very mysterious time, and has many mysterious figures running through the story. It has war, it has friendship, it has love, it has sacrifice. All the elements combine to form an entertaining but gripping film that always seems as fresh as the first time you viewed it.
This is perhaps my favorite Humphrey Bogart role, as Rick Blaine the exiled American who owns and operates his own gin joint. We know he isn't totally a good man, but we also sense that inside he is not a bad man at all. Mostly he just wants to do his job and be left alone. But danger lurks at the turn of every page of script.
Most SPOILERS follow. The crux of the story involves Rick, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor (Paul Henreid). Rick and Ilsa have a history, they parted under suspicious circumstances when she failed to meet him at the train leaving town. Now she shows up with a husband that Rick never knew she had. Victor and Ilsa want safe passage to America, and Rick holds the papers that can get them there. Still in love with Ilsa, he realizes that true love will give her what she needs, and he does. Safe passage for her and her husband.
Casablanca has quite a good ensemble cast, with stars in their own rights Claude Rains as Capt. Louis Renault, Conrad Veidt as Maj. Heinrich Strasser, Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari, and Peter Lorre as the shady Guillermo Ugarte.
The DVD is superb!!