The loser who calls his shots!

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2004)

I watched a series of Humphrey Bogart movies within a span of two days: To Have and Not Have, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and, Dark Passage. While the first two movies have lots of similarities, I rate Casablanca to be better. (Of course, I'm totally fascinated by the face of Lauren Bacall; but yet the role of Ingrid Bergman was more firmly planted.). My main reason for liking Casablanca over To Have... is that, in Casablanca, Bogart is a defeated man, a man running away from himself, a man who would put his "neck out for nobody" (mainly because he's too scared to be hurt again; or in other words, his past experiences have left him synical.)...but yet he has full control over his faculties...to such an extent that when circumstances put everything at his feet, he can see through it and can decide that the victory that is waiting there to garland him won't be his triumph, but rather another, a greater defeat. And then he decides the most logical, rationale course of action that transforms him into the winner we all would like to be, and allows him to come to terms with himself.
This movie deserves a place in the wish-list of every movie lover; and once it's watched, I'm sure, it would naturally be in the list of one's all-time favorite movies.