A Classic Tale

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2013)

I've recently got in the habit of watching very old movies. I was scanning through the IMDb top 250 as I often do when I spotted a movie from 1942, Casablanca. I didn't know anything about it except the description. The reason I stopped was because of the extremely high score it had. How could a movie this old be as good as my many favorites? Weeks later I spotted it at the thrift store for fifty cents. I thought I might as well give it a shot for that. I'm glad that I did. Yet another old movie that sheds its age simply because of the compelling story telling.
The story takes place in a city named Casablanca. The Germans are trying to arrest two men; Ugarte and Victor Laszlo. They suspect Ugarte has two letters of transit which allow the holder to move freely through German controlled countries so they can get to America. He plans on selling them to Victor Laszlo. Ugarte and Laszlo plan on meeting at Rick's Café Américain a night club of sorts. When they arrive to make the exchange is when the story really takes off. The owner of Rick's Café, Rick Blane, is a very interesting character. You can't quite tell what he's going to do next. He's played by Humphrey Bogart, who does an amazing job playing the cool customer from New York. You don't know whose side he's on, as he says "I stick my neck out for no one" The other characters all have great performances as well. Laszlo, Isls Lund and the French captain all add a lot of character to the movie. One person that I loved was the piano player at the club. He didn't have many lines, but with what he did say I found him to have excellent character. You could tell that he's a great friend of Rick's. The French Captain Louis Renault was great. You'll hate him, love him, and back again. He had a great acting dynamic with Rick; they played off each other so well you would think they actually knew each other for a long time. Conrad Veidt, the German leader was more of a political threat than a physical one. He was always bothering the heroes of the story, always trying his best to make their lives miserable. One of the best scenes was when Veidt was leading a sort of pub song with his men at the nightclub and Laszlo leads a chorus of his own overpowering the German's voice. I thought that scene was particularly funny.
The storyline is what really shines in this one. Movies made this long ago couldn't rely on special effects. The dialog and script really are delivered perfectly. If you like a story where you can try to figure out how everything all fits together than you'll like this. One aspect of the story involves a love triangle. As you might know I'm not too big on love stories, but this one actually makes sense. A lot of movies have a love story shoe horned in just because; in this one the story truly is interesting. I was honestly wondering what was going to happen with this love triangle believe it or not. My only gripe with it was in the execution. Sometimes it had a small cheese factor. The eye rolls weren't as prevalent as most films for sure. I also want to mention the ending of the film. It tied everything together perfectly. We got closure on all the major plot points. The major characters get their subplots closed. In the end, I felt like everything ended the way I wanted it to end and I felt satisfied.
There isn't much to say about the technical aspects of the film. Basically since it's so old all I was hoping for was that graphics wouldn't subtract from the movie. For the most part it's not too distracting. A few of the gunshots looked really unrealistic. Hey, in the end it was more about the story anyway.
If you're looking for an old movie that will surprise you with its complex story and great acting you won't be disappointed with this one. You should definitely see it.
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