3 Reasons Casablanca Is An Overrated Romantic Classic

This piece was originally published on FilmAutonomy.com on August 18th, 2015.

#SorryNotSorryCasablanca 

Let me be clear about one thing upfront – nowhere in this essay am I in any way, shape, or form declaring Casablanca a 102 minute long waste of your life.  It’s a good movie – a damn good one, actually.  I won’t bore you with its long list of impressive accomplishments dating back to its 1943 wide release that makes it seem like the Michael Jordan-era Bulls of the cinematic world.  But put it this way – if the films of the American Film Institute were children, Casablanca would be the kid all the other kids despised and, while constantly living in its towering shadow, would always have to hear “Why can’t you be more like Casablanca?  She follows her three act structure so well…”  Seriously, this movie is the favorite tow-headed child that gets all the awards and perennial high rankings, including second originally on The AFI’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list while The Godfather Part II (no. 32, really?!), Jaws (no. 56, ugh) and The Empire Strikes Back (not even on the damn list) get the ginger stepchild treatment.  Although, it’s worth noting Casablanca did slip a notch from no. 2 to no. 3 on the updated 2007 list.  It had no business outranking The Godfather in the first place!

What is it about this movie?  Even Hollywood, with all of its eagerness to resurrect the most tired franchises, seems to treat any suggestion of remaking Casablanca with the same stone cold silence you’d find in the South Park writers’ room at the idea of making Muhammad a regularly-appearing character.  In an institution that seems to hold nothing holy or above commoditizing, even Tinseltown has its sacred cow.  Over seven decades later, Warner Brothers still uses notes from the movie’s theme song “As Time Goes By” in its company logo at the beginning of its films.  Is it the film’s exotic locations?  It was shot mostly at the studio.  Is it the action scenes, which were rare for romantic dramas of the period?  Well, there’s only five scenes that involve gunplay (two of which they’re never fired) and two of the other three are completely inconsequential to the plot.  The film was also based originally on an unproduced play so most of the on-screen action is stagey and the actors often perform long dialogue exchanges while just sitting across from each other. 

Let me guess then…is it the romance?

Ah…the romance…that’s it, eh?  Well, that can be a Herculean task to argue with.  This is a film so indoctrinated into our culture with romanticized visions that even people who have never seen it probably feel like they have seen it countless times, especially Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa’s (Ingrid Bergman) tortured farewell on the tarmac.  

But is Casablanca, as a whole, really that romantic?  Here are three things to seriously consider that might make us take a step back and possibly – gasp – make us rethink it as a romantic classic at all. 

1.  Ilsa had issues!

To be fair, we don’t know very much about Ilsa at all.  She’s the least-developed character of the entire movie so we don’t get anything beyond a snapshot of her, but what we do see has some occasionally disturbing moments.  First of all, where is she finding guys like Rick Blaine and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid)?  I realize they didn’t have Coffee Meets Bagel back in those days, but did she subscribe to some dating service that matched you with the Allies’ most eligible (and high-risk) bachelors?!  She also clearly had a touch of “daddy issues” as both of these men appeared to be significantly older than her (Bogart was fifteen years older, although Henreid and Bergman were closer in actual age; both men just looked so damn much older than her).  It’s most disturbing in a scene when Rick asks what she was doing ten years before they met and she replies that she was having braces put on.  That also gives a creepy tinge to the line “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

However, the most troubling issue of Ilsa’s is her indecisiveness about life-changing decisions.  During her second midnight rendezvous with Rick at his club, she pulls out a pistol and threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t hand over the stolen transit papers for her and Laszlo to flee to Lisbon.  One minute she’s threatening to kill Rick to ensure a prosperous future for her and Laszlo and the next….she’s entwined in the throes of passion, making off-screen love to Rick in the midst of a dissolve…what?!  Then despite being married to Victor, she co-conspires to stay with Rick in Casablanca only then to have the plans change last-minute when, through Rick playing upon Ilsa’s madness by manipulation, he reveals that he intended on ensuring she boarded the plane with Laszlo all along…and Ilsa just goes along with it…happily ever after.  Fuck it, right?  If I was telling Ilsa’s story to someone at a bar they’d say “Whoooaaa…that chick sounds batshit nuts, bruh!”  And they’d be right!        

2.  Rick and Victor were both equally poor prospects for long-term relationships!  

Rick has a history of being a gunrunner and freedom fighter who is already on an Axis Powers watch list with a price on his head when we meet him.  Victor is an outspoken Czech Resistance leader who had spent time in a concentration camp (and even managed to escape from one) and was believed to have been shot dead before Ilsa hooked up with Rick in Paris.  It’s safe to say that both of these guys, who are also in their late 30s to early 40s, aren’t eager to change their ways and become low-key cobblers anytime soon.  Laszlo doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who would view his and Ilsa’s experience in Casablanca as a time that brought them closer together.  Most likely, for him it was nothing more than another perilous pit stop on the way to America.  And once they actually got to America?  Do you think they used it, even briefly, as an opportunity for a second honeymoon or try some new Tantric sex techniques?  Hell no.  He’d likely be too busy organizing rallies, putting together marches and drumming up Ally support.  His first love would never be Ilsa – it was always going to be his love for the cause, fighting against the forces of tyranny.  And while that’s sweet, Ilsa seemed like someone who pined for dangerous men and adventure so I find it hard to believe she was truly ever happy once she and Laszlo made it to their eventual destination. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean Rick was the better choice, albeit if not the more exciting one.  I have always thought, though, it would eventually come to light that he and Renault (the glorious Claude Rains who is quite the scene-stealer throughout the film) were the ones behind the death of Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt).  Whether or not they made it to the refuge of Brazzaville is another story.  Remember, Casablanca takes place before the war’s end so the Germans had a tremendous amount of wealth and influence, especially to find the assailants of a prominent military leader.  Ilsa could have stayed with Rick in Casablanca or gone on the run with him and Renault, but Rick would’ve had to shoot Strasser regardless if Ilsa had gotten on the plane or not leaving his future fate, with or without her beside him, looking murky, at best.  Speaking of Rick and questionable decisions…

3.  Rick took a casual thing and made it weird!  Like…really weird!

“We said no questions,” Ilsa quickly reminds Rick after he asks her about her past during his first Paris flashback.  Rick, for lack of elegance, was a rebound for a depressed Ilsa, still in mourning over Victor’s presumed death.  She claims that what she felt for Rick was the real deal, but again, this echoes from what I had originally said – this (young) girl had issues!  Although the exact duration of Rick and Ilsa’s time in Paris is never actually stated, it comes across as a textbook whirlwind romance in every way, especially because of a rigidly-enforced “no questions” policy.  But Rick, in the end, wound up violating the “playa code” and did something Drake would write songs warning against seven decades later:  Rick caught feelings.  And he caught them hard, suggesting that, on the verge of German Occupation, Ilsa flee with him to Marseilles.  Oh, and he also casually mentions they should get married once they get there.  No big deal.  She’s down with any major life-changing decisions without much push anyhow, right? 

I suppose I shouldn’t beat up on Ilsa too much when you factor in the emotional gamut she endures throughout the story.  Rick should have also been keener on picking up signs, especially just before she stood him up at the Paris train station.  His inability to read into her hints about not meeting him or when she wants him to “kiss [her] as if it were the last time” was downright oblivious.  She might as well have had a fucking flashing, neon sign on her forehead.  Rick, however, should’ve known to keep things casual and walk away without ever making things awkward – to move on to the next episode just as the party was ending and the Nazis were arriving, which is, even today, the quickest way to end a party. 

Casablanca is not a bad movie at all, just overrated as what is constantly hailed as a romantic classic.  There are undeniably concerning elements present that really make us question how romantic it all really is.  Should romance in movies be about a distraught young woman with intense psychological trauma finding love with two rebels and being forced to choose between the two?  Further complicating matters is that one of her suitors, who should have never let his feelings take control, begins torpedoing down a collision course that could only meet a devastating and heartbreaking end…

Then again, citing those same points, some might argue that it’s as classic of a depiction of on-screen romance as true and close to real life as there could ever be.

Still 'Wonderful' All These Years Later

This post was originally published on FilmAutonomy.com on December 22, 2015. 

5 Reasons ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Still Endures as the Perennial Christmas Classic

In my family, it’s just not Christmas time (apologies to the PC police, but I’m relating this to my own personal holiday experiences) without a certain movie that has always and continues to be a nearly sacred tradition for us…Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’m fairly certain if you’re reading this, it is likely a part of your holiday traditions as well.  Or you’ve at least caught it on TV in between annual A Christmas Story marathons on TBS. 

I’m fully cognizant that much of my appreciation for the film is rooted in sentimentality.  I understand that much of what it means to me has to do with its incandescent black-and-white images burned into a young, fragile mind like melted candle wax.  There were many Christmas Eves spent tossing and turning, trying to force myself to sleep so Santa would arrive sooner, listening in the darkness to the film’s muffled dialogue from the other side of the door.  Movie memories don’t get much more hallowed than that.      

The film tells the story of exasperated building and loan owner, George Bailey.  We see most of the film from the point-of-view of Clarence, his guardian angel.  As a kid and young man, George had eager dreams of traveling the world, but circumstances (better known as “life”) prevented him from doing so.  He fell in love, got married and had children…then the emergence of World War II kept him busy handling volunteer duties on the home front (in actuality, the war had ended only about fifteen months before the film’s release).  Due to a banking mishap, George finds himself entwined in a potential scandal on Christmas Eve and, at his most desperate hour, he crosses paths with Clarence.  He swears that his family and the town of Bedford Falls as a whole would be better off if he had never been born.  So Clarence works his magic and gives George a glimpse of what exactly that alternate reality would be like if he had never existed. 

After all these years, why do new audiences still find and appreciate It’s a Wonderful Life?  The film was originally a box office flop based on a homemade greeting card.  What is it about the movie that keeps it relevant and close to people’s hearts?  How does it endure passing eras that move further and further away from the earnest simplicity of a place like Bedford Falls? 

Here are five reasons why: 

1.  George Bailey was one of the most relatable (if not always likeable) on-screen protagonists.

Who can forget that moment with the wooden post cap?  We had seen George accidentally yank it off before in the film, but it’s the next-to-last time he does it – he is about to wind up for a pitch and we all know that moment.  We’ve all been there before, ESPECIALLY during the malaise the holidays can bring.  We’ve all had the post cap clenched tightly in our grip before, either figuratively or even literally and still found the last remnants of resolve to walk away.  We see George at his absolute worst (screaming at the kids) and at his best (three times saving someone’s life and his family business with his own honeymoon cash).  But he’s not altogether likeable throughout.  We see him have some clear frenemy moments with his jealousy of Sam Wainwright’s success and he can be downright ornery, particularly with Mary even before the predicament on Christmas Eve.  With a combination of steady direction from Frank Capra that harnessed the precise notes in a vast symphony of emotions and a hit-the-bullseye performance from salt of the Earth everyman Jimmy Stewart (yes, even better here than in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), they find a way to paint the portrait of George with the finest of brush strokes that don’t illustrate him as saintly or toxic – simply a hard-working family man who has his good days and bad days.  Whether it was our own fathers, uncles, or neighbors, we all grew up with a George Bailey in some capacity.  And it’s why we root for him so much to find a way back home.

2.  Mr. Potter was one of the best on-screen antagonists of all time. 

How miserable and detestable of an old bastard was Bedford Falls’ most notorious miser?  Even the angels in Heaven said he was the “meanest man in the county.”  Not just the town…the county!  Think about that, let that sink in – even the angels, the right hands of God Almighty himself, are in Heaven talking shit about this terrible human being they can’t stand and they probably see some pretty detestable figures on a daily basis!  That’s how awful Henry F. Potter was.  Lionel Barrymore nailed all the right notes to become the living embodiment of selfishness, greed and a total lack of empathy – the antithesis of the core values that defy the heartland of America in places such as the quaint town of Bedford Falls and its primarily blue collar population. 

3.  The film is a perfect genre splice.

It’s a romantic, family-driven Christmas comedy-drama, sure…but there are also strong elements of science fiction, German Expressionism and Film Noir working collectively here.  Clarence essentially teleports George into another dimension (without using that vernacular) to demonstrate the immense impact he had not only on those closest to him, but to just about all the citizens of Bedford Falls.  The third act takes place in this alternate universe, one in which young Harry wasn’t saved by his older brother and Mr. Gowers’ drunken error resulted in tragic consequences that young George had originally averted.  It all has a very Twilight Zone or Outer Limits feel to it.  In this parallel world, we also see many visual techniques typically employed in German Expressionism and Film Noir such as heavy uses of shadows, silhouettes, close-ups and an eerie score that gives this portion of the film a largely macabre, disorienting effect that perfectly hurls the viewer into this desolate, claustrophobic mental landscape alongside George.  It further heightens our terror that he may not find a way to get back.

4.  Despite perfect three-act structure, the film defies many standard screenwriting principles.    

If I booked a meeting for a first-look script deal with producer Megan Ellison and told her I had this great idea for a Christmas dramedy involving parallel dimensions, but the first 109 pages are all flashback portraying the character as a little boy and the main conflict is still another 40 pages away, I’d be thrown out of Annapurna Pictures with physical force.  She would think I was completely insane or at the very least (and worse in Hollywood) an amateur.  While the 47-page first act is just a tad bloated, it can’t be overlooked that this is also why the rest of the film works so well, hugely benefitting the successive acts and story as a whole.  We enjoy serendipitous moments with the players residing within the town (an old Shakespeare device) and it results in why the audience is able to despise Potter so much.  It’s why we feel such ambivalence toward Uncle Billy and, most importantly, why we’re weeping along with George during the bridge scene.  It goes to show that all the formulas, rigid craft techniques and fundamental mechanics are sometimes the very things that need to be defied for the sake of innovation.      

5.  If not WWII, there has always been a crisis each generation of viewership has been able to relate to.

It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946, just over a year and change since WWII had ended.  While it’s not at all worthy of any consideration to be called a “war movie,” it’s undeniable that the war is a looming part of the events that unfold.  Remember, the misplaced $8,000 deposit is accidentally folded in a newspaper talking about war hero Harry’s accomplishments that makes its way into Potter’s vile claws.  The film had disappeared for many years into obscurity, only making sporadic appearances on PBS throughout the 1960s (while America was entrenched in Vietnam) before becoming a network television staple in the late 1970s (during a national oil shortage).  

 In the 1980s, our nation found itself in the throes of the Cold War before enduring a 1987 stock market crash and then found itself embattled yet again in the Persian Gulf War to kick off the 1990s.  The tragedies have, sadly, never ended and have ranged from war to terrorist attacks to recessions and staggering unemployment rates to a major housing crisis, multiple mass shootings, and perpetual civil rights issues…there has always been national or global tragedies that people have been able to relate with the film to through their own personal devastation.  In 2001, when people were watching It’s a Wonderful Life, they weren’t seeing WWII; they were seeing the War in Afghanistan’s infancy.  In 2008, when they were watching it, they weren’t seeing the war, rather record numbers of home foreclosures and layoffs in their own neighborhoods.  While the film itself is generally uplifting, it’s the oft-ubiquitous sense of turmoil surrounding us which has served as means of expanding its viewership and relatability, allowing it to seem darkly contemporary. 

While that is undoubtedly saddening, it is also encouraging.  After all, this is a story that ends with George overcoming his plight during his most desperate hour when hope was at its most scarce.  The film celebrates family, friendship and optimism for the future…the way a Christmas tale should. 

Next year marks the 70^th anniversary of It’s a Wonderful Life’s release.  If you’ve never seen it, the movie is DEFINITELY worth your time.  Like George Bailey himself, nearly seven decades later, it’s a classic film that continues to touch the lives of so many others. 

IT FOLLOWS review by M. Muniz

             

It seems like a lot of horror movies these days really don’t want us to have sex anymore….like….ever.  Eric England’s CONTRACTED, Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch’s STARRY EYES are some recent ones in which sexual encounters bring hellish fates upon their protagonists.   Now (and probably far most effectively) David Robert Mitchell brings IT FOLLOWS as the newest installment that will blow any chance of getting laid on date night into total oblivion. 

This all actually makes tons of sense.  American horror movies have always tapped into the subconscious fears of the masses.  In the 1950s, creature features invaded the silver screen and it was always some giant insect or abomination created by nuclear experimentation, clearly derived from fears of the ongoing Cold War and living beneath the constant threat of nukes.  In the 1970s, it was usually a terror that was actually created and simultaneously hidden by the government or a powerful agency, indicative of a distrustful society reeling from Vietnam and the Nixon era, still weary of government and big corporations (ALIEN and PIRANHA).  In the 80s, fears from indulgence and excess created a subtext for films like THE LOST BOYS and Cronenberg’s reimagining of THE FLY.  With technology in recent years changing the dating landscape and causing a resurgence of one night stands with apps such as Tinder after a prolonged time when such behavior had cooled with the fear of AIDS and other STDs, it all makes sense that those worries would still be ingrained into the subconscious of a generation that grew up indoctrinated with it through post-Reagan education and pop culture.  IT FOLLOWS taps into this sensible paranoia beautifully.

IT FOLLOWS is the story of Jay Height (Maika Monroe) an All-American pretty blonde who lives in Detroit with her sister and their boozing mom who we barely see or has any notable presence.  Instead, her family is more so her group of neighborhood friends.  She likes a boy, Hugh (Jake Weary), who she admittedly doesn’t know that well and acts really odd on the only true date the audience actually sees them on.  Nevertheless, one fateful night, they consummate the relationship.  Afterwards, Jay barely gets to enjoy the afterglow because Hugh unexpectedly renders her unconscious and ties her up to a chair in an abandoned building.  Things only get stranger from here on.  He explains that a shape-shifting creature will now follow her and that she must now have sex with someone else to pass it along like a nightmarish chain letter or it will eventually destroy her.  Hopefully, Hugh at least picked up the check for dinner.

Mitchell’s direction is simply fantastic.  Blending an atmospheric sense of claustrophobia with his pronounced camera work and Argento-inspired soundtrack, he manages to give the viewers such a real sense of paranoia themselves while watching.  Suddenly your eyes hover about within each frame.  All the sparse details within those frames such as background artists are now assumed to be a threat and examined with such intense scrutiny.  We’re literally in Jay’s headspace and it works so much more beautifully and engaging as a gimmick than anything stereoscopic CGI could ever pull off. 

Ultimately, IT FOLLOWS works so well and scares the hell out of everyone because this is a movie about living with affliction.  Anyone who has ever had an STD or an STD scare knows how isolating and terrifying it can be.  Anyone who has ever been stalked by someone before can probably also relate to Jay’s paranoia to the sad point of sleeping outdoors in the middle of nowhere and questioning if the odd things she’s seeing are real or just in her mind.  There’s a certain kind of fear and hopelessness that drives a fresh-faced-whole-life-in-front-of-her Jay to the haggard, broken girl she has evolved into by the third act.  Modern audiences can fully connect with this as well as probably future viewers.  The current sexual technological wave has given intimacy and connectivity new platforms and limitless ceilings, but also magnifies inherent fears about STD exposure or meeting someone who becomes a psychotic stalker (also seen in one of the year’s unexpected earlier hits, THE BOY NEXT DOOR).  Jay’s condition proves to be life altering.  This affliction changes her over the course of the film and also affects those closest to her as they also are forced to grapple with those changes, creating divisiveness and even doubt about how real it all is.  Their sincerity is a tremendous plaudit to the young cast, particularly Monroe’s stellar performance. 

IT FOLLOWS is not a perfect film, but certainly a formidable one among the discussion of the best American horror movies of recent memory.  It will be interesting to see if David Cameron Mitchell revisits the genre in the future, but even if he chose not to, the bar has been highly and exquisitely set for other filmmakers to follow this terrifying tale with their own spooky yarns.  And if I’m one of them, THAT is truly horrifying.

4/5 Excellent