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.
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