Casablanca was, arguably, the first cult classic in the cinema. Upon its 1942-3 release it got fairly enthusiastic reviews, nothing too adulatory. It won Best Picture at the Oscars, did moderately well at the box office (though it was only Warner Bros. third-most successful WWII movie). But then something weird happened: inspired by a popular 1957 screening of old movies in Cambridge, Massachussetts, an annual tradition of screening Casablanca during Finals Week started at Harvard. Other universities followed suit, and soon enough everyone was walking around quoting it and arguing about whether it or Citizen Kane was the greatest movie of all time. (Clearly, there are other contenders, but that's a debate for another time.)
Now, not far from the 70th anniversary of its release, Casablanca has assumed mythic proportions in cinema history. The endlessly quotable dialogue, Bogart in the white tux, the twinkle in Ingrid Bergman’s eyes, Claude Rains’ glib, cheerful corruption, the bad guys are Nazis . . . the mythos has substance. The size of its cult elevates it to the status of legitimate classic; at this point, enough people have seen the movie enough times that a lot of the mythos has solidified into perceived fact. But, as with anything that everyone knows, some misconceptions arise, and some important things fall through the cracks. So, as a public service, here are five things you should know about Casablanca:
1) Victor Laszlo is awesome
This warrants mention primarily because of a popular misconception—articulated by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally—that Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) should have ended up with Rick (Humphrey Bogart) just because Humphrey Bogart’s the coolest man ever to walk the earth and they were so passionately in love. While Rick and Ilsa were clearly wild about each other, and Humphrey Bogart is the coolest man ever to walk the earth, Victor Laszlo is a great man. Maybe he doesn’t look as good in a tux, get laid as often, or have snappy comebacks as readily handy, Victor Laszlo is the leader of the Resistance. He catches a lot of heat for that conversation he has with Ilsa where he basically says he’d carry on without her; women, in particular, tend to tsk tsk at this, forgetting of course that the only reason they’re having the conversation is because Ilsa asked one of those evil lose-lose Girl Trap questions that invariably leaves everyone’s feelings hurt. But, in Victor Laszlo’s defense, he’s been spending the past few years leading the fucking Resistance against the Nazis (ahem) and hasn’t had the downtime to polish his ability with the ladies. In the end, all the “Ilsa should end up with Rick” people are the slightly older versions of the people who whined about Harry Potter not ending up with Hermione. Ilsa gets on the plane with Victor Laszlo, sorry. And he deserves her. Billy Crystal was wrong. Meg Ryan was right, it wasn’t just because she hadn’t had great sex yet.
2) Ronald Reagan was never going to be cast as Rick
I used to be under this misperception, and am greatly relieved that it turned out to be bullshit. Kind of beside the point, since Warner Bros. did have the good sense to cast Bogart, but still, Ronnie was a choad.
3) There will never be a better way to troll auteur theory advocates.
I admit this freely as a great admirer of directors. Even Andrew Sarris admitted Casablanca is “the most decisive exception to the auteur theory,” to which The New York Times' Aljean Harmetz middle-fingered “nearly every Warner Bros. picture was an exception to the auteur theory.” There’s nothing as satisfying as a good flame war, and as we all know, the level of satisfaction derived from a flame war is inversely proportional to the sense of humor of its participants; thus, a flame war between critics is usually almost as fun to watch as Casablanca.
On the other hand, Michael Curtiz shouldn’t be slept on as a director. He directed Casablanca, didn’t he?
4) Nearly everybody in the movie except Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were actually refugees from the Nazis.
Well, and Claude Rains. But for just about everybody else, it was personal.
Now, not far from the 70th anniversary of its release, Casablanca has assumed mythic proportions in cinema history. The endlessly quotable dialogue, Bogart in the white tux, the twinkle in Ingrid Bergman’s eyes, Claude Rains’ glib, cheerful corruption, the bad guys are Nazis . . . the mythos has substance. The size of its cult elevates it to the status of legitimate classic; at this point, enough people have seen the movie enough times that a lot of the mythos has solidified into perceived fact. But, as with anything that everyone knows, some misconceptions arise, and some important things fall through the cracks. So, as a public service, here are five things you should know about Casablanca:
1) Victor Laszlo is awesome
This warrants mention primarily because of a popular misconception—articulated by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally—that Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) should have ended up with Rick (Humphrey Bogart) just because Humphrey Bogart’s the coolest man ever to walk the earth and they were so passionately in love. While Rick and Ilsa were clearly wild about each other, and Humphrey Bogart is the coolest man ever to walk the earth, Victor Laszlo is a great man. Maybe he doesn’t look as good in a tux, get laid as often, or have snappy comebacks as readily handy, Victor Laszlo is the leader of the Resistance. He catches a lot of heat for that conversation he has with Ilsa where he basically says he’d carry on without her; women, in particular, tend to tsk tsk at this, forgetting of course that the only reason they’re having the conversation is because Ilsa asked one of those evil lose-lose Girl Trap questions that invariably leaves everyone’s feelings hurt. But, in Victor Laszlo’s defense, he’s been spending the past few years leading the fucking Resistance against the Nazis (ahem) and hasn’t had the downtime to polish his ability with the ladies. In the end, all the “Ilsa should end up with Rick” people are the slightly older versions of the people who whined about Harry Potter not ending up with Hermione. Ilsa gets on the plane with Victor Laszlo, sorry. And he deserves her. Billy Crystal was wrong. Meg Ryan was right, it wasn’t just because she hadn’t had great sex yet.2) Ronald Reagan was never going to be cast as Rick
I used to be under this misperception, and am greatly relieved that it turned out to be bullshit. Kind of beside the point, since Warner Bros. did have the good sense to cast Bogart, but still, Ronnie was a choad.
3) There will never be a better way to troll auteur theory advocates.
I admit this freely as a great admirer of directors. Even Andrew Sarris admitted Casablanca is “the most decisive exception to the auteur theory,” to which The New York Times' Aljean Harmetz middle-fingered “nearly every Warner Bros. picture was an exception to the auteur theory.” There’s nothing as satisfying as a good flame war, and as we all know, the level of satisfaction derived from a flame war is inversely proportional to the sense of humor of its participants; thus, a flame war between critics is usually almost as fun to watch as Casablanca.
On the other hand, Michael Curtiz shouldn’t be slept on as a director. He directed Casablanca, didn’t he?
4) Nearly everybody in the movie except Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were actually refugees from the Nazis.
Well, and Claude Rains. But for just about everybody else, it was personal.
Conrad Veidt, who played Major Strasser, was pissed off enough about having to split Germany that he spent the whole rest of his career kicking the Nazis in the balls: “Typecast as the Nazi again? Fuck it: I’ll make this one really oily.” 
S.Z. Sakall—Carl the waiter—had three sisters die in a concentration camp. I imagine the line “Welcome to the fight. This time I know we’ll win” brought tears to a variety of eyes for a variety of reasons.5) There will never be a better movie made at a studio.
A broad statement, to be sure, but so many of the things that made Casablanca great were total accidents: four different writers working separately worked on the script, which ended up, as Roger Ebert put it “wonderfully unified and consistent”; the director was solid but never made another movie nearly this good before or after; Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo) let it be known that he felt like he was slumming and talked shit about Bogart’s acting ability, leading Ingrid Bergman to call him a “prima donna”; the famous last line was written months after production wrapped and Bogart only just barely made it in to overdub it; and there were plans to shoot another ending that literalized the next step in Rick and Louis’ “beautiful friendship”—joining a detachment of Free French on a ship invading North Africa—but David O. Selznick saved the day by ordering it not to be.
Also, due to radical changes in the role Hollywood plays in American life, and a hardened, more cynical American populace, the chances of the studios being able to make out-and-out propaganda movies again are slim to none. Clear-cut villains like the Nazis are fewer and farther between these days, even if propaganda still worked. Fox News churns out rabid bullshit that operates on the non-rational level of consciousness, but there are other media outlets providing counterpoints. Without a media working as one, or a people reacting as one, the chances of another Casablanca being made are near non-existent.
In the end, we don’t need another Casablanca. We already have one. It’s called Casablanca. And we’ll still have it, as time goes by.
A broad statement, to be sure, but so many of the things that made Casablanca great were total accidents: four different writers working separately worked on the script, which ended up, as Roger Ebert put it “wonderfully unified and consistent”; the director was solid but never made another movie nearly this good before or after; Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo) let it be known that he felt like he was slumming and talked shit about Bogart’s acting ability, leading Ingrid Bergman to call him a “prima donna”; the famous last line was written months after production wrapped and Bogart only just barely made it in to overdub it; and there were plans to shoot another ending that literalized the next step in Rick and Louis’ “beautiful friendship”—joining a detachment of Free French on a ship invading North Africa—but David O. Selznick saved the day by ordering it not to be.
Also, due to radical changes in the role Hollywood plays in American life, and a hardened, more cynical American populace, the chances of the studios being able to make out-and-out propaganda movies again are slim to none. Clear-cut villains like the Nazis are fewer and farther between these days, even if propaganda still worked. Fox News churns out rabid bullshit that operates on the non-rational level of consciousness, but there are other media outlets providing counterpoints. Without a media working as one, or a people reacting as one, the chances of another Casablanca being made are near non-existent.
In the end, we don’t need another Casablanca. We already have one. It’s called Casablanca. And we’ll still have it, as time goes by.
No comments:
Post a Comment