Directed by Michael Curtiz

What can be said that hasn’t already been said about perhaps the most famous, beloved film in American history? Nothing, and yet here we are.

I recently had the opportunity to see a live symphonic orchestra play along to a screening of Casablanca and afterward decided there must be a formalized 5 out of 5 review here on Good Bad Reviewed.

Roger Ebert correctly characterized Casablanca as a story “about a man and a woman who are in love, and who sacrifice love for a higher purpose,” — famously concluding his review with the following rave: “If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M, Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies.”

The timeless characters

There are a million analyses of these characters, and they won’t benefit from another, but here’s a summation: Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who calls his nationality “drunkard,” lives by the motto “I stick my neck out for nobody,” and navigates comfortably through Casablanca’s Moroccan underworld of gamblers and law-breakers; Lazlo (Paul Henreid), Czech Resistance hero and the great white hope in the fight against the Nazis; Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Lazlo’s wife and Rick’s former lover — arguably the reason for the film.

We also meet often comedic side players like Claude Rains as the hilariously corrupt police captain Louis Renault, Peter Lorre as the crook Signor Ugarte, and Conrad Veidt as Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser (fun fact, Veidt was a German who escaped Nazi reign with his Jewish wife in 1933).

In fact, many of the background actors and extras were European exiles and refugees. In 1942, this film was released almost in real time with the world events portrayed. Many credit these casting choices for Casablanca‘s longevity and authenticity.

“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Is this the most quotable movie of all time? From the most infamous lines like “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid,” (which by the way, wasn’t in the original script and was only added after Bogart said it to Bergman during a game of poker on set), and “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” to lines many don’t even realize originated here, like “We’ll always have Paris,” and “Round up the usual suspects,” (which, of course, has taken on a life of its own since 1995).

The longevity

One of a hundred or more Warner Brothers films made in this era (many starring the very same leads), no one expected Casablanca to perform as well as it did, or keep its grasp on success for as long as it has. The ultimate “something for everyone” movie, Casablanca holds up in a way many golden-age movies don’t.

Bergman later said, “I feel about Casablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled.” (Ingrid Bergman: A Personal Biography, Charlotte Chandler)

Thanks to lightning-fast (maybe even unstably fast) production, the script wasn’t finished until the the final day of shooting. That means Bergman herself didn’t know whether she’d get on the plane until they were standing at the tarmac. That also means, of course, she didn’t have to make as many acting choices as she otherwise might have — knowing she would ultimately leave with Lazlo, for example, might have subconsciously lessened her passionate moments with Rick. She had to move through every scene, every moment, genuinely not knowing to whom she should show final loyalty, and we see that confusion in her every expression. We also see it in Rick, and in Lazlo.

This recognition isn’t to say Bergman doesn’t deserve her decades of flowers for the performance, she undeniably does, but more to point out that somehow, in a “stars aligned” sort of way, maybe the frantic nature of production led to a more convincing portrayal of human emotion. Maybe that’s what we’re still connecting with 85 years later.

Final thoughts

This is perhaps the greatest movie of all time. It is the richly emotional story of nearly every human theme: Love, betrayal, tragedy, sacrifice, war, patriotism, passion, humor, friendship, loyalty.

Watching it with a live audience last week, I was thrilled to hear laughter alongside Rick’s quick and caustic wit, sniffles during Sam’s beautiful melodies, and roaring, appreciative applause when Ilsa sacrificed the greatest romance of her life to make her small mark on the future of justice, fulfilling her duty to Lazlo not only as his wife, but as the second-in-command supporter to the day’s most prominent Resistance fighter.

This movie is good. maybe the best.

My rating: 5/5