It has been said that this is the greatest movie of all time and you know what I think they are right. Yes I've seen Citizen Kane. With the romance the tension between right and wrong, fascism and freedom, tyranny and excess, and an outstanding script Casablanca sets the standard for what a movie should be including great music.
The song As Time Goes By is one outstanding piece of music and lyric. Much like the movie it says it all and has the guts to say it.....
I've seen a bunch of Humphrey Bogart movies with Lauren Bacall, Jimmy Cagney and Peter Lore but this ensemble is second to none. We finally watched it again last week and fell in love with the movie all over again. The dialogue is incredible. The movie is a sophisticated look in the mirror at ourselves. There is no toilet humor, no excessive violence, the gun play is proportional to the situation and the acting top notch. Who doesn't love Claude Rains, Sidney Greenstreet, or Peter Lore, Ingrid Bergman and of course Bogey at his most vulnerable but dignified.
You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.
Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Here's looking at you kid.
The microcosm of this film encapsulates all of the human spirit from war and oppression to love and redemption, struggle and survival, drinking and gambling, manipulation and opportunism, fear and happiness, failure and success, luck and not so lucky. They hit every note right knock it out of the park and move on. There isn't a wasted moment, word, look or action. It is so well crafted you can not even tell. The lighting, the sets, the costumes, the camera angles, the mood, tone and atmosphere are all calibrated beautifully.
Watch it again or watch it for the first time and maybe you'll remember how to be and what dignity, and class are really all about. It's certainly not about money and being a jack ass.
Casablanca is a brief glimpse into the entirety of the human condition a snap shot in time filled with eternal truths that fashion can not change no matter how much time has gone by. The movie has a firm understanding of "same as it ever was" and accentuates that reality to perfection. In all its glory, horror, humor, stupidity, and heroics all the world's a stage. Casablanca is the movie of our world and ourselves as it apparently always has been and always will be.
Don't forget the second disc with Carrotblanca starring Bugs Bunny and his Warner Brothers cohorts it's a must see after the movie.
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, the fundamental things apply
as time goes by....
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