Casablanca Essay

In Michael Curtiz’ film, Casablanca, the resolution to Annina Brandel’s predicament represents the apotheosis stage of one of Rick Blaine’s cycles. Throughout the film, multiple cosmogonic cycles (Campbell) become present. One, in particular, is at the forefront of the film, which involves Rick and his character development following the Hero’s Journey, or the Cosmogonic Cycle.

Throughout the film Casablanca, everyone in the town is against the war and wants the U.S to remain neutral. Similarly to the America during WWII Rick displays neutrality and portrays isolationist tendencies. After Pearl Harbor the U.S had to finally break their neutrality and join WWII. At the beginning of the film Rick says, “I stick my neck out for nobody.” This exemplifies Ricks neutrality in at the beginning of the film. However once Ilsa arrives he starts to stick his neck out for others. After Rick says, “I stick my neck out for nobody.” He says, “ Wise foreign policy”. This portrays his view the U.S should stay neutral in the war. Similar to the U.S entering the war, Rick eventually breaks his neutrality because of Ilsa’s great influence on him.

The movie Casablanca tells the story of Rick Blaine, a bar owner in Casablanca. His heart breaks when Ilsa, his sweetheart, fails to join him in his escape from Paris before the Nazis invaded. Rick’s relationship fall-out begins the movie journey depicted in an authentic World War II time period. It was on a stormy night that Rick received a letter from Ilsa telling him that she wouldn’t be coming with him to Casablanca. Realizing he has been dumped, he sadly hops onto the train and rides off to Casablanca by himself.

The other love relationship portrayed in Casablanca is the intimate relationship between Ilsa and Laszlo. As opposed to the relationship between Ilsa and Rick, this one has high levels of

Ray points out that this concealing of the necessity for choice also governs the thematic paradigm in Casablanca. The film invites the audience to identify with Rick rather than Laszlo even though official American wartime sentiments are consistently voiced by Laszlo. Rick regularly insists upon unmediated self-interest,"I stick my neck out for nobody", "I'm the only cause I'm interested in", a position that Ferrari explicitly identifies with a discredited American tradition: "My

After that scene occurred, we see Rick and Jean at home discussing what had just occurred in the previous scene with the holdup and theft of their car. They are filing a police report. Rick is running for an election and is trying figure out a way with his advisors to avoid gaining bad publicity. He wants the African Americans vote and does not want to lose those that are on his side. By filing this police report after the incident that just occurred, he feels he put himself in a bad position in the election. Him and his advisors are trying to figure out what he should with the interview with the news reporters. As he's trying to figure out the right wording for the situation that occurred, Jean is watching the locksmith named Daniel played by Michael Pena, he is

In the 1942 film, Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz, is a classic film noir. A film noir or black film, is characterized by the tone of dark elements, physically and psychologically, the element of crime, and the element of World War II and post-war disillusionment with influences of German expressionism. This film captivates the classic film noir characteristics thematically through Rick Blaine’s behavior, the characters and atmosphere, and the significance of the one setting used through the entire film as well as cinematically through the overall cinematic elements that establish scenery.

Nevertheless, it seems that they represent American society in the 1940’s. The character of Rick portrays an unconventional hero who tries to stay outside of everyone’s business, but in the end it is him who saves Laszlo’s and Ilsa’s life. This reminds me of the role of America during WWII. At first, the United States tried to stay out of the war, but when they were forced to react after Pearl Harbor, they got involved. The film also refers to this when Rick asks his friend Sam if he knows what time it is in New York. Before Sam can reply, Rick says that it must be December 1941, which was the time when the attack against Pearl Harbor occurred. Ilsa, on the other hand, represents the role of American women. She is described as the most beautiful woman that has been seen in Casablanca. Her appearance reminds me of the typical image of an ideal American girl – blonde, pretty and conservative. She tries to act in a moral way when she finds out that her presumed dead husband is still alive and she leaves Rick at the station in Paris. This reminds me of how women were treated during the 1940’s. It was their responsibility to take care of the family business, but in the end men would have the final decision. Ilsa tries to get the transit-visa from Rick, but she tells him to decide what she should do next. Rick sends her away with Laszlo and restores the perfect family union between Ilsa and Laszlo. Another

Rick “merges” with Mercer and is surprised that this happened, as this is impossible without an empathy box. This shows that he questions his existence because his experience matches with the principles of solipsism. To start with, he firmly knows that he felt himself merge with Mercer. For the second criteria, however, there was a physical and mental connection during the

It became truly serious to John Rick when one afternoon, a court official and other ten men came to his house to arrest his wife. Mrs. Rick was similar to Mrs. Nurse, a virtous and pious Christian woman. John Rick had nearly gone mad; half of his mind told him if his wife was indeed innocent, she would be released. The other half reminded him of Mrs. Nurse’s and Simpson’s deaths. That night, he went around in the town to convince people to sign in a petition for his wife. By the

In contrast, Rick's lighting creates an exhausted image of the older night club owner. His key light casts shadows which emphasize wrinkles. This wearied picture of, complicates the relationship between Ilsa and Rick. Clearly Ilsa, who has wronged Rick, sympathizes and wants to reach out to him. However, her relationship with Lazlo precludes the possibility of Ilsa consummating her love for Rick. Thus, the lighting places a difference between Rick, a pathetic bachelor, and Ilsa, the innocent, angelic lady. The characters posses qualities that are both acceptable, however in this particular instance it's easy to believe that the audience still is glued to Rick and isn't fooled by the angelic portrayal of Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa.

Later on, Major Strasser meets with Victor Laszlo to force Laszlo to release the names of revolutionaries, but he refuses. Afterwards, Laszlo and Ilsa talk about leaving Casablanca for their safety and realize that Rick may be the one with the transit papers. Laszlo tries to calmly convince Rick to give him the papers, to no avail. Shortly after, Ilsa also attempts to convince Rick to change his mind. She tries passively at first, then holds a gun to his stomach and demands that he give her the papers, after which she begins to break down about how she still loves Rick and never wanted to leave him in Paris. They spend the night together and Rick promises to get Laszlo out of Casablanca. The next night, as Rick gives the papers to Laszlo, Captain Louis Renault shows up to try to arrest Laszlo. Rick turns a gun on Renault, forcing him to clear the airport

The main conflict presented in Casablanca was the love triangle between Victor, Ilsa, and Rick. Victor and Rick loved Ilsa at the same time, however she was married to Victor yet was still in love with Rick. In this situation, love seems like the opposite of a solution, and is more so the factor causing any issues and tension. Looking into the film’s flashbacks, this is still a common theme. Ilsa’s love for her husband was not enough to save him from the war when he was believed to be dead, as it would be unrealistic to think so. If love truly “conquers all”, theoretically it would even be able to transcend death. If love was the one true answer, wars would not happen and all conflict would essentially not exist. Had Ilsa chosen to leave with Rick instead of staying with Victor in Paris, she could have never redeemed herself in the eyes of anyone she may have known, or to herself. Love could not save her from those consequences, so she made the wiser choice. The

Both Rick Grimes and his actions are moral and unselfish. Rather than being self-centered, Rick puts his life on the line to protect the group and his family with the best of his ability. The well-intentioned actions and selfless motives of Rick is evident in these three examples. In the early events of

The lighting of a film intricately ties into how the film intends on showing certain scenes through use of the camera angle. Such examples of this in Casablanca are how during these close-up scenes we see the lighting of certain characters light up significantly. This is seen, again, in the famous “Of all the gin joints scene” because of how the audience sees multiple close-up scenes of Isla’s face, most notably how we see the tears flow from Isla’s cheeks. Another way lighting plays into the classic feel of a Hollywood film, according to Bordwell, is how “a dark street will realistically motivate single-source lightning; the closeup of a woman will be more heavily diffused than that of a man” (Bordwell 27). One famous example of this is how the tension builds up when Isla returns to Rick’s nightclub after her husband goes to meet with a meeting with the local resistance against the Nazi regime. In this scene, we see how the lighting is much more darker than scenes where we are focusing on Rick and another character. Watching the film, the audience gets the sense that the film attempts to create a certain mood through the lighting whenever Isla and Rick are alone. When the two are alone, like in this very scene, the tension builds up due to how much darkness there is in both the room and between the two former lovers. Conversely, when there are conflicts between Rick and Captain Louis Renault, the French commander in the city, represented towards the end of the film before Isla and Victor leave the city, the lighting of the room is significantly more bright. This is not to say that there exists no conflict between Rick and the French captain, but rather how the film conforms to Bordwell’s description of how lighting contributes to a classic Hollywood