1) Relate what was discussed in
class or the text to the screening.
Directed by
Michael Curtiz, Casablanca was
released in 1942, becoming the third best American film in AFI’s top 100 behind
The Godfather and Citizen Kane. Michael Curtiz also won an
Oscar for Best Director in 1944. Curtiz was also nominated for Best Director
for films like Captain Blood, Angels with
Dirty Faces, Four Daughters, and Yankee
Doodle Dandy. Casablanca also won Oscars for Best Picture and Best
Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Best Supporting
Actor (Claude Rains), Best Cinematography and Score/Editing. Based on an
unproduced play called Everybody Comes to
Ricks, The film was written by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard
Koch.
The American Film
Institute considers Humphrey Bogart, who played Rick, the number 1 male actor.
Bogart won an Oscar for Best Actor in African
Queen in 1952, and was nominated for Caine Mutiny in 1954. The American Film Institute considers Ingrid Bergman,
the film’s leading lady, the third-best actress. She won 2 Oscars for Best
Actress (Gaslight, and Anastasia) and Best Supporting Actress
in Murder on the Orient Express.
There are many
themes in Casablanca: lost love,
romance within a chaotic world, honor and self-sacrifice in war. The film is
set in the early 40’s during WWII, and French Morocco is considered neutral
territory to refugees from the war hoping to get exit visas to Lisbon, and then
to head over to the United States. But when 2 German couriers carrying two
unconditional visas are murdered, Ugarte steals the letters and gives it to
Rick (Bogart), a nightclub owner to hide it for him. Victor Laszlo (Henreid)
and his wife Ilsa (once Rick’s lover) come to Casablanca to get the letters
from Rick so that Laszlo can escape to safety from Strasser, a Nazi officer
trying to arrest him.
From what I have
learned before seeing this film, Casablanca was needed in a time where America
needed some inspiration in a dark time. This movie brings them out of the
darkness, and truly shows the American spirit.
2) Find a related article and summarize the content. (on the film, director, studio,
actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) You can use the library or the internet. Cite the article or copy the url to your
journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but do not
plagiarize any content.
This
article from 2012 talks about the 70th anniversary of Casablanca, and how the sacrifices for
Rick and Ilsa’s wartime love still touches us. Some of the complex lessons in
patriotism during WWII are still offered today. The article also talks about
how few films have “benefited as much from the real-world geopolitics
surrounding them as "Casablanca," which opened on Thanksgiving 1942,
when the nation was well into World War II, at New York's Hollywood Theater.”
18 days prior to the films release, the Allies invaded North Africa during
Operation Torch, and one of those cities that was quickly captured was
Casablanca. Casablanca also “reminded
Americans of how completely their thinking had changed in the months since
Pearl Harbor,” and that Prewar America had much to “apologize for in its
international affairs.”
Before
giving a brief summary of the film, the article considers Humphrey Bogart’s
Rick Blaine as “the embodiment of an America that has finally grasped the
threat of fascism.” After the summary, the article tells how this film speaks
to audiences differently then in 1942, and how Rick’s complexity resonates in
our “post-9/11 world.” Rick is considered a loner who “won’t let his idealism
get the better of his pragmatism,” and “walks a moral tightrope” with simple
brilliance.
3) Apply the article to the film
screened in class. How did
the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director,
content, etc.?
The
article supports the way I thought about Casablanca because the patriotism that
resonated in 1942 still resonates in the year 2015. The United States looked
for that bright side in the darkest times during WWII, and is still looking for
it in the ongoing War on Terror. It has this inspiring and redeeming quality
that we as Americans can relate to, and will continue to do so for a long time.
4) Write a critical analysis of the
film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening,
class discussions, text material and the article. I am less interested in whether you liked or disliked a
film, (although that can be part of this) than I am in your understanding of
its place in film history or the contributions of the director.
"Casablanca"
remains Hollywood's finest moment, a film that succeeds on such a vast scale
not because of anything experimental or deliberately earthshaking in its
design, but for the way it cohered to and reaffirmed the movie-making
conventions of its day. This is the film that played by the rules while
elevating the form, and remains the touchstone for those who talk about
Hollywood's greatness. "Casablanca," in my opinion, is a great
romance, not only for being so supremely entertaining with its humor and
realistic-though-exotic wartime excitement, but because it's not the least bit
mushy. Take the way Rick's face literally breaks when he first sees Ilsa in his
bar, or how he recalls the last time he saw her in Paris: "The Germans
wore gray, you wore blue." There's a real human dimension to these people
that makes us care for them and relate to them in a way that belies the passage
of years.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) ( ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) ( ) If I reused any information from other papers I have
written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
3) ( ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations
around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) ( ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all
sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.
5) ( ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I
personally read.
6) ( ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could
not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the
bibliography.
7) ( ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper
lacks interpretation or originality.
8) ( ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully
transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
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