Humphrey Bogart is recognized as one of the most iconic actors of the 1940s, as he appeared in several major and successful films throughout this decade. In contrast to his many different roles in film, Bogart was raised in an upper-middle-class family and went on to serve in the navy during World War I. Following the war, Bogart began his acting career in the early 1920s, eventually leading him to be featured as the protagonist in films such as To Have and Have Not and Casablanca. Bogart’s ability to assume the roles of both sensitive, “good guy” characters and greedy, manipulating characters supports the opinion that Bogart was one of the best, if not the top actor of the 1940s. While To Have and Have Not and Casablanca each contain differentiating plots, Bogart is the most influential and prominent character throughout both. In his article, Midsection Bogart, Richard Schickel states that within his roles, especially in Casablanca, Bogart seems, …show more content…
“instinctively at home with his character in a way that he only rarely had been before.” In both To Have and Have Not, directed by Howard Hawks and Casblanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, the talent described by Schickel is expressed through the personal transformations of the characters Harry “Steve” Morgan and Rick Blaine due to the presence of strong female companions. In each film, the plot, revolving around Bogart’s character, allows for the audience to view and understand the character transformation in depth. Hawks’ film revolves around the love between Morgan and Mary “Slim” Browning, a seductive and cryptic character played by Lauren Bacall, as they find themselves caught up in an illegal operation attempting to improve their financial position in a struggling world. While Bogart’s character, Morgan, is initially solely focused on his modest living as an operator of a small fishing boat, the love he finds with Slim causes him to go to extreme efforts to protect and provide for her and the people he cares about. Similarly, in Curtiz’s film, Bogart is cast as an independent, unemotional café owner in Casablanca by the name of Rick Blaine. In the opening portion of the film, his stiff personality is easily recognized but slowly fades once he encounters Ingrid Bergman’s character, Ilsa. When Rick becomes involved in a complicated love triangle and certain situations with Nazi soldiers, he changes into a loyal, honorable man. Although each film contains differing plots, as Bogart finds himself in unique roles, the way in which each of the characters Bogart takes on are affected by love for a woman and eventually developed into different people from when the movie began, is very similar. In Bogart’s introductory scene in Casablanca, Rick is clearly seen as a serious and devoted man as he refuses to accept drinks from customers, keeps conversations limited, and as he says very often, “I stick my neck out for nobody” (Casablanca). As the crowded restaurant makes noise in the background, customers describe Rick as snobbish while he calmly deals with the issues throughout his business. The audience does view him handle his management duties in the restaurant but never see him involve himself in personal conversation. Despite his close friends and troubled customers in attendance, Rick decides to sit in a separated room from the dining room and play chess by himself. Through this, it is clear to the other characters and the audience that Rick seems to try and stay out of trouble and solely worry about himself. In a National Public Radio article Susan Stamberg even says, “[Bogart] had been cast as a gangster in several Warner films. Now he was playing a cynic, unwilling to get involved in a wretched war, still missing his lost love” (Stamberg). As the plot progresses, he establishes that he wants no part in the political issues occurring throughout Casablanca by acting neutrally towards the Nazis and the refugees. A competing restaurant owner, Senor Ferrari, mockingly asks, “When will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy” (Casablanca)? Thus, revealing to the viewer that even the characters are aware of his seclusion from everyone and everything that does not directly involve him. Similarly, Bogart’s role in To Have and Have Not opens with him preparing to depart on his boat, as the seemingly serious and focused Morgan speaks with a patrol officer. He describes how he and his friend, Eddie, played by Walter Brennan, have gone out fishing every day for the past two weeks. Furthermore, Morgan’s true ideals and traits are more clearly expressed while fishing with his client, Johnson, played by Walter Sande. Out on the boat, while Johnson struggles to successfully catch any fish, Morgan harshly directs him in what to do and tells him how poor of a job he did without any interest in his customer’s feelings or satisfaction, illustrating how Morgan cares more for his payment than for his client. Afterwards, the obviously wealthy, well-dressed Johnson and a stern looking Morgan each step off the boat and on to the dock. With Johnson leaning away and avoiding eye contact he begins to argue with Morgan about the fare he owes him. Despite his disagreement, Morgan confidently and fairly tells Johnson the price he owes and is happy with only receiving what he has earned. Although in these early portions of the film Morgan acts innocently and solely wants to make a reasonable living from his fishing clients, this mentality changes as the film progresses. When viewing and critiquing these films, the manner in which Bogart’s character is remembered is not typically drawn from the opening scenes.
In each film, there are certain points in which Bogart’s role has a clear transformation in personality and a new basis behind his actions. These pivotal points are crucial to notice as a member of the audience and are the initial moments in which the viewer is able to understand and follow the reasons for Bogart’s individual actions. In both of these specific cases, the transformation and change begins directly after the introduction of a female character to the film’s plot.
In his article, “A Second Look: Casablanca,” Lenny Rubenstein notices that,
Rick’s disillusionment with politics…is linked to his bitterness over the dismal end to his Parisian affair with Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid bergman, on the event of the German entrance to the city. Then while Sam plays it, the famous Parisian flashback, complete with skillfully interwoven scenes of the German invasion,
starts. As Rubenstein suggests, Rick’s independent and selfish traits begin to fade away when Ilsa Lund, a beautiful and attention seeking woman who was formerly Rick’s lover while in Paris, harshly and swiftly reenters his life. In addition to making unprecedented acts for her, such as sharing a drink and taking care of the bill, the audience is able to see a different side of Rick in a dark scene late in the night at his restaurant. With Rick slouching over the table drinking the time away and Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, playing Ilsa’s favorite song in the background, the audience is taken through a sequence of flashbacks, exhibiting key events from Rick’s life in Paris that broke his heart. The scenes at first all include a happier Rick in Paris with Ilsa, as they contently drive through the city, take a boat ride down the Seine, share a bottle of champagne at a café, and eventually plan to meet at the train station the next day. Later in this flashback, a panicked Rick waits in the pouring rain hoping for Ilsa to arrive, but to his disappointment the next person he encounters is Sam, who arrives with a note from Ilsa explaining that they will never be able to see each other again. While this sequence introduces the reasoning behind Rick’s personality, it also explains the changes Rick makes as the film progresses. The viewer now recognizes that Ilsa is a woman who is capable of bringing out a love for life from Rick and was able to make him participate in the world, rather than being so isolated. She is portrayed as a confident, positive woman who is driven by emotions and once she returns back into his life, the cheerier, more optimistic side of Rick is brought out once again, thus causing him to take more significant action in the world of Casablanca.
The film’s depiction of the war was very distant, as there are no portrayals of battle or direct war conflict. There are a select few instances, however, where individuals are shot either by police or Rick. Rick shot a German leader for the greater good, implying that killing the enemy was okay for a greater cause. Laszlo, representing the Allies, was willing to do almost anything for his cause. Rick did not seem to fear death either, as displayed when he was held at gunpoint by Ilsa. The German’s were very oppressive and intolerant, becoming very upset by the citizens of Casablanca simply singing a national song. (Casablanca, 1942) Very little violence was depicted, and it in no way glorified killing anyone aside from the oppressive Germans, and did so only slightly
In the film Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, a clear juxtaposition exists between Rick and America. Despite Rick’s numerous similarities to America and his deep longing to be part of the country, a physical and psychological barrier separates the two. With America practically being on the opposite end of the world, Rick understands that he cannot abandon his responsibility to aid and influence others in Casablanca. Rick is willing to sacrifice his personal comfort and well-being for the greater good of society. This juxtaposition between America and Rick foreshadows that the United States would soon become involved in the war by overtly displaying Rick’s transformation when he confronts his troubled past.
Many time in our lives, we have seen the transformation of novels into movies. Some of them are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story that was surely to be one of the best written stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood flops? One reason is that in many transformations, the main characters are changed, some the way they look, others the way they act. On top of this, scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In this essay, I will discuss some of the changes made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as they make their transformation to the ?big screen.?
Music is played almost constantly throughout the movie, as it helped to guide the narration as well. Casablanca was part of the sound era, which occurred from the 1930’s- present day. There are a few different elements of sound throughout the film, but I will be focusing on the occurrence of leitmotif. The leitmotif technique is a short, constantly recurring sound that is often associated with a specific person, or place. An example of a leitmotif can be found in the movie Casablanca. We constantly hear the song ‘As Time Goes By’ being played throughout the movie. The first time we hear the song is in the given scene chosen for us. In shot 7, Ilsa asks Sam to play ‘As Time Goes By’ for her on the piano. Later Rick hears the song, and as he goes to stop Sam from playing it, he realizes that Ilsa is there. From then on, the song is played almost every time that Rick and Ilsa are together. The only time that the song is not played is when Rick and Ilsa are arguing. When it comes to the overall music throughout the scene we see that the beginning has calm and relaxed music. Yet, this changes when Rick and Ilsa see each other for the first time. There is a lot of built up tension, and so the music picks up. In shot 17 we begin to hear the sound of violins rapidly playing. The music played in this moment is used to help highlight this intense moment between Rick and Ilsa. The scenes music changes from calm and
The period of American cinema between 1965 and 1975 produced many films that almost completely restructured classical Hollywood’s accepted genre conventions. A fine example of this would be Robert Altman's iconoclastic take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), a detective film based on the final book in Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series. Altman, who is known for turning around traditional genre conventions, revises and reinvents the film-noir style made popular by Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), and Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947). The actors and the films in the 1940’s film-noir period conformed to genre conventions, and it wasn’t until Robert Altman directed Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye that the detective genre had changed.
Clurman, Harold. “Actors-The Image of Their Era.” The Tulane Drama Review 4.3 (1960): 38-44. JSTOR.
If Casablanca's audience had to choose between Rick and Laszlo, they would choose Rick because everything in the film has prepared them to choose him, who represents the rejection of America's involvement in world politics. Instead, the film relieves the audience of the necessity of choice by displacing the film's political conflict into melodrama, where familiar emotions overwhelm ideas. Although Victor Laszlo is always in Rick's shadow, he stands for the values of the father and the prevailing American belief in 1942 that freedom is worth fighting and dying for, which is the definition of the official hero. By censoring the theme of American reluctance to give up its autonomy, the film spares the audience the agony of siding against the values of the father, condensing the oedipal resolution to another shared experience between Rick and the viewer.
The characters are a crucial element in developing the narrative of a film. The characters in Breathless do not act the way one expects those of Hollywood cinema to act. The woman who distracts the police officer in the opening scene seems as if she may be important, but is in fact never seen again. This happens again in a subsequent ...
The 1942 movie, “Casablanca” portrays a World War II era enclave where refugees fled Nazi Europe and used this unoccupied city as a safe haven while pursuing their dreams of coming to America. The main character is Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, who owns a nightclub and casino in unoccupied Morocco during the Nazi era. Blaine, whose sole purpose appears to be money, illuminates a sense of arrogance and self righteousness as he assists in retrieving the necessary immigration documents for those who are willing to pay the price for their freedom. Hidden deep within his memory are the reflections of a women that he once loved, Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman. The third leading role was that of Paul Henreid who played the Ilsa’s husband in the movie. Victor Laszlo, a Jewish activist who was on the run from the German Regime was once believed to be dead after being captured and placed in a concentration camp, during which time his wife (Ilsa) fled to Paris and ultimately had an affair with Rick Blaine.
Strangers on a Train is one of Hitchcock’s most well-known films. It is typically analyzed in terms of the ways that the two main male characters interact. According to many film critics, homosexual attraction between Bruno and Guy is one of the premises of the film. This may be the case, however, many of these film critics fail to consider the minor characters of the film: the women. Specifically, they fail to analyze the influence of these women on the development of the male characters and to interpret the message Hitchcock is trying to portray about women, especially those with qualities typically not associated with women.
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
Money, murder, power, and loyalty, the epitome and basic essentials of any Mafia movie. Initially, when watching two of the most popular titles in this genre, Goodfellas and The Godfather, they may have similar themes, but in all truth, they are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. While Goodfellas welcomes you to the family with a friendly smile and a voice-over, The Godfather makes you stand astray and watch in silence as an outsider.
A woman dancing half-naked with a maggot-infested heron. A deadly fight breaking out because someone pipes up, "You play as well as you shoot?" The narrator searching for rock paintings. These fragments make up the backbone of this film and yes, they are shown in the proper sequence, unlike Margaret Atwood’s novel! No more pieces of information surfacing at unpredictable points in your mind, no further need to decipher the narrator’s invented past, and best of all, no need to agonize over the narrator’s painful process of finding her authentic self. In the film, the narrator is given a name, Kate. She is now more tangible, unlike Atwood’s narrator. Everyone knows that tangibility is what makes a piece of work great. At any rate, the film does a great job of stripping everything down to their essentials. Why make you plod through Atwood’s depiction of the tensions that exist between the French and the English? Just remove all that political nonsense! Why create suspense about the truth behind the narrator’s father’s drawings? Remove this as well, for it is a waste of time! Film viewing time is better spent on David and Anna’s preoccupation with sex, after all.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.