There, people will try to work hard or get money to pay their way to acquire exit visas to make their way out. The film Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz portrays the theme of love and sacrifice.
In the 1940s there was the second world war so all the people in Europe were trying any means to get to America because that was the haven during that decade. The police in Casablanca were corrupt and that the refugees had to always bribe them so that they will be able to get their visas so that they can depart Casablanca to America. At that time u had to wealthy or know someone to be able to get out of Casablanca and make it to the Americas to have a better life. This act of bribery and corruption plays an important
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role in the movie because it sets as the main reasons behind all the actions and drama that occurs throughout the movie. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who use to operate a night club in Casablanca, rekindled his old love Iisa (Ingrid Bergman) came to the city with her then husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Hen Reid).
Laszlo is a known to be opposer to the Germans, so the Germans were looking for him. Lisa knows Rick can find them a way to get out of the country. The film started with the owner of a famous night club, Rick Blaine, receiving two important visa letters. These letters are so important because these letters are coming straight from above so one will go straight to America without any issue with the people that will check it. When a Czech underground leader, Victor Lazlo, came in town with Rick’s old love flame the plot gets thick. Now Rick Blaine has to make a decision whether not to help Lazlo escape the Germans and get back together with his long-time love Lisa or to help Lazlo run to the Americas to assist in a revolution against the Nazi’s. This clearly shows how the problems of war and love become very complex in the film. Casablanca is a great piece of movie history because not only did it do a great deal to show how people were affected by the war, but also because …show more content…
it had a very confused and unpredictable love triangle that was affected in so many ways by the struggle for freedom in the Americas and the fight against the Nazi’s in Casablanca and around the world.
One night, Laszlo, thinking that Rick has the transit pass, spoke with him privately about getting them. They're disturbed when a group of Nazi officers, led by Major Strasser, commandeer Sam's piano and began to sing "Die Wacht am Rhein" (The Watch on the Rhine), a German patriotic song. Brave and controversial, Laszlo orders the club band to play "La Marseillaise" in respect of Occupied France. The one in charge of the band looks to Rick for instruction on whether to do what laslo told him; rick instructed him to go ahead and play it. Laszlo starts singing, alone at the beginning, then long-suppressed patriotic fervor touched the crowd, and they all joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser orders Renault to shut down the club because he felt humiliated. Later that night, Ilsa met Rick in an abandoned cafe. He didn’t want to release her the documents, even when she pulled out a gun on him to frighten him to give her the transit pass with a gun.
Obviously, she wasn’t going to shoot, accepting that she still loves him. Rick finally made up his mind to help Laszlo, and advising her to accept that she will stay back when Laszlo departs to America. Laszlo is locked up on a minor charge. Rick convinces Renault to release Laszlo, assuring to set him up for a much more serious offense: possession of illegal letters of transit pass. However, Rick double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to help in the escape plan. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa get on the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed: "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of her life." Victor begged Rick to sell him the letters of transit, but because of the situation with Iisa, Rick really doesn’t want to help them deep in his head. Lisa tries her own way by pointing a gun on Rick, but we come to realized that was just her way of showing him that she still loves him "I love you." She agrees to stay in Casablanca with Rick if he'll use one of the letters of transit to assist Victor run. The settings of the movie Casablanca occurred mostly at the airport in Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941; the city is a melting-pot hotbed of refugees from Nazi oppression who are all desperately want to get to the United States to get their freedom. At the same time trying to not to get in trouble with the French authorities, their German masters, and opportunistic criminals. At the center of the nice classical film is protagonist Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the sad, cynical American owner of Rick's Café American — which professes absolute neutrality to all, from the ruthless German commander Major Strasser (Conrad Veldt) and the corrupt, cynical French police chief Louis Renault (Claude Rains) to the desperate refugees and criminals who use his bar as a convenient place for dealings of all kin
The film Casablanca centers on an American man by the name of Rick Blaine who flees a German-occupied France during World War II to a city in Morocco by the name of Casablanca. (Casablanca, 1942) This city is a territory of France at the time and is out of full German jurisdiction due to this status. (Casablanca, 1942) Many citizens of German-occupied countries in Europe sought refuge here due to the lack of control Germany had on other countries’ territories early in the war. The general intent of refugees in Casablanca was to flee to even further countries such as The United States of America, which they could not achieve in their home, occupied countries. As the film’s plot develops, the viewer is introduced to refugees very important to the freedom-fighting movement France, and we learn that Rick originated in New York, U.S.A.
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.
This is an immigration movie geared towards kids to show and teach them about immigration to America. It shows them the reasons they (the Mousekewitz) left their homeland Russia to come to America. In their case it was to escape the Czarist rule of the cats, parallel to most immigrants who escaped their land due to religious and political persecution. Once aboard the ship to America, it showed the long and unpleasant trip to New York Harbor, where in this movie, Fievel gets separated from his family to inclimate weather. Once they arrive in New York Harbor, it shows children the happiness immigrants got when they saw the statue of liberty and the process through Ellis Island to become a citizen of America. The rest of the movie takes place in America where it shows “political machines”, such as Warren T. Rat, who really is a cat but takes advantage of new immigrants by dressing as a mouse and receiving the mice’s trust. With trust came their money and broken promises, just as “political machines” really did back then. The movie shows the immigrants hardships and poor living conditions in America with tenement housing and unsanitary conditions.
How much are you willing to sacrifice for another? Whether they are a family member or a complete stranger. In the novel The Kite Runner Baba was was willing to risk his life when he had stood up and was trying to stop the Russian soldier from rape the young woman as payment for letting them pass through one of the checkpoints. Then there had been Amir it was when he had suffered extreme injuries, nearly losing his life when he had fought Assef, so that he could save Sohrab for the abuse he was suffering from the Taliban. Both Character Baba and Amir were willing to sacrifice themselves for another person, regardless of who they were. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teaches the reader sacrificing your life can lead to another person’s happiness through Baba saving the woman from the Russian soldier and Amir fighting Assef.
Audience members, when seeing Casablanca, would associate it as a war film, and I agree with that, but to be more precise, it is a pro-Allie war film. The literary elements in the film are the reasons why it can be viewed this way, with the emphasis on the plot and characters. The timing of when the film was released also supports the idea of it being an anti Axis film. Although it was set in 1940, it was made a year after Pearl Harbor and America entering the war, but it was released right before the Allies had a meeting in Casablanca, so the filmmakers seemed to have wanted the audience to empathize with the Allies. The whole plot seems to be focused around how Rick is neutral at the beginning of the film, but because of an old flame coming into his life once again, he slowly becomes in favor of the Allie side.
In the essay “Beautiful Friendship: Masculinity & Nationalism in Casablanca”, Peter Kunze lavishly explains the magnificence of Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca. Kunze focuses on how the movie not only highlights an exchange of relationships, but how the film has an underlying meaning between these relationships. He also implies that there is a more complex meaning behind every character in regards to their gender, economic, and social roles. The overall thesis of his reading is “the patriarchal ideology underlying the narrative commodifies Ilsa, leading Rick to exchange her with other men in an act of friendship and solidarity as well as to dissuade any perception of queerness between the strong male friendships in the narrative” (Kunze
The film Casablanca, indeed, involves problems that Rick faced and he finally solved that problem, ending in a satisfying way. Risk’s equilibrium is disrupted when he is going to leave Paris with his girl friend Ilsa because Ilsa doesn’t showed up at last. Risk becomes a boss of a cafe in Casablanca but he never imagines that he would encounter Ilsa again. Ilsa walks into Risk’s life again by accident when she is planing to get a letter of transit in Casablanca in order to escape to America with her husband. At the same time, Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca and tries to stop Ilsa’s husband from leaving Casablanca. Risk’s equlibrium is disrupted again. Risk still loves and hates Ilsa, and moreover, he gets the letter of transit. Even though Risk wanted to stay with Ilsa and let her husband go to America alone, Risk finally let Ilsa and her husband go and killed the Nazi Major Strasser. That is a satisfying ending.
Robert B. Ray categorizes Casablanca as "the most typical" American film. Ray uses Casablanca as a tutor text for what he calls the formal paradigm of Classical Hollywood as well as the thematic paradigm that addresses the conflict between isolationism and communitarian participation. The film is typical in its appropriation of an official hero Laszlo, who stands for the civilizing values of home and community, and an outlaw hero Rick, who stands for individu...
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.
The song “As Time Goes By”, plays a specific role in connecting the past of Rick and Ilsa in Paris. The first time Ilsa walks into Rick’s cafe she asks Sam to play that very song. Sam at first seems hesitant because he knows the pain the song can put on Rick. The song brings him back to when they were happily in love, and the pain he felt when she didn’t show up at the train station. Just like the other guests, Rick tries to forget that pain by trying to never hear that song again. Sam eventually decides to play the song, and it turns out for the best. Rick even though remembering the hurtful past experiences, remembers the good ones as well. They eventually become reacquainted with each other. This allows Rick to keep his life moving because when Ilsa ditched him, he has been in halted state. Now that Rick had his life back up and running, he could setout to be the hero depicted towards the end of the
...t it is clearly obvious what is about to happen using an establishing shot. Casablanca also uses camera angle specifically portraying Captain Renault and Strasser as less powerful people in the office scene. Editing allows for smooth transitions between shots and allows for us as viewers to experience the scene like we are seeing through the characters eyes. Lighting provides us a mood of the scene, specifically when Rick first sees Ilsa for the first time since Paris. The Music plays a role in how we as audiences should feel while watching the movie. And without production design movies would not flow correctly. Every setting is specifically chosen to depict the location where the scene takes place. Casablanca is a quintessential film because it ties up all the formal elements of classical Hollywood. Without this movie Hollywood may be a completely different place.
New Wark or New York A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a story of great sacrifices being made for the sake of principle. There are many examples of this throughout the book made by many of the characters, but some more evident than others. In Book The First, entitled “Recalled to Life,” the most obvious sacrifice for the sake of principle was made by Dr. Manette. He was imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, for no apparent reason.
This is shown in one scene as Strasser and his men sing Die Wacht am Rhine in the café. Rick gives permission for Victor to sing La Marseillaise which shows a changing attitude from his previous disinterest in the situation at hand. This is again shown in a later scene in the film where Rick fixes a round of roulette to help a young Bulgarian couple obtain visas from Renault in a way which would not corrupt their marriage. Adopting the roles of shapeshifter and ‘false enemy’, Renault closes the café at the order of Strasser. Rick’s ‘Road of Trials’ began with the fall of France and Isla’s abandonment. However, in obtaining the visas and a married Isla returning into his life, Rick’s moral compass is tested, and his ‘Road of Trials’ continue within the film. Rick’s allies and enemies (real and false) meet. The allies, Victor and Isla, go to ‘false enemy’ and shapeshifter Renault’s office where they encounter the ‘real enemy’ Strasser. Strasser states that the venture of escaping Casablanca is impossible for Victor and he will not allow him to do so alive. Afterwards, Victor and Isla learn of Rick’s possession of the letters which prompts Victor to request them from him. Being confronted with his past ‘Road of Trials’ and his ‘Inmost Cave’, Rick recluses and refuses to sell the letters up saying, “ask your wife” when questioned as to why not. Rick is then forced to come to terms with his inner pain and himself as Isla holds him at gunpoint, making him to listen to her explanations. As conversation with Isla continues, Rick’s acceptance of the truth is brought forwards and a new intimacy with Isla is created through this ‘Meeting with The Goddess’. By allowing himself to approach his ‘Inmost Cave’ and deal with his inner demons, Rick begins the true turning point of his journey as the hero in the special world, his ‘Ultimate Boon’. Using his experience from the journey thus far,
During the time of the making of Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), the debate on World War 2 and the United States’ involvement reached its peak. The makers of Casablanca perfectly used the characters in the movie as an allegory to the current political sentiments of the major countries in the war. The most striking example is from Rick. Before the war, the United States’ policy was to try and avoid being involved in another world war and were openly neutral. The U.S. had an underlying hate for the Germans though and secretly helped the British and French. Rick is a perfect example of this U.S. sentiment. During the beginning half of the film, the isolationist policy of the U.S. was epitomized by the loner actions that Rick displayed. For
The Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca depicts Richard Blaine as an isolated individual obsessed with his memories of his former love. He begins to challenge his own policy of isolationism with the return of his love, Ilsa, and the spread of Nazism; his conflict with himself over his ideals forces him to consider the future of others and helps him overcome his past. Throughout the film, Richard begins to internally battle himself to overcome his own differences and help not only himself, but others for his own freedom.