This being the IMDb message boards, I am anticipating a lot of hate for having an opinion, but I'll say it. I find this film overrated. To me, it's less a 10 and more like a 7. I do like it, but to me it's not great. Can someone please tell me why this film is so great?
You all despise me. Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. A man without honor.
Well, at the time of the premiere of the film it is not so strange:
It was a commentary to the US soothing its conscience why it had to take 27 months and one week of European war against Nazism before joining in. ('This is December 1941 in Casablanca - what's the time in New York.......I bet they're all asleep back home')
But why is still a good movie - one of the best, after seven decades and thousand of films?
I have couple of bids:
1.
very good actors behind the main characters (except for Lazlo's: Paul Henreid was a fine actor, though not at that level, and his character is a hopeless one-dimensional and completely unrealistic - even for the time - hero).
2
Good script and a good studio production behind them - no pussyfooting around in going to the core of the story. In the very first scenes you have got served the McGuffin - those mysterious exit visas, that have no meaning at all, besides everybody struggles to get them.
3
All the main characters are fleeing from their past: First and foremost Rick because he'd laid a Senator's wife and killed a man (that's the romantic in us) and of course from being let down by Ilsa (or rightly: so he thinks). Renault from a (probably) wrecked career in France, now being a small Kaiser in the White House. Ugarte from a criminal charge in Portugal or Spain. Ilsa in a way is also fleeing from that almost fatal love affair with Rick.
All the main characters are running away from themselves - and Casablanca is the end of the road: There is no way out from there. You have to take at (last) stand and fight your way ahead. Especially Rick finds out that you sometimes have to 'stick your neck out for somebody'.
That is the theme of several other films, too: My favourites are A Fistful of Dollars ('Joe'), For a Few Dollars More (col. Mortimer), A Fistful of Dynamite (Mallory)
Dude if you have to ask lol.
shareI'll repeat again why I liked it. Very good acting, very good dialogue, and the story held my interest.
I could name multiple films I personally love more, but Casablanca is deserving of its high rating.
"America isn't ready for a gay, mexican chicken sandwich" - Poultrygeist
[deleted]
by dirkdiggler051 » Tue Jul 30 2013 19:22:15 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since October 2012
This being the IMDb message boards, I am anticipating a lot of hate for having an opinion, but I'll say it. I find this film overrated. To me, it's less a 10 and more like a 7. I do like it, but to me it's not great. Can someone please tell me why this film is so great?
You all despise me. Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. A man without honor.
I also rated it a 7, and while I enjoyed it thought it beautiful, I think Gone with the Wind or even A Streetcar Named Desire are such better films overall.
Seduce my mind and you can have my body,share
find my soul and I'm yours forever.