Melany Perez
It is midnight on a warm weekend in November. The clouds sail sleepily by your window. The shadows of leaves dance on the wall. The lights are low, and the room is illuminated by starlight and the screen in front of you. You have a remote on one hand, and someone special on the other. And you wonder, as the screen loads, about what movie the two of you should watch. You ponder for a while, considering the options in your mind after a voice by your side tells you to decide.
In this moment of indecision, ambivalence or simple cluelessness as to the perfect film to watch tonight, I offer a suggestion: “Casablanca.”
A 1942 romantic drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, “Casablanca” is set during the Second World War in the city of Casablanca in French Morocco. Bar owner Rick Blaine (Bogart) comes across an old flame, Ilsa Lund (Bergman) and her husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid), a resistance fighter against the Nazis. The story revolves around Rick’s attempts to help Ilsa and Victor escape as they attempt to flee.
Despite its age, “Casablanca” remains a tour de force of American cinema. Indeed, quotes and scenes from the film find themselves as allusions in the modern-day lexicon and as parodies on shows and sketches, respectively. Its theme has been recorded by countless singers and has been heard by millions as the Warner Bros. theme. In all, the film has become an enshrined part of American culture.
The film’s actors can be praised for their masterful approach. The plot can be lauded for its intricacy, or the cinematography for its quality and style. These are a few of the many reasons why this film from the 1940s remains relevant to the modern viewer in the 2020s, yet the most important reason is that it offers a unique insight into love and the human spirit.
In helping Ilsa and Victor escape, Rick not only puts his life on the line, but he also loses the love of his life. Hidden beneath his sharp and cynical persona lies a selfless individual who has the ability to see the big picture. He understands that if he pursues a relationship with Ilsa, it would devastate Victor, who will not find the will to continue his resistance against the Nazis. In turn, if he helps them, he would be assigned to a dangerous life of eluding the Nazis and fighting against them.
He weighs his options and discards self-interest by replacing it with love. Rick sums up his intentions in the iconic dialogue between him and Ilsa near the end of the film perfectly: “I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” A tragic hero, he sacrifices his own happiness for Ilsa’s life and Victor’s cause.
The relationship between Rick and Ilsa is reminiscent of that of star-crossed lovers, of the likes of Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde and Abelard and Heloise: two people who shared a strong and genuine love torn apart by the pressures and politics of the time, assigned to live separate lives whereupon they exist only in each other’s memory.
“Casablanca” offers no happy ending. Instead, it offers the right ending. Love is a complicated emotion, one filled with varying levels of nuance on a spectrum felt by many yet indescribable at the same time. Its depiction in “Casablanca” will leave anyone, especially those in love, with a profound respect for its realism, but also for its sentimentality. The audience is left to dream about an alternate reality where Rick and Ilsa have a picture-perfect romance. Similarly, they are led to mourn the sad reality of their battle against the fate of the times. Their romance is complex and complicated but most importantly, human. And that humanity in their love allows us to connect with them, whether from a stance of sympathy or empathy, regardless of whether we watched “Casablanca” shortly after its release, or decades after at midnight with your special someone.
Thus, my recommendation stands. “Casablanca” is the right movie — the perfect movie — to watch with that special someone at midnight. Not because it is a storytelling masterpiece, even though it is. Not because it is a cinematic classic, even though it is. Watch it simply, from beginning to end, because it will lead you and your special someone to a deeper wisdom and appreciation for the nature of love.
As you contemplate that newfound understanding and the credits roll in the background, those three special words you whisper as you look into the eyes of that someone should take on new meaning and allow you both to drift into the young and tender night, enlightened and hopefully deeper in love.