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November 7, 2008
Oscar Challenge: Casablanca
Okay, so it's the Best Movie in the Whole World Except for Citizen Kane (which I've never seen), and volumes have been written about how and why is it so great, so naturally I have nothing original to say about it.
But it's hard to deny that it really is pretty much the Best Movie in the Whole World. It really shouldn't be. It's kind of a schlocky, cheesy, melodramatic story. It seems like one string of cliches after another. But sometimes cheese works. This works like Star Wars works. It KNOWS it's cheese, it revels in its cheesiness.
Rick's Cafe is practically the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Han Solo owes a huge debt to Rick. I tried to expand this Casablanca/Star Wars parallel theory, but it's fatally flawed by the fact that Ilsa Lund is *way* too ladylike to shoot anyone with a blaster. Also, there is no Darth Vader.
But maybe that's why this flick transcends cheese. There ISN'T a mustache-twirling, mouth-breathing villain for everyone to hate. It's like in Bambi. You never really see the bad guy. But you know the evil is out there, and the stakes are ratcheted up so high that you can forgive a lot of interpersonal melodrama for the sake of of the fate of the free world, and stuff.
Wait, did I just switch from Star Wars to the Bush Administration? Never mind, ignore me. Go get yourself a couple of bottles of bubbly for to make some Champagne cocktails, and go fucking watch Casablanca. If you don't, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
Comments
I heart you. And I'm adding Casablanca to my netflix que to watch again.
Posted by: grace at November 8, 2008 2:25 PM
That's kind of always why I've been fond of Carrie Fisher. Woman knows how to use a blaster.
Not that Casablanca isn't wonderfulness.
I'm going to have to shoot you with a blaster for that last line, though.
Posted by: Big Alice at November 10, 2008 10:13 PM
Casablanca is the perfect "man's love story" - it displays how some men show affection -- by being strong and doing what is right versus what feels best.
The evil villain (antagonist) was the Nazi's - or would that be "were"? Regardless, the gestapo officer would be Darth Vader. Admittedly less imposing but still ...
Cheese? Cliche? I must disagree with both of those descriptions. It is the original - the cliches came after. No cheese at all.
Hmmm, re-reading what I was writing strikes me as negative but I don't mean it that way. I love the film and truly enjoyed your take on it. So, I'll be quiet now. :-)
Posted by: Jeff Parsons at November 26, 2008 9:47 PM