Have you ever been in a situation where you had to sacrifice what you wanted for the greater good? Maybe it was for the happiness of someone who wasn’t you. Casablanca explores the powerful themes of sacrifice with bold performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. This 1942 movie is about a cynical club owner in Casablanca, Morocco who prefers to stay in his bubble away from WWII politics until his lost love comes back into the picture and makes him re-evaluate what’s important to him. With January 23rd marking its 80th anniversary, it’s time to talk about the legacy of Casablanca and why it still resonates today.
The story of Casablanca
When we meet the character of Rick, he seems like the kind of club owner who’s angry at the world and prefers to isolate himself with a drink in his hand. However, he’s not as much of a cynic as he allows us to believe. We learn he fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War and ran guns for Ethiopia in the fight against Mussolini. In his café, he’s hired European refugees and even arranged for a young Bulgarian woman’s husband to win at gambling so he can purchase exit visas for the two of them. So while he acts like he remains neutral, we can tell he’s more of an idealist than anything else. It just takes something very special for his political and human awakening to come full circle.
When Norwegian beauty Ilsa makes her way into Rick’s club, everything changes for Rick. He’s reminded of the happy person he used to be back when he and Ilsa had a Parisian romance. You can see what a transformation it was to see him go from a man wearing a heart on his sleeve to hardly being able to crack a smile in the present. When the lovely couple originally had plans to start their life together, she left him stranded at the train station telling him it was over and she was never to see him again. But, Ilsa returns to Rick’s café with her husband who she’s known since they were kids and who she believed died in a concentration camp. Her husband, Victor, is a Czech resistance leader with hopes to continue his work in America. When he was discovered living, she remained faithful to her husband instead of Rick.
Things become even more complicated when Rick has letters of transit that would allow one couple to leave for America. When Victor, Ilsa’s husband, finds out Rick has the papers, he persuades Rick for the papers. But, his bitterness for being with the love of his life prevents him from doing so. Instead, Victor proposes that if Rick won’t give him the papers, to use the papers so Rick and Ilsa can leave Casablanca together so she can be safe. When Rick sees Victor willing to sacrifice being with his wife for her safety, our lovelorn protagonist has a change of heart. Rick makes a sacrifice of his own to use the papers for Victor and Ilsa to leave together. He put aside another chance to be with his love so Ilsa and Victor can be happy together and continue with the brave work he’s doing.
How can libraries and educators use Casablanca?
Casablanca is an example of a WWII movie that got it right that academic librarians and teachers can recommend. It had its world premiere on Thanksgiving in 1942 to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. The events in this iconic film are a political allegory of WWII in being all for the cause of the fight against Nazi forces. Sometimes it can take a personal reason to get politically involved. Even though Rick doesn’t live happily ever after with Ilsa in this non-Hollywood ending, he can now let her go knowing it’s for a reason that can benefit the masses. At the beginning of the movie, Rick wanted to escape the past and pretend it never happened. By embracing it, he got a whole new lease on life compared to the bitterness he experienced before.
The reputation of Casablanca continues to grow. Its lead characters, theme song, and director Michael Curtiz’s shadow and lighting effects are memorable. It is a quotable movie, recognized on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes: “Here’s looking at you, kid,” “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” “Play it, Sam,” “We’ll always have Paris,” and more. Casablanca exceeded expectations winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at the Oscars. In 1989, the Library of Congress selected Casablanca as one of the first to be preserved in the National Film Registry. And according to The Harvard Gazelle, a Harvard University tradition since the 1950s shows Casablanca during Finals Week at the Brattle Theatre still to this day.
80 years later and Casablanca still continues to thrive as an essential movie for cinephiles and film students alike. You can’t hide behind the film’s compelling themes of sacrificing for the happiness of others and the greater cause. Instructors teaching with film can use Casablanca to explore World War II history and the importance of embracing the past no matter how tough it is. After all, you can end up with a brighter outlook the following morning. Library patrons can find Casablanca resting on the classic film shelves.