Erdos Had The Number First

Casablanca has got to be one of the best movies ever. Everybody knows the “Play it again, Sam” line, even though it was never said in the movie.

It’s not just the strength of Bogart that makes the film, either. It’s a strongly political work, and it’s more about how sometimes the bastards get you down, but you can’t let them. You’ve got to keep fighting for what you know is the right thing, even when it’s hard. Even when you might have to let the woman you love go.

And it’s hard for Rick. He’s been hurt, he fought with the Loyalists in Spain. He’s lost wars and women and he’s just trying to have some peace since he can never go home again (something they never address, he just can’t go back to the states). The Spanish Civil war is something I think that is too far from
the American mind when they think about WWII.

Rick has killed people through action and inaction, and when he points a gun at you, you know you’re in trouble. Even though he’s a tough guy, when the bar gets shut down he makes sure his staff still get paid. He helps people escape to America and runs a fair buisness: anyone can come in, and anyone with money can drink.

The other people are just a hard-assed as him. It makes me glad that I’ve never had to flee my home, never had to bribe an official to get my family on the plane. I cannot imagine if it were my wife asking Rick if it would be OK to sleep with the official to get their exit papers. If it were me asking him to hold some bit of something that, were I caught with it, they would shoot me.

Even though it was made more than 60 years ago, the film still has the power to resonate. And lets face it, Ingrid Bergman is someone to fall in love with. She is the woman who wakes Rick from his slumber (though she is mostly the cause of it to begin with). She is Helen of Troy, Cleopatra and Joan of Arc all rolled into one. The cause of and the solution to the wars men fight.

And then there is Sam. Sam is Ricks friend, assistant, and lookout. Rick respects Sam, and vice versa, though it is 1942 and Sam is black. 1942 is not a time when you could be black in America and eat in any restaurant you want. I’d like to think Sam is the harbinger of things to come.

The thing that strikes me most about the movie is that it was made during a time when so many films were total crap. Sugar coated escapism and melodrama were all people living through depression and war could stomach it seems. Enter ‘Casablanca’, with it’s political call-to-action and it’s reminder that sometimes real sacrifice is required when there are bigger things at stake.