Casablanca Essay, Research Paper

Casablanca was a very interesting film. The first time that I watched it, I really had no idea what was going on. I found it a little hard to follow. But, after the second time around, a good portion of the movie became very clear to me.The setting takes place in Casablanca, Morocco and in Paris, France. At first the movie takes place in December 1941 at Rick Blaine’s saloon in Casablanca. Rick has to deal with some illegal visa papers that he was given, and he hides them in the piano. Rick’s former lover Ilsa comes with her husband Victor Laslo to the saloon. She is friends with the piano player Sam, and tells him to play the song As Time Goes By; Rick and Ilsa’s “song.” Rick comes in and yells at Sam to stop, and then he sees Ilsa.Then next scenes Rick is having a flashback to all the good times he had with Ilsa when they were in Paris, France. Rick and Ilsa are in love and plan to leave on a train to get married. Ilsa is really married to Victor, but she believes that he’s dead. She finds out that he’s alive and in a concentration camp right before she plans to leave with Rick. She doesn’t go with Rick on the train and leaves him heartbroken.Then back in Casablanca Rick discovers that he’s still in love with Ilsa. Rick tells his friend Louie, the police chief, about the illegal papers and plans to have him set up Victor to go to jail for having the papers so Ilsa and Rick can go to America. Rick decides that he can’t go to America with Ilsa, because she’ll regret it. Victor and Ilsa end up going to America on an airplane together.

The most memorable scene of the film for me was when Ilsa comes back into Rick’s life. She begs Sam to play As Time Goes By. He won’t so she keeps saying, “Play it Sam…” When Sam does play the song Rick storms in and says, “I thought I told you to never play that again!” Then he looks up and sees Ilsa. They make eye contact and they remember all of their old feelings for each other. This scene is very emotional and you can tell exactly what they’re both feeling. I think a filmmaker wanted to make this film to show what war can do to two people. The war separated Rick and Ilsa, and brought them back together. The message I got is that love is stronger than war, and the war can effect people in love.This film makes me think about the relationship between many people. It is very hard to maintain a relationship when one person moves away, because they may not always stay loyal, and they may forget their feelings for each other. This happens to many people during wars. The emotion that was put into this movie was obviously very intense. This must be the reason why this movie is almost as popular as the all time favorite “Gone with the Wind”. It really makes you think about life and the problems that other people may have.