Why Casablanca is still a classic
The movie Casablanca is a classic and like all classics its appeal is timeless. Though the movie was shot in 1940, obviously before Pearl Harbour, the acting of Ingrid Bergman and Humpher Bogard have great contemporary relevance. Playing the role of a cynical, saloon keeper Bogard as Richard or Rick puts on an air of studied indifference to the important political and moral issues before him. One can quite easily get the impression that Rick is a cardboard hero. But that would be a wrong assessment because he ultimalely forsakes his Lady Love for what he regfarded as a higher cause, ridding the world of the ty
tyranny of the Germans. The role of the police officer played by Claude Reims is far more complex. He is as he admits in the
movie only a "poor, corrupt official". Yet his transformation from a Vichy collaborator to the cause of the Resistance is a complex process one in which Rick plays an imnportant part. The onlyn disappointing character turned out to be Victor Laslo.
The song played by Sam as Time Goes By will always be remembered as a sublime lyric seared by the pain of longing and parting.