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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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Casablanca
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Reviewed
by: |
SweetCeCe |
| Genre: |
Drama,
Romance |
| Video: |
1.33:1
Full Frame |
| Audio: |
Dolby
Digital 2.0 |
| Language: |
English,
French |
| Subtitle: |
English,
French |
| Length: |
1
hour, 43 minutes |
| Rating: |
PG |
| Release
Date: |
February
2000 |
| Studio: |
Warner
Brothers |
| Commentary:
|
Contained
within the documentary |
| Documentaries:
|
Casablanca:
You Must Remember This |
| Featurettes:
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None |
| Filmography/Biography:
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None
Listed |
|
Interviews: |
Interviews
are contained within the Documentary |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Casablanca
Theater Trailer, The Petrified Forest, High Sierra, The Maltese
Falcon, Passage to Marseille, To Have and Have Not, The Big
Sleep, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Scene
Index of 36 most popular scenes, Closed captioned in English |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Humphrey
Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt,
Dooley Wilson, Peter Lorre |
| Screenplay
by: |
Murray Burnett,
Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Joan Alison |
| Produced
by: |
Hal B. Wallis, Jack J.
Warner |
| Directed
By: |
Michael Curtiz |
| Music: |
Max Steiner, M. K. Jerome,
Jack Scholl |
| The
Review: |
Even though
Casablanca is almost 60 years old, it is still just as entertaining
now as it was when it was first released in 1942. In my personal
opinion, Casablanca combines the best of everything into a movie
that will make you laugh, make you cry, and definitely make
you feel a wide array of emotions. Even though the movie is
widely known around the world, I personally had not watched
it until about seven years ago. Little did I realize what I
had been missing until that time. Casablanca is a refugee area
for individuals fleeing Europe from Nazi control. Individuals
have to receive letters of transit approved by the prefect of
police in order to be able to fly to Lisbon to travel to America
and freedom. Unfortunately leaving Casablanca involves more
than just money including bribery and even sexual favors. An
enemy to the Third Reich, Victor Laslo (Paul Henreid), has escaped
the Nazis in order to make the trek to America. He is accompanied
by a beautiful woman, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) as his companion.
A member of the black market, Ugarte (Peter Lorre), has procured
letters of transit from German couriers and has made prior arrangement
to sell those letters to Laslo so that he and Ilsa can escape.
Unfortunately, Ugarte is arrested before the transaction can
take place. However, Ugarte has left the papers with Rick, who
is an American with a very colorful past know owning a saloon
in Casablanca. Laslo enters Rick's cafe with Ilsa, sending memories
into both Rick's and Ilsa's hearts as they were once lovers
in Paris before it fell into German hands. This causes a very
strange love triangle that involves memories from the past,
hurt from the present, and a desperation from all parties to
resolve their destiny in one shape or another. Unfortunately
within this plot is also the intent of the Germans whose leader
Major Strauser is only interested in Victor Laslo's return to
a concentration camp and eventual death. With the fact that
all letters of transit must be signed by the Prefect of Police
who is German friendly, how can Laslo and Ilsa escape? Or would
Ilsa even try to escape now that she has reunited with Rick
who was the love of her life? That's the premise of the movie,
and the action and drama of it is still exciting even after
all of these decades. |
| Image
and Sound |
Casablanca's
soundtrack is a marvelous mixture of drama and romance mostly
based on derivatives of one song -- As Time Goes By. Throughout
almost every scene as background music, you'll hear part of
this song mixed in with dramatic instrumentals, including a
hearty brass section bounding at very somber and gloomy looking
situations. After the movie was pieced together, the producers
seemed to want to take As Time Goes By, out of the prominence
of the movie. However, it was so deep within the entire picture
that to take it out would have caused major reshooting of the
film which would have taken time and not been feasible. Personally,
I can not imagine Casablanca without this original and unique
encompassing of a soundtrack. In addition to the derivations
of As Time Goes By, there performances of Dooley Wilson as Sam
as well as the inspiring Le Marseilles sung by everyone in Rick's
cafe give the movie a patriotic surge of pride, something that
I believe is missing in our own country's hearts today. Naturally,
since I am forty-four years old, I never saw Casablanca on the
big screen. However, I have owned the 50th anniversary version
of Casablanca now for many years. Recently I was able to acquire
a DVD player and the first movie that I desired was, of course,
Casablanca. After viewing Casablanca on DVD for the first time,
I finally realized how wonder of a movie it truly was. The DVD
version of Casablanca is absolutely impeccable. The movie's
visual quality defies all words because it is so clear. Every
shadow, every detail is so crisp and bright that you will literally
feel drawn into the film. I was totally unprepared for the visual
presentation of this masterpiece that was shown without a flicker,
without a speck, and without any flaw whatsoever. Even little
details as seeing the dimple in Major Strausser's cheek fascinated
me. I looked upon the DVD version of Casablanca with the wide
eyes of a child viewing Santa Claus for the first time. That
is how I was with the DVD version of this beloved classic. The
quality of the remaster of the DVD version was even more evident
when I viewed the documentary that is also a part of the Casablanca
DVD, You Must Remember This. That documentary was not remastered
for DVD production and still holds the flaws in the film as
I had originally seen with the VHS production. However, I since
I purchased the DVD for the movie itself, the flaws in the visual
presentation of the documentary are not important to me. As
for the sounds, I was rather disappointed in the sound mix.
It appears to me, at least from my own stereo system, that the
vocals of Casablanca are somewhat dimmer than the background
music and sound effects. In order to hear the movie with its
full sound, I had to increase the overall volume of my sound
system. |
| The
Extras |
As for the
extras, I truly wasn't that impressed with the selection of
extras contained within the DVD version of Casablanca. Even
though the captions in French and English are excellent, especially
if you do not have closed captioned features on your television,
I believe that it would have been more beneficial to have had
more options for language. Since the movie has an abundance
of German influence, having captions in German or a translation
of the entire movie in German would have been an excellent addition
to the extras contained within the DVD. In addition, I really
feel that the trailers for the movies that were not Casablanca
related were not really necessary. I did not any of them that
entertaining to me. A better combination would have been for
Warner Brothers to have included the cartoon parody of Carrotblanca
that starred the Looney Tunes instead. |
| Commentary |
While the
commentary for Casablanca is mostly contained within the documentary,
You Must Remember This, I feel that there was a great void of
valuable information that could have been included within the
DVD and were not. Most notably there are no commentaries of
Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman included within the DVD at
all other than their acting. I find it very strange that there
were not any commentaries from the past in a video archive available
to be able to tack into the mass production of Casablanca for
home video, and this lack of interview with the main stars is
a major flaw. |
| Final
Words: |
I can affirmatively
state that I am very satisfied with the purchase of Casablanca
on DVD. I will never watch my VHS version of this movie again.
The DVD version of Casablanca has touched me in more ways that
I can list here. Every time now, I watch this marvelous remaster
of this classic film, I feel see more and more detail making
me feel more a part of the film than the VHS version ever did.
While the title of Casablanca was originally called "Everybody
Come to Rick's", I can affirmatively say that I will continue
to look eagerly upon visiting this movie quite often now that
I have the DVD version. The movie was a masterpiece in its own
right, now proclaimed to even higher heights because of the
intimacy that was created by its unflawed version now available
for home viewing. |
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