Casablanca (1942) Movie Review

Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942 and the main characters are Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart)  Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) Sam (Dooley Wilson) and Louis Renault (Claude Rains). Casablanca has a run time of 102 minutes and is considered one of the great "Film Noire" movies.

When Casablanca starts off you start to hear the story of Rick Blaine and his american themed cafe in the country of Morocco. Rick was exiled from the United States, and is a former freedom fighter. Rick comes across two letters of transit from German couriers, and the Germans come into Casablanca looking for information leading to the capture of the men who killed the German couriers and took the letters of transit. The Germans and the french police including Louis Renault formulate a plan to find the murderers by looking at Ricks cafe, stating that everyone comes to Ricks cafe since it is the most popular night spot in the city. We learn that during the German Occupation of Paris, Ilsa Lund and Rick were in a romantic relationship, and we hear one of the most famous quotes in the movie, "Heres looking at you kid."-Rick Blaine. The letters of transit stolen from the dead couriers guarantee safe travel from Casablanca to the United States via air travel. The plan was for Rick and Ilsa to use the letters of transit to travel to the United States, but everything doesnt go exactly to plan.

I enjoyed the movie and thought that the movie was one of the best film noire movies that i have ever seen. The actors in the movie played their roles very well and the story included humor, drama, action, and a well written plot. The director used various elements into the movie, such as lighting, and music. During the movie, you will see dark lighting, the use of shadows, and numerous camera angles. During the movie, you hear the classic song " As time Goes by", played by Sam in Ricks diner.

I would recommend this movie to anybody that is a fan of film noire movies, or a fan of classic movies.  Casablanca has remained one of the best classic movies to date, and numerous films and television shows have allusions to this movie. In my three categories, first starting with the overall film score it would recieve a 9 in the overall category, and is a movie that you can watch over and over again. In the plot category i would rate the movie a 9.5 because the plot is very believable and the storyline is well written. In the final category, which is character roles, i would rate the movie a 10 because all of the characters play a very convincing role, and they make Casablanca one of the classic movies that have been made to date.