Final

Casablanca is a classic film from the Warner Brothers, released in 1942, which provides a political commentary alongside a romantic and wild story appropriate for the time. I watched the film with my mom, and we both thought it was interesting that this movie called out Nazi Germany and made such bold political statements — all during WWII. Usually those types of politicial statements are made after the fact, but it was quite surprising to us that this would be released during the war. 

On a more cinematic note, I liked the use of shadow and added, obvious lights in some shots. I'd like to think that this is because they didn't have any color to work with, so they had to make it more dynamic by playing with light and shadow. In one scene toward the beginning of the movie, Rick stands outside his cafe at some point during the night. A searchlight sweeps across the facade of the building every few seconds, making an otherwise boring and plain shot much more interesting to the eye. The scene where Rick is wallowing in the cafe after hours, waiting for Ilsa to return was also visually interesting. He sits at a lone table in the middle of the cafe, and some unknown window lets in some moonlight, illuminating Rick's face, the glass and bottle from which he's drinking some sort of alcohol, and his white tuxedo (another smart choice — in the black and white, it brings more attention to Rick because of the contrast between his white tux and the darker background). In this scene we also see the search light pass over, although it's much more faint — so as not to distract from the scene, I'm guessing. There were probably other moments where light and shadow were used to create more visually interesting shots without the use of color, but those stood out in my memory most.

I guess what I noticed most about the movie were its cinematic choices (mostly because I was thinking about what I should write for this review when I was done). As for the story, however, I wasn't a huge fan. It was definitely more of a unique story, due mostly to the fact that it had an interesting and unique setting and commentary, which were appropriate for the time period. I was kind of confused from the beginning, because I didn't read anything about the movie, not even the 3-sentence blurb right next to the "Rent" button on iTunes. I prefer to know little to nothing about a movie before I watch it. In my opinion, you shouldn't need a trailer or blurb to tell you a rundown of what you should understand before you watch the movie. It's a good movie if you can watch it and understand the point of the plot and what's happening without that. It really wasn't clear at all to me what the point was, where the plot was going, until Ilsa (the girl) came into the story. Which, in my opinion, took a bit long. From there, I thought that the romance between Ilsa and Rick was predictable and a bit cliché, although I'm not sure what I expected from a film from the mid 1900's — not to be prejudiced, but the majority of those films take clichéd plot routes, or at least the ones I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a classic movie and worth watching, but it's not really my cup of tea. I enjoy that I can now say I watched it, and will now know where all those common phrases came from — such as, "Play it again, Sam," even though that is not ever actually said. I probably never would've watched the movie without this assignment, so I'm glad I got the assignment, even if I didn't really like the story.