I love Casablanca but I think The Best Years of Our Lives is a more impactful movie in my opinion.
Posted on 12/13/2023 3:08:10 PM PST by Rummyfan
One of my favorite films is “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, an American nightclub owner — and isolationist — in Morocco as the Nazis are goose-stepping across Europe and beyond.
“I’m not fighting for anything anymore except myself,” he tells Ilsa, the elusive love of his life. “I’m the only cause I’m interested in.”
When Major Strasser, an officer of the Third Reich, asks Rick what nationality he holds, Rick replies: “I’m a drunkard.”
Rick tells Louis Renault, the corrupt French police prefect: “I stick my neck out for nobody.”
“Casablanca” was written in 1941 during the months preceding the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. The film was released in 1942.
And in January 1943, just two months after the Anglo-American landings in North Africa, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in, yes, Casablanca, where he declared his war aim.
It was not a “ceasefire,” an “exit strategy,” or a “responsible conclusion.”
Instead, he demanded that Germany, Italy, and Japan – the Axis Powers – surrender, and that they do so “unconditionally.”
...
Back to our movie: “If we stop fighting out enemies, the world will die,” Victor Lazlo, the Czech Resistance leader, tells Rick. “Well, what of it?” Rick replies. “It will be out of its misery.”
But in the film’s final scene, Rick shoots Major Strasser, and decides to join the fight. “You’ve become a patriot,” Louis Renault observes.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
That is absolutely my favorite scene from that movie.
I love Casablanca but I think The Best Years of Our Lives is a more impactful movie in my opinion.
“Conrad Veidt played Major Stosser.”
Yep, that guy-
Very big ANTI Nazi guy.
Spent his fortune and his career fighting it.
Someone should have put a spoiler alert in the title. / Just Kidding.
Round up the usual suspects is my favorite line.
Yup, Rick is a communist hero. It’s the reason I don’t watch it anymore.
That was To Have and To Have Not
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