Casablanca (Blu-ray)
Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazi's most-wanted list. Atop that list is Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one... especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what's more important - his own happiness or the countless lives that hang in the balance.
Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, Casablanca is America's most popular and beloved movie - and rightly so" (The Motion Picture Guide)!
Member Reviews
Viva la France - Derekstar
I found the political angle to this film even more moving than the love story that everyone always gushes about. The last shot of the film has Bogart and a local Vichy government puppet walking off into the mist to join the Free France movement. As we see "THE END" come up on the screen, the French national anthem plays. My God! I got chills! Had I seen this is '42 I may have ran right out of the theater and enlisted right away.greatest movie? - Pumon
Greatest movie? pretty much. humphry bogard and ingrid bergman play a pair of star crossed lovers separated in world war two Europe only to find each other again in you guessed it. Casablance. This Movie delivers the classic one liners that every movie watcher has heard over and over again. so here;s looking at you kid!For Me The Greatest Film Ever - Gregg
Why do I consider this to be the greatest film ever, Well its the most enjoyable film I have ever watched and the most re-watchable. The key ingredients in my mind include; wonderful dialogue (so many quotable oft repeated lines), amazing performances, a superb story that while relatively straightforward is also highly enjoyable and finally the great black and white cinematography. Beyond these ingredients its also a film moves quickly and I can’t think of a single scene I found either uninteresting or unnecessary.
For those that desire a synopsis, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is an American expatriate running a popular nightclub in Casablanca a city under Vichy control. His cool disinterested facade is shaken when Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) his former lover whom he thought dead appears suddenly in his club with her husband a resistance leader who requires safe passage out of German controlled territory. In order for the escape to succeed Rick must not only hide them from the Germans but also the local French police commander (Claude Rains) who is a friend but also a collaborator.
My favorite performance here will always be that of Humphrey Bogart as Rick a man of nobility while evidencing ambivalence, but his performance is closely followed by the wonderful Claude Rains and the limited but iconic performances of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. While Ingrid Bergman apparently did not enjoy her experience and it may not be amongst her greatest roles I thought it was still a great performance and also that the chemistry between Bogart and herself was utterly convincing. Further I found both Paul Henreid in the thankless role of the other man in the love triangle and Conrad Veidt as the local German commander to be quite effective along with a good supporting cast.
I believe Michael Curtiz is an underrated director, its true he was not an auteur but a studio director who made the films he was assigned but he has an incredible legacy of film.
Member Reviews
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Viva la France - Derekstar
I found the political angle to this film even more moving than the love story that everyone always gushes about. The last shot of the film has Bogart and a local Vichy government puppet walking off into the mist to join the Free France movement. As we see ...greatest movie? - Pumon
Greatest movie? pretty much. humphry bogard and ingrid bergman play a pair of star crossed lovers separated in world war two Europe only to find each other again in you guessed it. Casablance. This Movie delivers the classic one liners that every movie watcher ...For Me The Greatest Film Ever - Gregg
Why do I consider this to be the greatest film ever, Well its the most enjoyable film I have ever watched and the most re-watchable. The key ingredients in my mind include; wonderful dialogue (so many quotable oft repeated lines), amazing performances, a superb ...