Discussion Topics

Note: The following topics of discussion may be answered in writing or in other classroom activities, such as student role-playing. Other films that are mentioned below can serve as points of comparison and contrast for individual assignments. To answer some of the questions, students should be familiar with the political and social context in the United States during World War II.

1. Looking at the public debate in Congress and the press, consider to what extent the movie Casablanca, released one year after the U.S. entered the war, reflects the issues involved in bringing the nation into the war.

The following questions will help focus your thoughts:

To what extent did Rick Blaine's attitudes mirror the position of U.S. political leaders when Italy attacked Ethiopia in 1935 or when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936?

How does the movie explain Rick's refusal to become involved in international affairs? To what extent do his personal excuses reflect the political reasons for U.S. neutrality after World War II began in Europe in 1939? What, finally, makes Rick change his mind about international commitments?

2. How does Casablanca portray the political refugees who gather in Rick's nightclub? What nationalities are represented? How do they interact with each other? How do they attempt to continue their resistance to the German conquerors? Who do you consider the heroes among the resistance leaders? Why?

How do you think these refugees would fare if and when they arrived in the United States? Did European immigrants face discrimination in the United States during the 1940s?

What does the movie suggest about American views of the defeated French leaders and the French people?

How does the movie use music and song to express the conflict between the German militarists and the refugees who gather at the Café Americain? How do the songs of Casablanca compare to other songs that were popular on the home front during World War II? (If the film had been set in New York, what songs might the anti-Nazis have sung?)

3. Consider the issues of race during World War II. While many U.S. leaders criticized Nazi racism, the U.S. Army remained racially segregated (even blood distributed by the Red Cross was separated as "white" or "colored"). Many war industries refused to employ African Americans until President Roosevelt responded to black political pressure and issued Executive Order 8802 in June 1941; the order created a Federal Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to investigate cases of discrimination. Other racial minorities also experienced problems in the military and on the home front. Did these issues appear in Hollywood films?

4. Among the Americans at the Café Americain is the African American pianist, Sam (Dooley Wilson). When Ilsa asks Sam to play "As Time Goes By," which is "their song," Rick says, "Play it," a line that is frequently misquoted as "Play it again, Sam." That scene helps us understand the changing image of African Americans in wartime movies.

What does Sam's role in the movie tell us about mainstream views of racial minorities during World War II? Is he treated in a prejudicial way? How does Rick, his white employer, treat him? To what extent, if any, is race a factor in their relationship? And how does that relationship reflect civil rights issues during wartime? Would Rick have approved of President Roosevelt's wartime executive order ending discrimination in war-related work? Would Rick have approved the preservation of racial segregation in the U.S. military during the war? Why or why not?

5. Compare the presentation of racial minorities in Casablanca with the images of African Americans and other racial groups in other films, such as the prewar box office hit of 1939, Gone With the Wind. Another Humphrey Bogart film of 1943, Sahara, features a Sudanese soldier fighting with the Allies. How does this film compare with Casablanca? And how do these different Hollywood films compare with the 1944 anti-discrimination documentary film, The Negro Soldier, made by Hollywood director Frank Capra for the U.S. Army?

Do you think the anti-Nazi racism in films like Casablanca had an impact on postwar racial attitudes in the United States?

Other postwar films with significant African American roles include Home of the Brave (1947), Lost Boundaries (1949), and Pinky (1949). How do those roles compare and contrast with that of Sam in Casablanca?

6. Hollywood films made between 1934 and 1968 were governed by a strict industry-wide "code" that prevented the screening of immoral behavior. Consequently, the sexual affair between Rick and Ilsa prior to their meeting in Casablanca could not be shown and scenes were rewritten at the insistence of the industry's censors to prevent their love from being consummated. Yet the movie expresses strong views about proper gender roles for both men and women. According to the characters of Casablanca, What is a good woman? Is Ilsa a good woman? Why? What is a good man? What qualities do good men have? What are appropriate gender roles? Which women in the movie have paying jobs? What are their occupations? Do women hold positions of power in this film? What gives them their power?

7. In 1942, the year Casablanca opened, President Roosevelt created a civilian Office of War Information (OWI) to supervise the film industry during wartime. Within the OWI, an office of censorship attempted to prohibit the portrayal of behavior that indicated conflict on the home front. In fact, some films that were permitted to be shown in the United States were not allowed to be exported overseas for fear that they would offend U.S. allies. There is no evidence that Casablanca experienced any censorship. But in justifying U.S. intervention in World War II, the movie certainly expressed the political values of the men and women who ran the Hollywood studios and dominated the film industry. It also supported the policies of the U.S. government. Could you see this movie as an example of wartime propaganda, aimed at altering domestic or foreign opinion of the war effort? Do you think the government would have permitted the creation and distribution of a film that criticized U.S. wartime policies? Is it valid for democratic governments to create propaganda aimed at their own citizens?

8. At one point in the film dialogue, Rick says: "Sam, if it's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York? I bet they're asleep in New York. I'll bet they're asleep all over America."

In what ways were the American people asleep in December 1941?

How did the feeling that Americans had been asleep in 1941 affect U.S. foreign policy after World War II?

Based on Casablanca, what were the political "lessons" that Americans learned during World War II?

Casablanca