Movie Description

This classic World War II movie, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, is set in Casablanca, Morocco, which was then part of the French empire, during the period between the German defeat of France in June 1940 and U.S. entry into the war on December 7, 1941. Casablanca was released in November 1942, just as U.S. soldiers were landing in North Africa, and attracted instant attention. Its national distribution began in January 1943 and coincided with a meeting of the "Big Three"--President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin--at Casablanca, adding to its timeliness.

Casablanca stands as a historical movie on two levels: First, it comments on the U.S. policy of neutrality and non-intervention at a time when most of Europe was at war between 1939 and 1941. Second, it is an artifact of American attitudes and opinions about international affairs one year after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.

As the movie begins with a newsreel-type map of North Africa, the movie's narrator describes Casablanca as a city of refugees whose eyes "turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas….Here the fortunate ones, through money or influence or luck, might obtain exit visas" to escape the ravages of war and Nazi oppression. Most of these refugees eventually wind up at the celebrated Café Americain, a nightclub, saloon, and gambling joint, run by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an expatriate American who wears a white jacket and black bow tie and prefers to ignore the problems of his customers. Although earlier in his life Rick had supported Ethiopia against fascist Italy in 1935 and aided the anti-fascist Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), he has lost interest in international politics. "I stick my neck out for nobody," he declares, even as the French police enter his nightclub to arrest a smuggler for killing two German Gestapo policemen and stealing precious "letters of transit."

Rick's cool façade is soon shattered by the arrival of a remarkable couple: Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), a prominent anti-Nazi resistant fighter and escapee from a concentration camp wanted by the Gestapo, and his beautiful wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who had once been Rick's lover in Paris. Like the other refugees, Laszlo is seeking the letters of transit to escape from the Nazis. At first, Rick, who is bitter at Ilsa's earlier betrayal, refuses to get involved in Laszlo's affairs, insisting "the problems of the world are not in my department." But as Laszlo pleads for Rick's assistance ("It's my privilege to be one of the leaders of a great movement," he says. "You know what it means to the work, to the lives of thousands and thousands of people that I be free to reach America and continue my work.") and as Ilsa professes her enduring love for Rick (explaining that during their affair she had mistakenly believed that the Nazis had killed her husband), the American abandons his neutralist position and reenters the struggle against fascism.

Using the stolen letters of transit, Rick not only arranges for Laszlo's escape, killing a German officer in the process, but also persuades Ilsa to accompany her husband to ensure the success of his anti-fascist crusade. "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world," Rick assures her. Finally, having reluctantly surrendered the love of his life, Rick joins with the French chief of police to enlist in the internationalist campaign on another battlefront.

Although Casablanca appears on the surface to be a love story involving three romantic characters, audiences understood the film to be a parable of the United States position in world affairs as Germany and Italy, under Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, threatened world peace and initiated attacks that led to World War II. As Europe headed toward that war, the United States adopted policies of neutrality and non-intervention, later known disparagingly as "isolationism." After the war began in September 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to rearm the country and attempted to aid the Allies (mainly Britain and France) against Germany and Italy in Europe and against Japan in Asia. Such policies aroused opposition from neutralists and isolationists at home, provoking major debates about the proper role of the United States in world affairs--that is, whether or not the United States should join the Allies in the war against the fascist aggressors. The Japanese attack against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941--what Roosevelt called the "day of infamy"--ended that debate. Most patriotic Americans in the major political parties then endorsed the war effort. Casablanca was the result of the new wartime consensus, justifying U.S. intervention in world affairs

Casablanca