WORLD TOUR Day 44 - Casablanca, Morocco
BEFORE: Two continents down, and just 4 to go. I've left Europe behind and I'm in Africa for a few days - but I've time-traveled from one war zone to another. How is it possible that I've never seen "Casablanca", one of the (allegedly) world's greatest films? Well, I'm not proud of it, but every time I've tried to watch this, I've lost interest or fallen asleep. There's something about Bogart's monotone voice that I find soporific, plus he has that manly disinterest in everything - if he's not interested in the plot points, why should I be?
Tonight I've got a big glass of "go-go juice" (Diet Mt. Dew) and I'm determined to cross it off my life list. This whole World Tour might in fact have been designed to get me here, to force me to watch this.
Direct actor linking tonight is impossible, due to the 60-year time-span between films, but at least Geoffrey Rush from "Les Miserables" was also in "Shine" with Sir John Gielgud, who was also in "Murder on the Orient Express" with Ingrid Bergman.
THE PLOT: Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
AFTER: Well, I made it through, and I only dozed off once or twice. I rewound though (or rescanned, whatever you say with a DVD since it doesn't actually "wind") and soldiered on.
The opening of the film describes the mass exodus out of occupied France in the early days of World War II - apparently people traveled from Paris to Marseilles to Casablanca to get to the U.S. That's almost the exact same path my movie tour has taken! Geez, sometimes it's almost like I know exactly what I'm doing. But then people tried to get OUT of Casablanca to Lisbon, and I'm going further into Africa tomorrow.
I finally GET this film, at least a bit below the surface details. In my defense, it's a very "talkie" film. Oh, there are brief scuffles and a shootout in the bar, but 99% of the time, someone forgot the cardinal rule of filmmaking, which is "Show, don't tell." Nearly everything here is "tell" - plus they repeat the same plot points two or three times, to the point of ridiculousness. Quit reminding me how things work in Casablanca, I haven't forgot where the movie is set, it's in the damn title even!
Still, there are the classic lines - "Here's looking at you, kid", "I'll round up the usual suspects", and "The Germans wore gray. You wore blue." (NOTE: Bogart never actually says "Play it again, Sam." That's a common Hollywood misquote.) Most of these are so often quoted that they're now hackneyed, however. I did like some of the lesser known bits, like Renault saying "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" just before he's handed his roulette winnings.
I didn't find the story very complex, except there is an undercurrent of wrongdoing - it's implied that Renault is trading exit visas for sex with young women, for example. I guess they couldn't just come out and say that in the 1940's.
I'm still not a fan, but at least I have some appreciation for the film now. It did win the Best Picture Oscar, after all.
Also starring Humphrey Bogart (last seen in "The Big Sleep"), Claude Rains (last seen in "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet (last seen in "The Maltese Falcon"), Peter Lorre (last seen in "The Patsy"), Dooley Wilson.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 1,173 miles / 1,888 km (Paris, France to Casablanca, Morocco)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 13,217 miles / 21,271 km
RATING: 4 out of 10 exit visas
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