The other day my husband and I watched Casablanca. It came in at number 2 on AFI's list and I can see why. Citizen Kane was number 1 and this movie was definitely just as brilliant as that one. In fact, they are two of my new favorite movies. I have to ask myself, how did I go through 30 years of life without watching Casablanca?
Allow me to expound -
Acting: Some of the accents were a little off, but aside from that, the acting was so good. Sam cracked me up and there was such great acting on the part of Bogart. My favorite scene was when he confronted Ilsa. He acted that scene with such passion that you could feel his character's heartache and anger.
Plot: This storyline was much easier to follow than The Maltese Falcon. Also it was neat to see the famous scenes and hear the famous lines from this movie in their proper context. They make so much more sense now.
Musical score: Very good in terms setting the tone of key scenes. Sam's playing and choice of music really added to the scenes in Cafe Americain.
Sound effects/Special effects/Costumes (basically, everything else not yet mentioned) - The costumes for Ilsa's character were beautiful. The male characters basically either wore suits or uniforms of one sort or another, so not much to comment on there. Or maybe there is and I just don't know it. I'm not a sewer, thus am not familiar with fabrics and such.
I found it interesting that the few times people were shot or injured in some way, there was no blood. I imagine the censors of the day would have had a fit if any blood was shown. Internet Movie Database has a lot of interesting trivia for this movie. Many more interesting tidbits than I could possibly post here. Check it out, very interesting stuff.
Both my husband and I give this movie a thumbs up. If you haven't seen it yet, head to your local library and check it out. Chances are, you won't be disappointed.
Happy movieing!
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