Casablanca Questions

1. For me, a film should have a good story and good characters, and the character's already present measure up, like Rick, but especially the characters of different ethnicities, the French, Italians, and Germans. The many lines paraphrased and quoted from the characters in the film account for its lasting popularity.

2. World War II had begun the year prior, and the U.S. would enter the year after the set year of the film. A main issue during that time was Nazi Germany, Hitler, and Fascism in Europe. In the film, there's mention of WWI and the Axis Power countries of WWII, Italy and Germany, mentions of the Third Reich and references to some Germans as "gestapos".

3. The different nationalities are portrayed uniquely, the way they act, speak and what they speak about, even how they dress. Some absent groups that I noticed are the Japanese, the third country of the Axis Powers, and also the Jews, who I'd expect to be present in Morocco. The Japanese may not be there because they were being interned and didn't want to promote them on film, and Jews were in Europe, suffering in the Holocaust or fleeing to other countries because of it.

4. I see Rick as just a laid back American man enjoying his time in Casablanca, but can seem to come off as sarcastic, yet maintains diplomacy when talking to the men of the other countries. My opinion didn't change much of him, only a little at the end of the movie when he had Strasser at gunpoint.

5. The past she brings is that she's married and her husband was in a concentration camp and thought he was deceased when she and Rick met and fell in love in Paris. When Ilsa's husband Laszlo does come back, she's left with a hard choice over the man she wants to be with.

6. In Ilsa's marriage, it's good and has benefits as she and Laszlo look good next to each other and others think so as well.

7. In the 40's, when people smoked and drank in film, they did so in a way that made them look lavish and went about doing it in a very non-chaulant manner. In present films, people smoke and drink either in that same way, casually and not necessarily fancy or overdo it and end up looking like drunken idiots.

8. I think he means that they'll soon have a close alliance, both personally and diplomatically. In a sequel, I'd expect to see Rick and Renault in a partnership, owning a business place in Casablanca.