Casablanca turns 70 this year. If you haven't watched it recently, what more excuse do you need? If you've never watched it, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.Let's get one thing straight right away. It's not the best movie ever made. It's a slapdash affair in many ways:
Pages were being written even as the film was being shot, with [writers] the Epstein brothers and Koch working separately from each other. When Koch claimed the link between different sequences was illogical, director Curtiz reportedly replied, “Don’t worry what’s logical. I make it go so fast, no one notices.”
But it's so... Hollywood. The dialogue. The stars. The character actors. The sets. Everything about it says Hollywood's Golden Age. It's even a war picture released during a war, so it's got patriotism and selfless acts of sacrifice. There's even gambling, although you may be shocked—shocked!—to hear it. How did it become the cult classic that it now is? Liam Lacey (source of the quote above) answers that question at Here's lookin' at the cult of Casablanca. I would answer it simply, how many movies can you watch that often, and fall in love with every time?
If you don't watch this movie, you're going to regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life...
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