Review – Casablanca

As near as I can tell, folks fall into two separate and distinct camps on this film: those who think it’s one of the corniest, dumbest movies ever made, and those who think it’s one of the most romantic. If you’ve skipped ahead to the verdict at the end of this review, then you already know where I come down on the issue. Sure, it’s practically one long cliché (the cold-blooded mercenary with the heart of gold, the cynical cop with the heart of gold, the French beauty torn between love and duty, the sinister Germans, and so on and so on), and most of it’s not exactly politically correct. Still, few if any films better embody the romance of the early 1940s, the sense of drama and importance adhering to even the petty affairs of desperate people in exotic locales. Pure escapism, to be sure. But escapism at its best. Buy the tape