Casablanca: A Microcosm Of A War-Torn World

Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, which originally was never expected to be any more than an ordinary film, is now heralded as one of the greatest films in history. The film focuses on Rick Blaine, the cynical owner of “Rick’s Café Américain.” However, Rick soon ends up in a quagmire when he acquires two valuable exit-visas and runs into Ilsa Lund, the woman who broke his heart in Paris, and her husband Victor Lazlo who are seeking passage to America. The Moroccan city of Casablanca provides an appropriate backdrop for the film, helping flesh out each of the characters in the film and establishing a ripe atmosphere for the film’s conflict and eventual resolution.

The backdrop in Casablanca, created and shot almost entirely on studio sets, effectively portrays an exotic vision of Casablanca while enhancing the film’s plot. The success in Cutiz’s set work is due to his use of layers when framing each scene. From “Rick’s Café” to busy road-side bazaars, every scene in Casablanca is covered with people, objects, and action. However, there is nothing remarkable about the sets themselves in Casablanca. What is remarkable is the interplay between backdrop and plot. The backdrops seamlessly blend a combination of public and underground activity, presenting audiences with an exotic and fabricated, yet entirely plausible, vision of Casablanca.

Casablanca serves as a microcosm of a war-torn world in the midst of World War II. “Rick’s Café” produces a dramatic binary, drawing in a diverse clientele including Nazi, Italian, and Vichy French officials, representative of legal authority, and refugees desperately seeking aid from exploitive visa dealers, representative of illegal commerce. Poor refugees, having escaped the horrors of war, are now at the mercy of corrupt Vichy bureaucrats, mere puppets of Nazi officials as a consequence of occupation. Daily fights over exit visas to Libson, rigged behind-the-scenes gambling matches, and rampant pick-pocketing define the city. Just as the world has been thrown into chaos, Casablanca exists in eternal, yet underground chaos.

Finally, Casablanca serves as a representative parallel to Rick Blaine’s character development during the film. In many ways, “Rick’s Café” in Casablanca serves as a metaphorical low point for Rick. After Ilsa left him in Paris, Rick has reached a nadir of cynicism and turned his back on his virtuism of old, indicated by participation in the Spanish Civil War and Ethiopia. Casablanca is effectively an upscale prison for Rick’s repressed inner character, preventing him from once again grasping virtuism. The backdrop in Casablanca drives such a metaphor home by Curtiz’s use of lighting in the film. For example, the dinner spotlight in “Rick’s Café” and airport landing light both functionally resemble prison search lights, emphasizing an inescapable feeling of entrapment.

Despite a frantic production schedule which left the actors unsure of what to expect with each passing day, Casablanca manages to create a comprehensive narrative. However, only against a backdrop of corruption does Casablanca genuinely shine as a production. The semblance of legal authority subsumed by commonplace illegal activity, the exoticness of a foreign, African nation, the diverse collection of memorable characters, the everyday struggle for survival and exit-visas. These are what make Casablanca such an unforgettable film. Even apart from simply an aesthetic level, the film would simply not be the same were it to take place anywhere other than the city for which it is named.