While I’m just a person who enjoys films and not a psychologist, can you give me some cites for film critics/book editors/others who agree with your analysis? It seems pretty far-fetched to me. But I’m always willing to be edjumacated.
This is, as far as I know, entirely my own crazy hypothesis. But everytime I watch the film I become increasingly convinced that Ilsa is not the dim, gormless bimbo that she appears to be. She walks away with everything she could hope for, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake and Rick on the hook for the murder of Major Strasser. James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler writing together could scarcely make a more fatal femme fatale. She’s a walking disaster–albeit, perhaps unconsciously, maybe a predecessor to Teela Brown–for any man who isn’t suiting her eventual goal.
And ralph124c is right: the plot of the film makes no sense. There’s all of this vying and fighting and dying over the “letters of transit” (which, despite the rationale that Ugarte claims them to be signed by General Weyland, still sounds every bit like “De Gaulle” to me) that clearly aren’t going to stop the Germans from detaining Victor Lazlo, regardless of who signed them or where they come from. It has some great quoteable lines and some memorable side characters, but it also has major problems when you start to think about it.
Now let me tell you about what would have happened had Indiana Jones not gone globetrotting for the Ark of the Covenant…
Stranger
Ok, first of all, all movies require that you suspend your disbelief. Real life isn’t interesting; that’s why we escape into movies. Does the plot make “sense?” No, it doesn’t. Name a plot that does, I dare you. Holes can be poked in any plot of any movie. Hell, holes can usually be poked into real life; we don’t always do what is “logical,” as various human captains of Enterprise are at pains to note to Vulcans regularly. 
I am assuming that Stranger is somewhat tongue in cheek about his interpretation, or, if you will, simply unwilling to fall into a romantic interpretation of the movie. Personally, I’d just call that cynical, and hope that he eventually finds some peace in life… 
The letters were just a plot device. According to the Wikipedia entry for Casablanca:
In terms of correct and actual history, the letters make no sense. But in the context of the film, and with the importance the characters attach to them, they make a lot of sense. I’d suggest that the average viewer immersed in the film won’t care about points like this as long as they are reasonable in the context (as in “I don’t really know the fine points of documentation required by Vichy French territories such as Morocco, but this seems reasonable so I’ll go along with it”), and they keep the plot moving. We suspend our disbelief all the time when watching movies; why not here?
Casablanca is, and forever will be, the only time that the Marseilles can be considered badass.
Fun fact: Most of the actors in that scene were exiles from Europe, having fled the Nazis. Those tears you saw while they were singing weren’t fake.
Not really all that tongue in cheek; by this, I mean that the filmmakers may have had a different intention, but the subtext of what comes out on the screen is that Ilsa is using the men of the film to suit her ultimate goal. The way she treats Rick–i.e that inexplicably uncommunicative letter at the train station, and her later transparent threat to shoot him in his office–argue that she has an implicit understanding of the psychology of the men in her life and uses that to her benefit. And given that the traditional subtextual interpretation of the film is as a metaphor for the European conflict in WWII, the duplicity (and cluelessness regarding the ultimate result on the part of Rick) fits like a glove. The cheery, tinny note that the film ends on (“Welcome back to the fight. This time, I know our side will win.”) speaks to wartime optimism on the part of the U.S. in comparison to the subsequent events with the fall of Eastern Europe.
It’s no more a romantic film that those movies featuring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks alternately stalking each other. Creepy.
No, the letters of transit don’t even make sense within the film. Strasser makes it clear that, letters or no, Victor Lazlo isn’t leaving Casablanca alive, unless it is to return to Germany. They’re a distraction from the fact that the only way that Victor and Ilsa are going to get out of Casablanca is with Rick’s intervention, and the coincidence that he happens to be holding them when Ugarte “committed suicide or died while escaping” is a convenient fiction; Rick is the only man who can or will get them out of Casablanca, and only by exploiting her feminine wiles will Ilsa persuade Rick to put himself out; he’s clearly not interested in the large sums of money that Lazlo offers him and is only looking for a way to redeem himself.
I’ll maintain that the only honest and intelligent character in the film is Captain Renault; a parasite, but not a cut-rate one, and a man who stands by his word. He’s the closest thing that Casablanca has to a genuine hero, and of course he’s an exploiter and extortionist, yet played as a comic character who reads the most amusing lines in the film. If I’m cynical, the film is downright misanthropical, making light of the manipulative way people treat one another when they can.
Stranger
Another fun fact: The guys walking around the plane near the end of the film are midgets.
Plant, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Bogart was the coolest. In movie after movie. He was just great. I love Casablanca, I am not as extreme as Stranger, but Ilsa was a manipulative & selfish. Where I disagree with Stranger, is as the movie progressed, there were at least 3 different endings planned. There was at least one were she went with Rick.
Jim
There’s a fan edit version of the film where she does wind up with Rick, and according to an expert on Casablanca, who’s seen the fan edit (complete with “Copyright infringement by ______ ______” in the credits :D), it’s impossible to tell how the guy did it, the cuts were so skillfully made!
If you truly don’t see the romanticism of the movie, I feel sorry for you. 
The character of Ilsa Lund is presented not once, but twice in the movie with the ultimate in romance nightmares: in love with one man, but feeling compelled to be loyal to the other man, the one she married, and whom she idolizes, though she does not truly love him. Her passion is for Rick, but she cannot see herself as able to abandon the man who loves her so deeply, and for whom she certainly has a considerable level of care. Faced with this conflict the first time, she cannot disappoint Rick to his face by telling him the truth, but she cannot abandon her husband. It’s always easier to avoid responsibility than it is to face it.
The second time around, she is willing to stay with Rick, abandoning her husband. She’s not thinking she’s going to get Rick to make it so she and Victor can be together; she simply decides she’s no longer going to fight her passionate love for Rick. It is Rick who ends up achieving the noble response, and not because of Ilsa’s manipulation at all. Had he done what Ilsa was angling for him to do, he’d have left Victor behind, and taken her to America, where, presumably, he would have indulged their passionate side at the expense of the marriage bond to Victor.
The thing that makes the movie so great is this exploration of the meaning of love, when in conflict with the meaning of loyalty. These days, we tend all too often to think that Love is of over-arching importance. Marriage is all about Love, and Love conquers all. But the reality is that there are times that Love isn’t enough. Too many people today get together because they love each other, and practical considerations get thrown aside in the process, often leading to bad results down the road. Here, Rick recognizes that Ilsa’s dilemma cannot be resolved unless he sacrifices his own wants for the greater good. That greater good isn’t just the world’s need for Victor Laszlo; it’s the right and proper continuance of the marriage between Victor and Ilsa. It doesn’t matter that Rick and Ilsa love each other. It’s a love that cannot be allowed free reign.
Is it preachy? Yes. Is it contrived? Yes. Is it wartime propaganda? Good God, yes. But is it romantic? Incredibly so, and so much so that I cannot help but weep and feel good at the same time, each and every time I watch it.
*Casablanca * is such a great film that one can overlook the oddities, from the letters of transit making no sense (just a MacGuffin) to Louie having been unable to “blunder into Berlin” with the Americans in 1918 since no Allied forces of any stripe entered Berlin. But it’s SO good that all of this can be forgiven, the sign of a truly great film.
Bogie was cool only from about that time. He was very uncool in the 1930s. See him in The Petrified Forest, *Angels with Dirty Faces * and *The Roaring Twenties * to see what I mean. But he’ll be forever remembered as Rick and Marlowe, and that’s as it should be.
Stranger, your ideas of the film are correct. That is how you see it. But you realize that this tells us more about you, than it does about the film.
Just a question, what film do you find to be the most romantic.
But of course. One interprets a story from one’s own standpoint, and the manipulative Ilsa is certainly not explicit in Casablanca. But it’s the interpretation that also is the most logical; follow the path of those letters of transit and they fall right into her hands, despite all other incentives to Rick. She walks away with everything she wants, and Rick has to scoot out of Casablanca having sold or given away everything of value, and yet things of himself in the most noble fashion. Mamet would follow it with a revealing scene (“Thank you, sir, can I have another?”) but the game is clear; Rick has been taken for a ride.
Hmmm…I think Roman Holiday is pretty romantic, and yet true, in its own bittersweet way. Before Sunrise is romantic, though the sequel demonstrates how that ideal falls apart when confronted with base reality. (Seriously, couldn’t those kids have exchanged phone numbers, or couldn’t Celine have sent a friend to meet Jesse, or something? They certainly ended up miserably, and I don’t think it’s going to go well for them much longer after the scene goes black.) I’d like to call Rear Window (the Stewart/Kelly version) romantic, though they clearly have their issues, including a strange voyeur/performance relationship.
Conventional romances, however, and especially so-called romantic comedies, are just mostly creepy if you put any thought into them whatsoever. They make no sense, and the behavior of the characters would be either off-putting or likely criminal to any rational person. (See the supposed classic screwball romance Bringing Up Baby as a prime example thereof.) Billy Wilder got it right with Sunset Blvd and The Apartment; the general principles of supposed romantic comedies are better suited to film noir and domestic tragedy than facile humor.
Stranger
Let’s see if I can post this before coffee…
Rick was a bitter guy who got his ‘revenge’ on the woman who left him by becoming a very successful nightclub owner. He had money, respect, and people left him alone. He comes to realise that there are bigger things going on in the world than his failed relationship with Ilsa. Rick wakes up to his ‘duty’ just like the U.S. was waking up to its role in the war that had been going on for two years before the U.S. was attacked. Renault doesn’t have to go off with Rick. He can easily let him go and return to his comfortable position, or else arrest Rick (with much regret) and continue with his life. But he sees Rick making his decision to ‘fight the good fight’ and makes his own sacrifices. Neither man had to ‘scoot out of Casablanca’, but they chose to do so to contribute to defeating the evil of Nazi Germany.
Two things that might be of interest to Casablanca fans:
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There is a DVD of Casablanca out that includes in addition to the movie the Looney Toons parody Carotblanca and the pilot for the TV series (which I understand never went into production)
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There’s a ski comedy movie from a few years ago called Out Cold, which was very heavily influenced by Casablanca, to the point where a number of lines and plot points were lifted directly from Casablanca. The movie is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.
Or the Barb Wire with Pamela Anderson as Rick.
Just chiming in to say that I had the same thought as Stranger on a Train about Ingrid when I last watched this movie. In fact I don’t entirely get why its not called a film noir. I guess it has to do with the lack of distorted camera use.
Not to mention the lack of rain. Isn’t it supposed to be raining all the time in film noir?
Really, overall, the movie hardly seemed all that dark, despite dealing with some rather serious issues. I’m watching Veronica Mars right now, a show that largely takes place during the daytime in sunny southern California, and that show is REALLY dark at times. It’s all in how you tell the story.
Of course they weren’t questioned. They were letters of transit. They couldn’t be rescinded…not even questioned.
Musing upon the scene between Rick and the Bulgarian hottie, and how the production code forced the dialog to be so oblique, with circuitous references to people who “do bad things, but kept them in their heart”. If it was filmed today, she would probably just say…“M. Rick, Captain Renault says he will help me if I blow him. Will he keep his word?”