In case anyone here doesn’t know this, the character of Red (played by Morgan Freeman) isn’t black in the Stephen King novella on which The Shawshank Redemption is based. He’s described there as a white Irishman. Dufresne has been interpreted as being a Christ-like figure by other people. Also, I find it interesting that most of the film was shot in various places in Ohio, not in Maine where the film and the novella are mostly set.
Well, you’re welcome to believe whatever you want. But the script of Casablanca, despite its legendarily complex origins, manages to be pretty clear and straightforward in telling its various intersecting narratives without getting the audience lost. Considering that Renault complains to Rick about ruining “his little romance” immediately after the roulette table win, it’s very difficult to believe that he’s referring to some other intended conquest. In fact, he immediately tells Rick that he had something lined up with a Beautiful Blonde that he hopes he won’t interfere with.
Besides, who else might have been rescued from Renault by the husband’s win?
Aren’t you contracting yourself?
It has to be her that was the next one.
and
He already has someone else lined up.
It’s clear that Renault is giving visas for sexual favors, but it’s also clear that he does this often. Unless the woman is shown after Lazlo visits Renault (and I don’t recall; she may be), there’s no reason to believe it has to be her. It could just as easily be the blonde he mentions.
Yeah, I’d say agree with you there.
Or, put differently — that criticism would be more true if the situation was reversed. If Morgan Freeman had been the one who doesn’t matter except to flit in as a fairy and sprinkle a little good ol’ timey magic upon Andy that’d be playing to the stereotype. But Morgan Freeman’s Red is certainly not a “yessuh boss I sho do have a little sunshine in this ol’ bag for ya” type.
I never contract myself. You can get hurt that way.
But I’m not contradicting myself, either. Renault was planning on having the wife very soon. He was also planning on having the blonde pretty soon. Renault is setting up a lot of sexual conquests, and nothing said that either of them was going to be the next one, or at the same time. Where’s the contradiction?
And, again, why would Renault be complaining to Rick about his messing up his system unless he had, indeed, planned on “seducing” the wife, and the husband’s win cancelled that? That roulette win didn’t destroy his plans with the blonde, or any other potential conquest.
And props to King for giving him the slightly less obvious initials AD, where people usually just give their Christ-allegory character the initials JC.
DuFresne is french for “of the ash tree”. The ash has a long history in symbolism as the “tree of life” and as a symbol of rebirth.
I saw today online that Grima Wormtonuge actually got a quick look at Aragorn’s ring in the Two Towers movie.
He later describes him to Sauruman as(paraphrasing), “…a ranger, one of the Dunedain, though he had a strange ring with two snakes…”
If you see the moment where he is exiled, Aragorn reaches out to him and he sees his ring for a moment. It’s a neat, quick moment.
I’ve only seen the movie once, and it’s been a while, but I thought it was pretty clear. We see the couple in the streets wanting to leave. We see them at Renault’s office. We see them go to Rick’s. Then Renault complains and mentions the blonde he’s working on. Who turns out to be Ilsa.
This is probably something that was obvious to people who were alive when it came out, but as someone born in 1980 I was always confused by the tree lot in A Charlie Brown Christmas. What was with all the metal trees? I’d never seen a metal Christmas tree before. I’d seen artificial trees, of course, but those were all plastic and green and resembled real trees. I just recently learned that shiny aluminum Christmas trees were an actual fad in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Charlie Brown special makes a lot more sense now.
They’re not going to wait for erosion to clear their harbor, and an expanding town always needs new building materials. The roads around Jaffa were paved for centuries with pulverized kraken.
I’m old enough to remember those.
For the full effect, you needed the aluminum tree with no lights on it, but there would be a lamp on the floor that had a slowly rotating disk with four different glass color filters (one color in each quadrant of the circle), so that the color reflected by the zillion ‘needles’ of the aluminum tree changed from time to time. And a model train running around the base of the tree*.
My aunt and uncle had this set-up in their house and put it up every Christmas. It’s cute and interesting once. Once.
*A further abomination was the PINK aluminum tree, about which I will say no more.
People always amaze me with their ingenuity.
One of the features that shows up in modern depictions of the story of Medusa is that she’s surrounded by a “garden” of people she has petrified. This is the logical outcome of being a monster that turns people into stone (and having a lot of people try to get rid of you). It’s in the 1963 Italian film Perseo L’Invicible (first released in the US as Son of Hercules Against Medusa), the 1981 Harryhausen Clash of the Titans, the 2010 remake, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief (also 2010). But there’s noting at all like it in any Greek or Roman telling or depiction of the story of Perseus and Medusa. Maybe the Gorgons used the statues to build and repair walls, too.
Remember them? My sister may still have one in storage. She commandeered it when she moved off from home for her first christmas tree. Not like we’d been using it, so it was available.
I have no idea what happened to my aunt and uncle’s tree after they died. If it wasn’t thrown out it probably went to my cousin. She has since passed away, so it’s possible one of her kids has it now, although it’s had a couple of chances of being junked.
a few years ago the fad was, for no good reason, revived for its retro value, so if you REALLY want them, you can get the tree and the color wheel
You can even – Og save us – get a pink christmas tree again
No, the blonde is definitely not Ilsa. The blonde is likely the promiscuous Yvonne, the one who rediscovers her patriotism during the singing of the Marseillaise.
The wife of the young guy who wins at roulette after Rick gives the high sign to the croupier, was going to be Renault’s next conquest-- sex in return for the visas. That’s why Renault chides Rick for interfering in his “little romances.”
This is my favorite movie, and I’ve seen it about 40 times.
Which, of course, is what was in my house during my formative years. I’d give anything to have it now~being as I have cats and traditional green trees are impossible. I got tired of setting them back up and putting ornaments and lights back on after they pulled it over the instant my back was turned…
De gustibus non disputandem est, of course, and I know how sentimental we can get about touchstones from our youth. If you want to get one, as I point out, they’re definitely available, both new and used vintage ones. Pick one up to frustrate your cats and to revel in the gentle familiar vibes of your childhood while I shudder over here in the corner.
Thanks for your kind response.
Funny you should suggest finding one-I was over on Amazon as you typed, looking for a small tabletop one :giggle, smirk: