Casablanca

As I have been a Hugh Hefner fan in my adult life, I have always wanted to watch one of his personal favorite movies which is Casablanca. Although I am skeptical always of watching classical films, I found the plot of this movie to be very interesting. I found that this movie wasn’t about a love story or an action move but a movie with both aspects better classified as one man redemption.

Like most people who see Casablanca for the first time, I was memorized by it and the dialogue was amazing. I believed that the plot of the movie is what kept my attention. First, I had a hard time following the fast dialect between characters. I also didn’t find that the transitions between different scenes were effective on me because they went from one scene to the next and next. This at first was hard for me to follow what the plot was about however in turn it made to pay more attention and I noticed the “small” things within the movie that helped me understand the movie better.

Some of my favorite dialoue are Claude Rains believing Bogie left America for killing someone because Rains is a romantic, and Bogie telling Veidt that there are some neighborhoods in New York City the Nazis shouldn’t try to invade. I like the dialogue but due to the fact that I normally don’t watch classical films, it took more attention on my part to watch and understand this movie.

One thing that I shouldn’t have done prior to watching this movie was to have a negative outlook on the movie due to me not watching classical films or taken the time to watch and understand them. This movie outright was very well written and the plot was very good. I really liked during the movie at the train station. This part of the movie showed that Rick had respected his Ilsa enough to give her over the paperwork so that Victor could get out of Casablanca.

One time that I didn’t like within the movie was the “cheesy” bar scenes. I lost interest in the movie when they moved from the bar, outside, and back in. I found that throughout the movie, that I liked concepts about the movie but again I had a hard time following exactly what was going on during a large portion of the movie. During the beginning of the movie, if I hadn’t read about Casablanca prior to watching it, I would have never known what it was about. I could tell that Rick was having issues with Ilsa but I didn’t understand what about, as he sent her home.

While I watching the movie, the theme was hard for me to identify. However I found the theme to be that no matter what life throws at you there is always someone who is worse off that you. You have to put your problems into prospective and get your priorities straight. You can't live in a bubble and let the world sail on past you without getting involved. Life requires some commitment and some sacrifice.

Lastly, I had questions during the film and why the director did what they did. First, why did Ilsa jilt Rick in Paris when she was in love with him? Second, what are the main messages of the movie? These are two common questions when watching the movie but they are some I had when watching Casablanca.

On The Waterfront

The movie “On the Waterfront” was a movie in which I wasn’t interested in during the beginning. As being from a younger generation, this is the first chance for me to watch a classical film. I was first skeptical and negative about having to watch this movie but in the end I enjoyed this classical film and it kept my attention throughout. As I had a negative thought prior to watching the film, this was a challenge of film analysis for me as I was at first unwilling to give this movie my continuous high level of attention.

During the beginning of the film, after Joey was killed, I was immediately in tuned to this movie which was the turning point for me to continue watching. I overcame my personal biased of what I thought classical film were to be, boring. This wasn’t true and I enjoyed the movie and the plot of the movie. 

While I was watching the movie, I tried to focus on what the plot was and the theme. During the movie, I enjoyed that they went back to their religion and that they had Father Berry set up a meeting with the thugs and try to get them to talk about the murders. I find this ironic that these days nothing like that would happen. I also find that the characters in movie had complex human relationships. What I mean about this is that during the movie the director focus on Terry and him falling in love with Edie. Also I think that the turning point of Terry to go against Jonny was when Charley was killed. These relationships had a huge factor in Terry going against Jonny.

I liked this movie because it showed courage on Terry’s part to break up the longshoreman’s union. I also believe that this movie’s plot was on nature of power. During the beginning of the movie, Johnny was infatuated with power that he didn’t even care about money. But during the movie when he orders his killings, even his top aides such as Charley start to question his authority and why he does it.

After I was done watching the movie, I still had some questions about some aspects in the movie. When Terry tells Edie about his involvement in Joey’s death, I find it ironic that the director didn’t allow us to hear the conversion. Also I think about the fact that if Charley wasn’t killed, I wonder if Terry would have testified against Jonny. Overall this was a great and interesting movie.