Casablanca was not one of my favorite movies, but there were some things that I did like throughout it.  What I liked about it was how it allowed sound, sight, and motion to work together to do what pictures and paintings could not.  Another thing I liked about it was how I thought it portrayed the message directly without having to use symbols and printed words.  One thing that I found interesting was how the movie did not follow the ordinary Hollywood movie cut out and mixed up the ending.  Normally, with Hollywood movies the characters are all happy and everything is resolved; but not in Casablanca, at the end either Rick or Victor Laszlo would have to let Ilsa go and get over their love for her.  I thought that this made the movie a little more interesting to watch because it left me wondering what was going to happen next.  One thing I did not expect to happen was Rick letting Ilsa go with Laszlo, even though he was over her I did not think that his pride would ever let her go.  Although I didn't like it, the movie is remembered as one of the best from that time and seemed to be a success.

As far as acting goes I though it was pretty good, the actors were believable and I think that, especially for that time, they were the best that were around.  Everyone seemed to be in the moment during every scene and they seemed like people that others could relate to with how they react to certain situations.  Each of the main three actors had something that they had to bring to the movie to make it successful and I believe that they accomplished that.  Without them the movie may not have been what it is today.  On top of the actors doing a good job, the lighting during the movie was pretty good, it was good enough to see everything that happened.  I liked how they used the spotlights throughout the movie so that we could see who was doing everything.  The fact that it was in black and white made it hard to see the different things going on during the movie but the lighting partially made up for that downfall.  

The movie was made in an interesting time, it was filmed during World War II which made the topic or war and Nazis a little more touchy to make a movie about.  There are some things that are shown in the movie that remind people about what is really going on around them.  The spotlight that was being shone from the tall tower shining on the city shows the people that they are always being watched and the things that they do are being noticed; especially during a time of war when things are more sensitive.  I think that it was a good showing of how things were in different places and I think that the way the movie portrayed the Nazis was interesting.  It showed them to be demanding, controlling, and unforgiving and I liked that they took that angle on it.  

Zach Schuchard