SJCA Announces a Panel Discussion of the Classic WWII Film Casablanca, Tuesday, January 6 at 7 pm on Zoom

Saratoga Jewish Community Arts, with a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and the sponsorship of Temple Sinai of Saratoga Springs, is pleased to present a panel discussion of the critically acclaimed film Casablanca, on Zoom, Tuesday, January 6 at 7 pm.

A 1940s classic that would come to be hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, Casablanca featured what in retrospect would be viewed as an all-star cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. 

While Casablanca has no battle scenes and a small body count, it remains one of the most powerful war films of all time – driven by the values needed to confront totalitarianism. Its impact is deepened by a supporting cast of real-life European refugees who didn’t have to act to show their hatred of the Nazis.

Based on an unproduced play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s, by Murray Burnett and Joan Allison, the rights were acquired by Hal B. Wallis for $20,000, a record at the time. The writers, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch were still scribbling last-minute dialogue on set, just a few lines ahead of the actors. Memorable lines such as, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” were improvised.

The film is set in the early days of World War II in Casablanca, a city in French Morocco. It is portrayed as a place of transit, filled with refugees desperate to escape the Nazi regime. At the heart of the story is Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who owns a popular nightclub, Rick’s Café American. He is depicted as cynical and nonpolitical, but his past harbors a deep hurt from a failed romance in Paris with Ilsa Lund. 

Ilsa re-enters Rick’s life when she arrives in Casablanca with her husband, Victor Laszlo, a Czech resistance leader. They seek hard-to-get transit papers to escape to America, a quest that leads them to Rick’s Café, the center of various intrigues. The climax occurs when Rick must decide whether to use the letters of transit he has obtained to escape with Ilsa, or to help her and Victor escape, thus aiding the resistance against the Nazis.

“Casablanca,” says Phyllis Wang, Coordinator of SJCA, “explores themes like love, sacrifice, and moral ambiguity in a time of war. It combines personal drama with broader political issues, making it a compelling narrative.”

Made with a wartime audience in mind, it’s impossible not to relate Casablanca’s messaging to the world we live in today. Authoritarianism is on the rise, and war again threatens to embroil Europe as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its fourth year. While the final message of Casablanca is hopeful that America’s involvement will turn the tide against Nazi Germany, this, of course, was far from assured when the film was released in November 1942.

Even without knowing the outcome, Casablanca ends on a promising note. Rick makes a noble sacrifice, one that denies him true love, as the Lazslos escape while he and others resolve to take up the fight against the Nazis. It’s a message that has withstood the test of time and is as pertinent today as it was when first released.