by Ted Sherman

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: August 12, 2008

"Here's looking at you, kid." The words seem casual and flippant, but in "Casablanca", we know Rick is valiantly sacrificing his love for Ilsa, and those words are his final farewell to her. He gives her up because he realizes she belongs to another man, a war hero who needs her in his fight against evil. For any critic naming the top ten films of all time, "Casablanca" is always high up on the list. Memorable quotes from the movie are still part of the American language of legend. There are many factors contributing to its popularity, and perhaps the most important one is its sense of noble sacrifice of the cafe owner for his ex-love.

The two main characters in the 1942 classic, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) were lovers in Paris before World War II. Several years later, after they broke up, Ilsa and her husband come into a Casablanca cafe owned by Rick ("Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"). Both try to resist the love they still feel, but can't help rekindling their passion for each other. The sacrifices of the story are clearly defined at the final scenes of the film. Ilsa, loyal to her hero husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) must abandon her yearning she still feels for Rick and leave him again, this time forever.

Rick, who could keep Ilsa by exposing French patriot Victor to the German Army occupiers, decides to sacrifice his enduring love and let her go with a sentimental speech ("We'll always have Paris"). Then, as the film ends, Rick and his corrupt friend, police Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), decide to actually put their lives on the line for what could become the ultimate sacrifice. They leave Casablanca together to enlist in the Free French Army ("Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship").

Maybe the most oft-quoted line in the film is when Ilsa, just after entering Rick's gin joint, asks old friend, piano player Sam (Dooley Wilson) to "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" That was the exact line in the movie, but through the years, the words have been misquoted to "Play it again, Sam". That incorrect phrase became the title of a 1972 Woodie Allen movie, where an actor playing the ghost of Humphrey Bogart instructs the nerdy Allen on how to woo women.

To me, the most heartfelt expression of self-sacrifice happens the moment before Ilsa and her husband board a plane to escape from Casablanca. With his cynical face softening, Rick tries to comfort her, "Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." This all-time classic film certainly does "amount to a hill of beans", and will continue to do so for generations.

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