“Casablanca”
Casablanca is one of the greatest Hollywood movies of all time because of many things. The characters were not the typical hero and villain because the characters were able to redeem themselves in the end; the plot captures the complexity of human relations; and the ending was realistic enabling people to identify with the characters and the situations.
One key character in the movie is Rick, an American that fled the German invasion of Paris and settled in Casablanca. He is also the owner of the largest bar and restaurant in the area, where most of the scenes happened. As a person who despises the transit dealer Peter Lorre, who held transit papers that allows passage to two people to go to America, Rick was interestingly entrusted by Lorre with the papers. However, since Lorre was arrested and later on executed, Rick became an important man for people desperate to have the transit papers in order to save their lives, especially those who are members or related to members of the underground anti-Nazi movement. With a number of women offering sexual favors to Rick for the transit papers, he then faced the dilemma of who to give the transit papers. Although, he chose to give the papers to Ilsa, a woman that enamored him, he also helped another woman and her husband wind in the roulette in the casino that he owned to help them pay for transit papers.
However, a greater dilemma involved the decision of Rick on the issue that he loved Ilsa but he also knows that Ilsa’s husband, who she thought died, was actually alive. With the knowledge that her husband is alive, Ilsa also faced the dilemma of choosing with whom to travel to America since there were only two transit papers. It becomes apparent in the film that she loves her husband and it was in behalf of her husband that she sought the transit papers but she also fell in love with Rick especially with her knowledge that her husband may have died. On the part of Rick, he knows that Ilsa’s husband is alive and she still loves him but that he also loves Ilsa. For him, the dilemma is whether to choose personal gain and convince Ilsa to choose him or to sacrifice his personal wants and let go of Ilsa.
Rick is a noble character in the movie because he loved Ilsa too much that he couldn’t take her being trapped in the dilemma of choosing between the two men she loves. Rick decided on her behalf by urging her to go with her husband and create a new life in America. Rick resolved the ethical dilemma by sacrificing his personal wants and allowing the couple to live peacefully in America. In this sense, there was a semblance of consistency in Rick’s character of being a person of honor with the propensity of siding with the option that fits the greater good. Rick’s resolution of his personal dilemma and the dilemma of the woman she loves expresses his honorable character.
The film ends with Rick and Ilsa separating. The ending represents the ethical principle of choosing the greater good that is a core principle of a democratic state and a society of conscience. On the greater scale, the Nazi invasion represented the suppression of democracy that limited the freedoms of many people while the existence of the resistance meant there were still people who care for democracy as the system that best support the achievement of the greater good. Although the film only captured a segment of history, we know that in the end democracy won with the defeat of the Nazi invasion. On the smaller scale, Ricks option to convince Ilsa to come with him constituted personal interest that is not in line with the greater good since Rick’s pursuance of the affair would sacrifice the life or freedom of Ilsa’s husband who a writer of the resistance while his option to let go of Ilsa constituted his sacrifice of personal interest for the greater good. Achieving the greater good entails a degree of sacrifice of personal interest.
In the end, Rick chose the right thing. What is right is relative and often times in conflict with personal interest. However, in life people need to sacrifice and give up some personal interest in order to ensure that other people—including loved ones—or more people benefit. In the end, those who make the necessary sacrifice end up benefiting through feelings of contentment for doing something good or by achieving peace and order in the community.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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