Political Allegory
Casablanca is an exploration of the universal
themes of love and sacrifice, but when the film was released in 1942,
audiences viewed it as a political allegory about World War II.
The film is set in December 1941, the month
in which the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. That attack changed
the course of American history, awakening the nation from political
neutrality and thrusting it into the midst of World War II. Casablanca tells
the story of a similar, though much smaller, awakening. At the beginning
of the film, Rick is a cynical bar owner in the Moroccan city of
Casablanca who drinks only by himself and doesn't care about politics.
By the end of the film, he has become a self-sacrificing idealist,
committed to the anti-Nazi war effort. The event that prompts this
change in Rick is the appearance of Ilsa, his old flame, in Casablanca.
Ilsa's arrival is unexpected and devastating, and it hits Rick just
as hard as the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor hit America.
Once Rick overcomes the initial pain, his moral sense is reignited.
He doesn't get to live happily ever after with Ilsa, but he accepts
the necessity of his sacrifice and the heartbreak that accompanies
it. If Ilsa hadn't reappeared in his life, Rick would still be stuck
in a life of bitterness in Casablanca. Instead, he is reawakened
to the world and to himself.
The film also tells the story of another transformation,
that of the local French commander of Casablanca, Captain Louis
Renault. Louis begins the film as a pro-Vichy Nazi-appeaser but
winds up a committed partisan of free France. American Rick and
European Louis look out for each other's interests throughout the
film, but only at the end does their relationship become anything
more than the self-serving alliance of two cynics. "Louis, I think
this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Rick says in the
film's last line, thereby cementing not only their friendship, but
also the maturing anti-Nazi coalition their friendship symbolizes.
In the film's political allegory, Rick and Louis's relationship
suggests the U.S.'s relationship to its allies in World War II.
While Rick and Louis find their political identity only
at the end of the film, a number of other characters know where
they stand from the beginning. In large part, this certainty has
to do with their nationality. Victor Laszlo, the famous anti-Nazi
writer, is Czech, and since Nazi Germany's first expansionist move
was against Czechoslovakia, the Czechs knew of Nazi evil before
anyone else. Similarly, all of the characters who support Casablanca's
anti-Nazi underground are from nations that resisted German rule.
They include the Norwegians Berger and Ilsa and the Russian bartender Sacha.
On the other hand, many of the film's unseemly characters, such
as the criminal Ugarte, the black market schemer Signor Ferrari,
and the bumbling officer Tonelli, are Italian, and Italy was an ally
of Germany during the war. While the Italians may not be worthy
of admiration, none are as cruel and ruthless as Major Strasser, the
film's archetypal Nazi villain.
