The Difficulty of Neutrality
In love and in war, neutrality is difficult for Rick,
Ilsa, and Louis to maintain.Rick makes a point
of not being involved in politics. He refuses to discuss the war,
shuts up Carl's attempts to tell him about meetings of the underground,
and does everything in his power to present himself as nonpartisan.
Later on, though, just as the United States abandoned neutrality
in December 1941, Rick shifts from neutrality
to commitment. His sympathy for the Allies has always been evident
in small acts, such as his refusal to allow the Deutsche Bank employee
entry into the back room of his casino, but his partisanship grows
more overt as the film proceeds. Louis undergoes a similar transformation,
and by the end of the film, neutrality seems an untenable position.
Rick's Café, as well as Casablanca itself, is an oasis in the desert,
a paradise far removed from the troubles of the world. Yet the underground
and black market activities that take place at Rick's belie these
qualities. The battle of German and French anthems that erupts in
the bar shows that Rick's actually teems with political passion.
When Ilsa visits Rick in his apartment and confesses that
she still loves him, she does her best to be neutral in the undeclared
war between the two men who love her. For as long as she can, she
tries to deny the dilemma she faces. When she finally acknowledges
the dilemma and realizes she has to decide between Rick and Laszlo,
she leaves the choice in Rick's hands. No clean, painless resolution
is possible, and a choice must be made. In war as in love, Casablanca suggests,
neutrality is unsustainable.
The Inescapable Past
The first words of "As Time Go By" announce, "You must
remember this," and in Casablanca, Rick, Ilsa,
and Louis cannot escape the past and their memories. Even when characters
try to flee from the past, and many do, the past catches up with
them. On two occasions, Ilsa believes she has lost men in her life,
only to have them reappear at the most inconvenient times. In Casablanca,
Rick has created a lifestyle for himself that he believes will allow
him to forget his painful memories, but the war and the flock of
refugees hoping to escape to America remind him of an event or events
from his mysterious life that prevent his return home. Likewise,
Ilsa's arrival in Casablanca reminds Rick of their painful love
story, the memory of which he has been trying to erase. The only
character who suggests that the past can be escaped is Louis, who
seems able to switch alliances breezily. Yet even Louis eventually
acknowledges that his decisions have consequences. He recognizes
that he must flee Casablanca because there is no escaping the way
he helped Rick. He might want to ignore the past, but in this case
he cannot.
The Power of Lady Luck
Luck figures prominently in Casablanca,
especially in Rick's Café. One of the bar's most popular activities
is gambling, and one of Sam's most popular songs is "Knock on Wood."
Mr. and Mrs. Brandel, the young Bulgarian couple, demonstrate how
luck functions in the movie. "How is lady luck treating you?" Louis
asks Mrs. Brandel as Mr. Brandel gambles at the roulette table.
Mr. Brandel is trying to win enough money to buy two exit visas.
For Louis, luck is the force that brings a beautiful woman like
Mrs. Brandel to him and allows him to try to take advantage of her
desperate situation. For him, luck is a lady, a sexualized concept
that implies both seduction and powerlessness. Rick has a different
view of luck, and he intervenes to help the unlucky Brandels, rigging
the roulette game so the couple hits the jackpot twice, "miraculously"
gaining the amount they need. When Mrs. Brandel approaches Rick
to thank him for his generous deed, he dismisses her thanks by saying
her husband is "just a lucky guy." This line has a double meaning.
The literal meaning is that Brandel is just a lucky guy at the roulette
table, which obviously isn't true. The metaphorical, and true, meaning
is that he is lucky to have such a courageous, loving wife.
Particular people in Casablanca can bring
both good and bad luck to each other. When Ilsa and Sam first speak,
Sam tells Ilsa she should stay away from Rick because she's "bad
luck" to him. But this statement isn't entirely true. Ilsa broke
Rick's heart so tremendously that over a year later he still hasn't
recovered, but, in this case, heartbreak has nothing to do with
luck. "Luck" is simply a word used to cover up a more painful truth.
Luck in Casablanca is also not entirely free of
human influence. Ugarte is arrested while gambling, which suggests
that he is unlucky to have been caught. The truth is that his own
actions of murdering and stealing, rather than bad fortune, are
the cause of his arrest.
