Cascioppo - Casablanca

Through political expediency, Casablanca influences the audience to sympathize with the pro-war faction of pre-involvement America. The filmmakers establish a tone of light versus dark, where Rick is often cast in both hues in a way of suggesting his personal confusion over whether to abandon his neutral stance and take a side in a conflict that has begun to personally affect his life. Furthermore the filmmakers want the audience to see themselves in Rick. They effectively express the idea that sacrifice for the greater good is sometimes in order. In the film this sacrifice is expressed through Rick losing Ilsa, in America at the time the reality was that if someone you loved went to war you could very likely lose them.
The scene displayed offers a good representation of the overarching good v. evil theme of Casablanca. Rick, on the far right, is being spoken to by Renault, a police-man who, at this point in the film, has shown support for Nazi Germany. Renault is in all black - a henchmen for the Evil Empire. Behind Renault on the far left stand Victor and Ilsa who are costumed in lighter colors and also stand in front of a lamp which gives off an air of white, of hope, of good, of resisting the darkness of Naziism.
Rick transforms through the film from neutral to pro-Allies. The studio transforms the mass-audience. By beating the war drum in order to make a profit, Warner Bros. manages to influence an international conflict.
-"In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."- FDR