The most important scene in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca is the scene when Rick (Humphrey Bogart) pulls the gun on the Vichy General Renault (Claude Rains). We see Rick defiant to the general and the Nazi regime for the first time in the film. Rick risks his life to help fight for the cause by allowing his love Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) to escape Casablanca with her husband Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) for the United States.
Up to this point in the film, Rick came off as a very neutral character who seemed to care about no one except himself. It is in this scene that the audience realizes Rick does have a soul. He comes out as the American hero who defeats the Nazi cause. At the time of this film, that is exactly what Warner Brothers wanted to depict.
Warner Brothers was not afraid of producing politically motivated films, and liked the pro-American, anti-Nazi theme to this one. The script was sent to the studio less than a month after the events at Pearl Harbor, and it was released just a year later in the heart of the United States' war with the Japanese and Nazis.
Casablanca was very much a propaganda film, but comes across much more elegant than your typical propaganda film at that time. Michael Curtiz was very discrete with his message of favoring the United State's role in the war because it was the right thing to do. People must always help out their fellow brothers and sisters when they are in need is the main idea (Director) gets across in Casablanca.
Renault is a Colonel. There isn't much analysis of mise en scene in this blog. You need to do that to support your point. In fact you are saying that the political expediency factor is not in play in this film. I agree, but you need to do the mise en scene analysis to support your point. NO LABEL.
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