-Casablanca - A Lesson In Storytelling.

Over 75 years following its release, Casablanca remains one of the greatest love stories, mysteries, and thrillers ever put to film. The story flows perfectly from scene to scene, it's full of great characters who each have their own unique development over the course of the film. And what Casablanca did better than maybe any other film up to this point is lead the audience down a path of deception and ambiguity, and the result? One of the greatest and most memorable endings in cinematic history. But that isn't what the film leads us to believe will happen, just minutes before we see the final scene, we expect Rick to betray Laszlo, set him up to be arrested with the and live the rest of his life with Ilsa and Casablanca, trying to both hide from the past and also relive it. Of course, that doesn't end up happening just as we as the audience hoped it didn't, but the scene certainly leads us to believe that it will, and this twist is made possible because of a number of important storytelling devices and today I'd like to examine a few of them. So this begins with story structure, the end of Act 3 is the result of the beginning of Act 1. Very early on we were told of the transit papers, at the same time we learn that Rick simply doesn't care about Laszlo or his attempt to fight fascism and wants it as little to do with the situation as possible. There'll be more on this later, but he is ultimately inspired to take an interest in the situation once he finds out that Ilsa, his former lover, is involved. This is the first act and very little action happens, a lot of decisions are made and development happens with the story, but the action happens outside of the main storyline. There are a number of side plots which are able to keep the momentum of the story going, there's never a dull moment, instead the story fills enough time so that when we enter the second act we already know all of our characters, their backstories, and what drives them. The bulk of the second act focuses primarily on Ilsa and Laszlo trying to avoid going to Rick for transit papers out of fear of problems arising because of him and ultimately them turning to him and the problems that arise because of him. When Ilsa confronts him she begins by trying to use force, after this is proven to be unsuccessful she instead responds with love. Here the story uses our expectations to make us believe something else will happen, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were two of Hollywood's biggest stars, obviously the success of Casablanca made their stardom even bigger, but the very nature of putting these two actors in a film like this gives audience members the perception that this film is a love story first, however by the end Casablanca proves to be more of a film noir. Obviously that isn't known in the end of the second act and when the audience goes to watch the third act the assumption is that they begin a romantic relationship, this goes sour and Rick strikes a deal to frame Laszlo, it appears that he is willing to actively sabotage the anti-fascist movement so that he can be with Ilsa, in the end he sacrifices his relationship with her so that she can be safe and continue on with Laszlo. This is the accumulation of his development which began with those aforementioned side plots, early on he is apathetic towards everything, or at least that's what he says, there will be more on this later but the film makes a clear distinction between facts and what is said, they don't always align so when Rick says something like this, it may be the perception that he wants others to have of him but it really isn't true, he is a good person who is willing to stick his neck out for others. Well before Rick chooses to help Ilsa and Laszlo, he helps the young Bulgarian couple without looking too far into this, I think it could be safe to assume that this couple acts as a foreshadowing of Rick eventually going on to help Ilsa and Laszlo, he also sticks up to Sam, refusing to allow someone to buy him, very likely an allusion to the social rights issues that were beginning to become more and more prevalent in the United States when this film's production began. Perhaps the biggest example of Rick sticking his neck out for someone else is his decision to continue to pay all of his employees knowing full well that the end result could bankrupt him. This cold and desolate character that Rick wants people to think he is, isn't an accurate portrayal of himself, at least not really, he's clearly heartbroken over his loss of Ilsa, he wants her back, he still cared for her, the feelings for which he had for her were real and he still has feelings over her, and over the course of the film he doesn't change so much as finds closure in what he already had, the reason that he was living a life that he was trying to make himself unhappy was because he needed to see the greater good, he sees how much Laszlo is willing to give up, he knows how important the fight against fascism is and he tries his hardest to not just be an observer but to rekindle his former fight and to do his best to support those who really need it. He's able to see beyond himself in his heartbreak, re-evaluate the situation and in the end begins to act the right way. This is true and realistic character development, he is the same person at the beginning of the story as at the end, he just has a new way of looking at life, a past event that heavily impacted him, losing Ilsa, was resolved after prioritizing what he needs to focus on. The second time that he loses Ilsa at the end, he chooses for it to happen, knowing that it's the best for everyone. The final element that I want to discuss is how both the story structure and character development work together. Up until the end we don't know what Rick is going to do, we think that he is going to be the same person, he resists change and living the life that doesn't make him happy, the twist is that his character who is so steadfast in his ways chooses something different, the decision and the impact that has on the story means very little, it's the accumulation, it's not going to change anything going forward because there is nothing going forward after this scene, but what is so significant about this is the change in Rick, this is what we want from the film, the story means so much less than the character, Rick who is all that we have been following the entire time and in the end he finds what he had been looking for. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed, I couldn't find an actual statistic on this, but I bet that Casablanca is the most taught film in film school just because of how of an effective story it is, I often forget a lot of the intricacies of the plot in between watches, so it's always great to get sucked back into the twists and turns and just appreciate how great of a story it is. If you haven't seen Casablanca, please watch it, I can guarantee that you're going to learn something from it about storytelling. Another way to learn more about storytelling is to watch my video on First Man, there's a link on screen right next to the link to my Patreon which is what makes these videos possible, so check those out if you're interested and I will see you next time. Thanks for watching.