My view of *Casablanca* (with spoilers, however you’ve seen it already?)

“ I rewatched Casablanca recently on a big display screen, and concluded that Rick was wanting Ilsa to endure as a lot as attainable.”

Please clarify

When Rick gained’t give Laszlo the letters of transit, and Laszlo asks him why, Rick says “I recommend your ask your spouse.”  In essence he’s forcing Laszlo to pressure Ilsa to admit to their earlier Paris affair in as humiliating a manner as attainable.  Ilsa has to inform not solely of the affair, however that she promised Rick everlasting fealty, and handled Rick so badly that he now can be so vindictive.

When Ilsa visits Rick in his room that one evening towards the tip of the film, he “takes” her once more, and will get her to fall in love with him once more, or so it appears.  However is Ilsa solely performing, and taking part in to Rick’s self-importance to get the letters of transit?  You possibly can debate that time, however both manner Rick appears comfortable sufficient to sleep along with her on that foundation.  That’s one in every of his methods of humiliating her once more, and it permits him to be psychologically free sufficient to let her go within the film’s last scene.

[Interjection: I view her recurring attachment to Rick as real, and her love for Laszlo as somewhat daughterly, and that she is self-deceiving throughout with both men.  That said, what she most loves about Rick is that she can partake in the relationship without having to be known, without having to be anybody at all.  She and Rick, as a couple in ordinary life running errands at the Five and Dime in Cleveland, probably would not do so well.  Ilsa is a woman who never has found herself and is somehow always in transition, always on the run.  It is no surprise she attaches to two men with broadly similar tendencies.]

On the film’s finish, Rick provides Ilsa again and insists she go away Casablanca with Laszlo.  What a hell their marriage goes to be.  Caught in America, the place neither has a lot to do, although he lives for his work.  Laszlo now is aware of she beloved Rick extra, is aware of she simply fell for Rick once more and slept with him the evening earlier than (girls keen to prostitute themselves is a recurring theme within the movie), and is aware of she has been mendacity to him in numerous methods all through their relationship.  Ilsa is aware of these items too, and now is aware of that Laszlo is aware of. However what actually is Laszlo’s selection or Ilsa’s selection apart from to proceed?  They find yourself taking part in the roles of puppets in Rick’s little deliberate charade.

Rick will get to get lost with Louis (“that is the start of a lovely friendship”), into the Free French garrisons within the desert, going through struggles but in addition having fun with a real freedom, together with a freedom from Ilsa as a result of he humiliated and punished her a lot, and since that punishment might be so enduring.  He had been ready round in Casablanca to punish her, and now he actually can’t punish her any extra.  Life can go on.

In case you recall the scene the place Rick helps the younger husband win on the roulette desk, so his spouse doesn’t should prostitute herself to get exit visas, we all know that the extra sentimental facet of Rick regards such prostitution as an final humiliation, not as a mere transaction to be digested in Benthamite style after which forgotten.

A extra Benthamite Rick may need been a happier and better-adjusted man.