Re: On defence of Casablanca

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

On Thu, 24 Apr 1997, Thanh Dang Nguyen wrote:

> > There is a great Woody Allen film called "Play it again, Sam", which
> > parodizes much of Casablanca ideas.
> 
> You get it all wrong, my friend! Allen's movie did *not* parodize the
> movie itself, but simply used its setting and historical background
> to parodize the man himself. It makes fun of a funny little man
> (just like us indeed) when he is struggling all of his life with
> such an idol of men like the character played by Bogart in "Casablanca",
> with such romantic and dramatic love affair as portrayed in the movie.

Hmmm..not quite sure I understand what you are saying. The word "parodize" 
simply means "humorously mimic the style/work of something/someone", so
all I said was that Allen humorously mimiced many Casablanca scenes in his
film, and this is true (for example, check out the last scene when Allen
said good-bye to his friend and the friend's wife). 

Never meant to say the film parodized "Casablanca". Don't agree with the
claim the film parodized the man himself.

> But "Casablanca" is a masterpiece, no matter people believe it or not.
> Don't look over a movie simply because it has a simple, maybe banal story.
> I think the love triangle in "Casablanca" is more realistic than any
> recent Hollywood plot!

"Casablanca" was a simplistic film. It became famous and popular due to a
variety of factors, including the historical circumstances (WW II when the
film was made), the catchy title, the romantic Paris and Africa settings,
the fine actors and actresses, the punchy lines, beautiful songs, among
other things.

"As time goes by", the film became kind of a cult. It is difficult to
analyze and attack a cult.

Human cannot live without ideals and paragons. Had "Casablanca" not
existed, we would have simply just made another film become the paragon of
romance and gallantry.

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