*Casablanca* First Time Watching Movie Reaction

Thank you all so much for watching! There is so much to this movie and it was even better on the 2nd watch! I picked up soo much more! If you wanna check out patreon! we watch a lot of movies on the Blockbuster Buddy Tier! We are doing a movie-palooza month right now! Polls back up in May! patreon.com/HoldDownA

Casablanca hurts my heart and makes me long for the days when scripts were written by adults for adults.

I feel sorry for people that use Black & White as a lame excuse to miss movies like this. Because it is so beautifully shot. And the dialogue is top tier. It was the perfect movie, and it was never expected to be the hit that it was.

When you hear people complain about the lack of quality in modern movies, this movie is one of the yardsticks modern films have to stand against.

Rick :" I came here for the waters" . Louis: "What waters ? This is a desert." Rick: "I was misinformed." I think, in a very understated way, this is one of the funniest exchanges in any movie ever.

Possibly the most quotable movie of all time.

Thirsty for more Bogey? How about him as Sam Spade in, "The Maltese Falcon."

I always Get teary eyed during the La Marseillaise scene 🇫🇷

The last surviving actor was Madeline LeBeau (1923-2016) who played Yvonne. She had been an actual refugee from Paris when it was occupied, travelling through Lisbon and Mexico involving both Chile and Canada before getting to the US. (Her actual husband at the time was the roulette operator). When Yvonne sang Le Marseillaise, those tears were heartfelt.

Something I always like to point out to reactors: Yvonne is something of an opportunist. Once it's over between she and Rick, she takes up with one of the Germans. As a Frenchwoman, this marks her as a collaborator, the absolute worst of the worst. Everyone would detest her. Indeed, it's what causes the minor fight that Rick breaks up. In French, the policeman angrily tells Yvonne that she's not French for taking up with the German. The German understands French and takes offense. At the end, the French officer spits out (in French): "Dirty Boche. Someday we'll have our revenge!" "Boche" is a pejorative, about the same as "Kraut." Yvonne is aware that he's probably talking about her as much as the German. When the Germans begin singing together, there's a shot where Yvonne can be seen starting to feel bad about her situation. When Lazlo gets the band to play "La Marseilles," Yvonne flips. In fact, the camera focuses on her at a very specific moment in the song. The lyric she's singing translates to "They're coming right into our arms" (referring to the enemy). It's at that point that Yvonne realizes that bringing the enemy right into her arms is precisely what she's doing, and she begins to weep in shame. At the end, there's a shot of her shouting, "Vive la France!" indicating her change of heart, returning to a French loyalist. It's a small character arc for a near-background character. You only know the depth of it if you're both knowledgeable of the political situatuon and speak French. As a Francophile, I'm both. However, it's a detail that shows just how much care was taken with Casablanca . It didn't need to be in the film at all, but they took the time to include it. And a bit of trivia: the actress who played Yvonne, Madeleine Lebeau, was the last cast member of Casablanca to transition to Valhalla.

The La Marseillaise scene always gives me head-to-toe goosebumps. My favorite individual scene from any movie, ever. Gods, I love this movie so much. It always makes me happy to see the young'uns doing reaction videos to it. A fun video, as always.

The singing of ‘La Marseillaise’ is a deeply emotional scene because many in the cast and the crew (including the director) were either actual refugees from Nazi persecution, or still had family, friends or colleagues there and were trying to get them out of harm’s way and to freedom.

Finally, a reactor with enough worldliness who can fully understand and sink into this film.

Oh, if you want more Bogie, I HIGHLY recommend The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, and The African Queen to just name 4 films...

I have seen over 4000 movies in my 46 years and Casablanca tops my list. It has everything...romance, humor, war, mystery, sacrifice, hope...it is just perfect to me. I would like to give you some historical context if I may. The movie was filmed in 1942 at the height of Nazi Power. All of Europe was under their boot and the end of the war was not in sight. This wasn't history for the people making it, they were still living it. Most of the cast were directly affected by the war. Swedish Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa) felt great guilt because she had considered the Nazis to be a passing fad and didn't speak out as strongly and as early as she would have liked. Austrian Paul Henreid (Lazlo) was forced to flee to England for asylum. German Conrad Veidt (Maj. Strasser) despised the Nazis and had to flee Germany with his Jewish wife. He considered it a pleasure to make "Major Strasser" as hateable as possible. Most of the English actors had been involved in the London Blitz, And Madeline LeBeau (Yvonne) was 19 years old when Casablanca was filmed and had been forced to leave Paris with her jewish husband when it fell to the Nazis. She made a very similar refugee voyage as described in the movie. The Scene were they sing "La Marseillaise" was very emotional for her to sing and the director made sure to catch her tears on camera. When she sang that song she had no idea if she would ever be able to step foot in a Free France again. She died in 2016 at the age of 92, the final living cast member of Casablanca. Upon her death she was honored by the french minister of culture who called her ""the face of French resistance."

Winner of 3 Oscars including Best Picture. "Louis, i believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship." "Here's looking at you, kid." "We'll always have Paris." "Round up the usual suspects."

The thing that makes this love story unique is that there is no bad guy -- all three were honorable people acting out of love. No one was cheating or trying to take what wasn't theirs. The ending was perfect. At the airport, just before he left with Rick, Renault threw the bottle in the trash without drinking it and you wondered why. It was labeled Vichy meaning it came from German occupied France -- Renault was showing solidarity with free France by throwing it out.

An absolute masterpiece from top to bottom. Lightning in a bottle that'll resonate for generations. And while Bogart and Bergman were (always) incredible, Claude Rains as Captain Renault was beyond amazing. His line delivery was so sharp, you could shave with it. I remember watching this in film class and us howling every time he dropped the wit bombs.

I saw this movie when I was 18 and it instantly became my favorite movie. My high school and college friends thought I was crazy for preferring this over ‘80s action and comedy flicks.

This film is a master class on so many levels. Writing, acting, the incredible cinematography that uses the black and white medium to its fullest. An absolute classic in every sense of the word.