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"'Casablanca' and United States Foreign Policy." Raskin, Richard. Film History. Vol. 4. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 2 vols. 153-164.

The following excerpt from a film history book by Rishard Raskin of the University of Indiana places Casablanca as a film in the grander scheme of historical context.  Raskin gives the valuable background of the war effort at the time and demonstrates the direct correlation with the historical events in French North Africa, Europe, and the plot and motifs of the film.  Raskin explains the significance of the Casablanca Conference and the exterior significance of the city as an important meeting place that changed the course of World War II.  Raskin demonstrates that the film had an impact on the decisions of Roosevelt and that the film was a classic example of using a romantic plotline to cast meaning over strong political undertones.  Raskin further discusses the political development of the region both before and after the film’s release and how it changed many of the policies of the region.  Ultimately, Raskin demonstrates how Casablanca was influenced by the political, economic, and wartime climate to create an influential World War II propaganda film.  Additionally, Rakin shows how Casablanca played an important role in the development of U.S. foreign policy and domestic attitudes towards both the small city and towards the United States involvement in the war as well.

 

 

The 1942 Warner Brothers film, Casablanca, is one of the most famous romance films in history; yet, the film's characters, setting, film techniques, and motifs create an undertone of American propaganda. With subtle tendencies towards antifascism and supporting the Free French movement, the film demonstrates Hollywood's support against the Nazi regime in Europe.

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Blakley, Johanna. "Propaganda, Pop Culture & Public Diplomacy.” Warner’s War: Politics, Pop Culture & Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood 73-77.

 

In the book entitled Warner’s War: Politics, Pop Culture & Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood, Johanna Blakley discusses the influence the Warner Bros. studio had during the wartime and how its films and cartoons influenced public opinion and war sentiment during the time.  In this chapter, Blakley specifically talks about the Warner Brothers studio and how it was deeply entrenched in the pro-war movement by creating pro-war, patriotic, and antifascist films and cartoons.  The article briefly talks about how Casablanca was a prime example in which Warner Bros. used a romantic theme as a stage for propagandistic undertones which supported aiding the Allied European powers.  As a whole, the article demonstrates Warner Brother’s clear intention of spreading propaganda which supported the antifascist movement.  This is important because it establishes a clear connection between a pro-war studio and Casablanca.  This ultimately demonstrates that the studio intended to have propagandistic undertones in its film.   

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Polan, Dana. "Stylistic Regularities (and Peculiarities) of the Hollywood World War II

Propoganda Film." Warner’s War: Politics, Pop Culture & Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood 38-47.

 

In the book entitled Warner’s War: Politics, Pop Culture & Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood, Dana Polan discusses the influence the Warner Bros. studio had during the wartime and how it’s films and cartoons influenced public opinion and war sentiment during the time.  In this portion of the book, Polan demonstrates the particular influence and propagandistic influence of Casablanca and how this film changed the typical style of Hollywood in order to incorporate the propaganda of wartime.  Polan discuss the romantic overtone of the film and how this theme keeps in line with the traditional film style of Hollywood at that time.  However, she goes further to demonstrate how this romance accentuates the strong division between the two different conflicting powers in the film.  This chapter serves as an important connection between propaganda and the film in that is demonstrates how the simple romantic theme is enhanced to create a protagonist hero with whom the audience can closely relate and sympathize for.  She portrays how this sentiment can be perverted to support his goals of suppressing the fascist powers.  Ultimately, Polan demonstrates how the romance theme closely ties into the film’s wartime significance as a part of World War II propaganda.

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Dirk, Timothy. "Casablanca (1942)." FilmSite. 1 December 2008 <http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html>.

 

In this review of the film, Tim Dirk goes beyond simple analysis of the plot and the film’s intrigue as one of the greatest films of all time in order to demonstrate some of the underlying messages that are conveyed by the film’s editing techniques, lighting, scenes, and character development.  Dirk begins by describing how the film’s use of lighting in the introductory map to convey a protagonist conflict between the lightly colored Allied countries on the map and the dark Axis countries.  This subliminal coloring of the two differing forces, generates a political tone to the film in which the Axis powered are conveyed as the antagonist.  Such sentiment only becomes enhanced as the film progresses.  Dirk then describes the introductory scene in which Casablanca is displayed as a chaotic and disorderly city full of crime and corruption.  This enhances the antifascist undertones in that it remarks poorly on the Nazi “control” of the neutral city.  Dirk also points out several ironic montages such as the French slogan “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” which had not been replaced by the Vichy power, and the imprisonment of citizens in “Le Palais de Justice”.  Dirk then moves to other images that are portrayed throughout the city which further augment the propagandistic and antifascist undertones of the film.  He then moves to analyze the dialog throughout the movie and point out the subtle tones and words in the script which convey a strong connection with the Resistance Movement and a rejection of the fascist ideology.  In all, this review offers a close analysis of the film’s techniques of filming, set, script, and imagery in order to demonstrate its political influence and use as propaganda.

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Wilson, Kristi. "Casablanca." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Gale Group, 1 January 2000.

In this article, Kristi Wilson gives a brief summary of the plot of the movie and expands on this superficial interpretation of the film by analyzing how the film presented a strong antifascist sentiment.  Wilson begins by contrasting the different characters in the film.  To begin, Lazlo and Isle gain sympathetic compassion from viewers on account of their troubling situation and the flashback history of chaos they experienced in Vichy-France.  This is used the make the viewers feel empathetic towards the French Resistance.  A deeper connection with such sentiment is achieved through the development of Rick’s character.  Rick, whose involvement in the resistance becomes increasingly apparent as the movie progresses, creates a heroic character image in which the viewers support his endeavors.  Wilson explains how such support is augmented by the viewers’ hope that his romantic endeavors succeed.  In contrast with these characters, the German officers are portrayed as being stiff and unyielding.  Garnering little sympathy, but rather gaining distaste for their apparent egotism, the German characters are continuously portrayed as being corrupt and malevolent.  Such stark contrast, as Wilson states, creates a classic protagonist vs. antagonist in which there is a strong political undertone against the power and authority of the Nazi command.  Consequently, the film demonstrates a strong antifascist motif by the way it contrasts the characters and their personal objectives and dispositions.  

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"The Casablanca Conference, 1943." Casablanca Conference. Casablanca: U.S. Department of State, 1943.

This source comes from the U.S. Department of State and gives the historical significance and background of the Casablanca Conference of 1943.  This conference, which took place between January 14^th and the 24^th of 1943, served as a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  Only a few weeks after the release of Casablanca, these two powerful figures met in the city to discuss the strategic plans for the Allied forces against the Axis powers.  They determined to further cut off Japan, concentrate efforts in Germany, begin by removing Italy from the war, and make unconditional surrender an ultimate goal so they could guarantee “the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.”  This is significant because it shows the clear political connection with the film and the film’s location.  The film sparked a large interest not only in Casablanca, but also the political implications of the war.  The clear connection of the two at the Casablanca Conference created a much larger appeal on account of the film’s success.  In addition, the historical account also shows that the Anglo-American aid arrived in French North Africa in November 1942, the same time at which the movie was released.  Ultimately, this demonstrates a clear political connection with the film.

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Crowther, Bosley. "'Casablanca' With Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman." New York Times 27 November 1942.

 

This is the original film review from the New York Times written on November 27, 1942 after the film’s release.  This review, unlike the myriad of reviews on the films, gives the unique perspective of an erudite audience of that specific time period.  The reviewer not only heralds the film as one of the greatest of all times, but remarks about its unique story and subtle tendencies.  He demonstrates how Warner uses the action-packed thrill of the setting to enhance the romantic overtone to the film.  Most importantly, the author describes how the film contained a strong political message.  He writes that the film “inject[ed] a cold point of tough resistance to evil forces afoot in Europe today”.  With this statement, it is apparent that the film was viewed as a propagandistic tool of the war effort.  Its antifascist undertone and subliminal support for aiding the European cause against the Nazis is clearly demonstrated and understood at the time.  This further shows how the film was viewed not only as a great romantic drama film, but also a powerful piece of propaganda that influenced its audiences.

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Leon, Charls L. Ponce de. "Progressive Politics and American Dreams." Review in American History September 2008: 348.

Charles L. Ponce de Leon provides a critical analysis of Lary May’s book, The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way.  Leon begins by giving a background into film history and how cinema developed in a political manner.  He demonstrates how it became politically powerful and how it can be interpreted in revisionist studies through cultural anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, and social history.  It is with these methods that Leon further critiques the work of May’s book and demonstrates the true power of cinema.  Leon demonstrates how cinema’s production can be used to “peddle products that are subversive” and create a specified appeal for audiences.  In this manner, he claims that producers are able to use film techniques to create an exact interpretation which can vary little amongst audiences in the grand scheme.  Leon also states that cinema uses political implications to challenge the authority of the elites.  Such is seen in the production of Casablanca.  Leon then progresses his critical analysis towards films of the 1940’s and how they were heavily influenced not only by the lingering effects of the New Deal and the Great Depression, as can be seen by the dramatic mise-en-scene of the city of Casablanca in the film.  He also demonstrates how “progressive moviemakers eagerly contributed their talents to government service and a host of pro-war, antifascist films”. Leon then moves to analysis of the cultural, social, and political implications of the film Casablanca specifically.  He contends that the films played an important political role to the antifascist movement and demonstrated a strong propagandistic desire to aid the resistance movement.  However, he also notes that Rick’s “loss of independence” later hurt the film’s political undertones and created an opposite sentiment later on in the sixties.  In all, Leon critiques May’s book which discusses the political and social effects of early cinema and discusses the value they have towards audiences.  With this, he lends support to Casablanca’s social significance as a film of antifascism and pro-war significance.

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University, San Diego. Casablanca. 1 December 2008 http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~ksoroka/hollywoodfilm.html

An article from the Film History department of the University of San Diego, this short reference demonstrates a crucial interpretation of a scene in which Lazlo (Paul Henreid), a French refugee, begins singing “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem, as a direct challenge to the German officers who occupy Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart) nightclub.  The article explains how this action glorified the French resistance against the Vichy regime and displays propaganda in favor of the Allied powers.  The scene begins with the German officials who display their dominance and power in the locale by chanting the patriotic German song Die Wacht am Rhein.  Lazlo, a member of the Resistance Movement, begins to counter their power by singing the French National Anthem.  The entire nightclub, previously subdued by the German chant, begins to join Lazlo and Rick, a former member of the Resistance Movement in France, orders the band to play the tune.  In the end, the German officers stop their chanting and appear defeated by the resistance, a clear metaphor for their hopeful downfall.  The scene not only demonstrates support of the resistance against the Nazi regime, but it also demonstrates the renewed resistance in Rick’s character.  As noted in the article, his broken love with Isle (Ingrid Bergman) made him a “cynical” person, but such was the sacrifice he needed to make in order to pursue his duty to combat the wrongdoings of the Vichy-Berlin situation.