Released to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Casablanca’s release, Casablanca: The Script and the Legend commemorates the film by containing complementary film reviews, an essay on the film’s influence in the cinematic world, and the film’s complete script.  Although the script is undoubtedly influential to the film’s analysis, it is the film reviews that provide interesting (and rather strange) theories regarding the film.  One of theories portrays Casablanca as a political allegory in which Rick is President Roosevelt, Lazlo is Winston Churchill and Casablanca is the White House.  In this reading, Rick’s decision to close the casino and go to war is thought to be an allegory of Roosevelt’s decision to give up patrician politics and (inspired by Churchill) enter the war on the side of right (aka the Allies).  Another theory that is proposed by the review states that Casablanca represents a repressed homosexual fantasy in which Rick rejects his past love for women (Ilsa) in favor of a furtive affair with a man (Renault).  Although the evidence for this reading seems rather suspicious, the homosexual theory nonetheless opens interesting questions regarding the Production Code and Casablanca’s true meaning.  All and all, Casablanca: the Script and the Legend provides not only a document to analyze but also controversial theories that expand the boundaries of interpretation beyond the norm.  These elements of the book make it a good resource for through and controversial analysis of Casablanca. 

Essay Number Ten:  On the Argument of Casablanca and the Meaning of the Third Rick by Kenneth De Luca

            The appeal of Casablanca is unmistakable.  Popular amongst men and women of all ages, Casablanca is frequently listed as the second greatest film of all time.  What makes this film so universally popular that it can still garners passionate fans amongst generations that can not even remember World War II,  the studio system, or even Bogart and Bergman?  It is this question that Political Philosophy Comes To Rick’s: Casablanca and American Civic Culture tries to answer with a series of relevant scholarly essays.  The tenth essay (written by Kenneth De Luca) is of particular interest to the analysis of the legendary film.  This essay reflects on the relationship between Rick’s character and the ideals of America.  According to this essay, Rick’s character maintains modern American appeal because he represents the personification of Jeffersonian individualism.  Rick is a man who needs to be free to the point where he can actually be moral and even beautiful.  By making the ultimate sacrifice of love, Rick achieves personal autonomy and also freedom from the overwhelming guilt of having done the morally wrong thing.  De Luca states that Americans find this sacrifice seductive because it represents a combination of seemingly irreconcilable freedoms – freedom to satisfy self interest and freedom to be directed by some higher purpose.  This essay is important to the study of Casablanca because it shows the noncommercial / non-studio system aspects of Casablanca overwhelming popularity.