Casablanca (1942)
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
Won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film is set in the city of Casablanca during World War 2, the refugees look to escape to America and in this world a 'letter of transit' is priceless to the refugees. This setting in itself makes the film unique, and the conflict with every character and subplot is related to how they can escape from the city, for their freedom. In a setting like this, there could be a lot of stories that could be explored. Here in this film, there is a love triangle and at one scene when the woman, Ilsa, goes to talk to her ex-boyfriend. Rick, about helping her and her husband Victor - she is so convincing that even we feel the confusion in the relationship. Ilsa says that she is tired of thinking for herself and she wants Rick to think for both of them, and all of them.
She leaves the onus on him to make a choice, and he ends up sacrificing at the end - the philosophical conflict if boiled down to individual vs community - this film's answer is community and they essentially reward sacrificing or those who are "victims" and I think the worldview is derived out of the mood of war. Rick is a layered character, he has a helping nature but he also has his flaws and the way he lets go of Ilsa and her husband go by the ending, by thinking that it'll be the good for everyone - it's a character arc from selfish to probably a more giving person. Films with a worldview of community over individual have more chances of becoming classics, films having anti-societal or counter-culture worldviews could find cult audiences but the famous classics would mostly be the ones sticking to the popular worldview.
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