Political Allegory In The Film Casablanca

In the history of literature, short stories and films are often used to tell a story with a hidden meaning to it. Political allegory can be shown in films, painting, music and even drama. It tells the reader a story or tale on the surface but has a political meaning behind it. Usually political allegory contains themes, motifs, elements and symbols. The film Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz has won 3 Oscar’s, 4 wins and 8 nominations in total. Since the film was set in December of 1941, most audiences at the time viewed the movie as a political allegory of World War two. When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and forcing United States from being neutral to one of the allies. Casablanca tells a similar story but on a much smaller …show more content…
In the film Casablanca, it showed between love and war, neutrality is extremely difficult for Rick, Laszlo and Ilsa. The film followed classical structure of voiceover and credits at the beginning to set the scene. To begin the film, it displayed the credits over a political map of Africa. A bold line is drawn from Paris to Casablanca that pass through Marseilles in Vichy France. Casablanca was a neutral city in French Morocco. The Germans are overpowering Europe and Europeans fled to other countries for refugee. Casablanca was a major city to go to however getting an exit visa to United States was nearly impossible. Since the film took place in December 1914, the film could be seen as a political allegory. Rick refused to have any discussion about war and did not want to be involved in politics. Carl attempted to tell Rick about the underground meeting but Rick rejected and tried to not biased and partisan. Later in the film Rick changed from neutrality to engagement just like the United States changed from neutrality to being one of the allies in World War two. Rick did not care about politics at all in the beginning …show more content…
Before explaining the theme, it is extremely important to understand that the true meaning of sacrifice. What is sacrifice and why are sacrifices honorable and respectful? Sacrifice may sound majestic but it is purely a choice. However, all sacrifices come with a price to pay. For example, Rick’s sacrifice may have resulted in a happy ending but would a different ending be bad? However, since Rick is the main character and the protagonist of the film, all of his actions should been made without any mistakes. He sacrificed his happiness for the happiness of others may seemed to be a heroic act but it might just be cliche ́. Although Rick was noted as a stone-cold character who “Sticks his neck out for nobody,” (Rick Blaine, 00:17:37 & 00:22:38) but according to Captain Renault, Rick is a sentimentalist. It is also shown that a girl approached Rick that was involved with the night before. Rick said that he did not remember what happened and he did not plan far into the future (the upcoming evening). This showed that Rick refuses to relate himself to another person because the potential damage they might cause. Moreover, Rick is a sentimentalist because he fears other’s togetherness because of what happened to Ilsa and he does not want the girl to stay with him to get involved in potential danger. Although Rick “sticks his neck out for