The Humphrey Bogart Traditional With A Close to Excellent Rating On Rotten Tomatoes

Humphrey Bogart was one of many world’s biggest film stars. A proficient actor with unimaginable display presence, the person made dozens of movies all through his profession earlier than dying on the all-too-young age of 57. Lots of his motion pictures are additionally timeless classics that modified the face of cinema, though there’s one, particularly, that is thought of virtually excellent, no less than in keeping with Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, I am referring to none aside from “Casablanca,” a movie that has only one damaging overview out of 135 on the web site, giving it a 99% “Contemporary” rating.

Thoughts you, “Casablanca” is much from the one Bogart movie with a rating in that vary. The truth is, it is not even the highest-rated one on RT, with the actor’s 1948 Western “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” being one among a number of Bogart autos that at the moment holds a 100% rating. Equally, his 1941 noir flick “The Maltese Falcon” holds a 99% rating based mostly on 111 critiques, whereas “The African Queen” — the 1951 romantic journey movie that received Bogart an Oscar for Greatest Actor and noticed him contending with not solely the notoriously feisty Katharine Hepburn however some real-life leeches in addition — is not far behind with a 96% based mostly on 52 critiques.

Directed by Michael Curtiz (with Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch sharing credit score for the movie’s chaotically assembled script), “Casablanca” is a type of nice enduring classics that is a lot greater than the sum of its components. It is a refugee story instructed by refugees, a melodramatic romance set through the hell of conflict, and it is made an imprint on our cultural unconscious that is inconceivable to disclaim. 

Regardless of its World Battle II-era setting, “Casablanca” is a timeless story a few man (Bogart) who runs into the girl he used to like (Ingrid Bergman), forcing them to query how destiny drove them aside and whether or not or not they will be collectively once more. “Seeing the movie again and again, 12 months after 12 months, I discover it by no means grows over-familiar,” as Roger Ebert wrote in a four-star overview revealed in 1996. “It performs like a favourite musical album; the extra I do know it, the extra I prefer it.” There’s nothing self-important concerning the movie both; as Ebert noticed, “Nobody making ‘Casablanca’ thought they had been making a fantastic film. It was merely one other Warner Bros. launch.” 

Certainly, it is a fairly unabashed melodrama; even Pauline Kael, a critic who was by no means afraid of (and a few would say infamous for) dancing to the beat of her personal drum, admitted the movie has a “particular appealingly schlocky romanticism, and also you’re by no means actually pressed to take its melodramatic twists and turns severely” in her overview. And positive, with none context, the film could appear a bit theatrical, however once you keep in mind that it was launched the identical month in 1942 that Nazis invaded the precise Casablanca, it takes on a particular new degree of that means.

As for Martin Scribbs, the movie’s lone dissenter on RT? He is merely quoted as having described the film as “overblown,” having presumably not been received over by its central romance. Nicely, you possibly can’t win ’em all, proper? (Scribbs has additionally referred to himself as being a “pedant, poet, and sot,” so you must most likely take his opinion with a grain of salt anyway.)

In the event you nonetheless want additional assurance that “Casablanca” is definitely worth the time of day, you want look no additional than the movie’s many different accolades. In addition to its RT rating, the film additionally made Ebert’s personal listing of all-time nice movies, along with making an attempt with “The Third Man” and “GoodFellas” for the 63rd spot on the 2022 Sight & Sound ballot (the outcomes of which had been based mostly on votes from 1,639 “critics, programmers, curators, archivists, and lecturers”).

Most significantly of all, naturally, “Casablanca” made /Movie’s personal listing of the 100 greatest motion pictures of all time. Writing concerning the movie for us, Witney Seibold echoed Ebert’s commentary, noting that the film was a humble product of the outdated Hollywood studio system that, nearly accidentally, emerged as an “indelible and timeless” traditional as an alternative. “The drama is gorgeous, the romance is shifting, the politics are assertive, the characters chic. Even ‘As Time Goes By,’ written for the film to sound like an outdated normal has, in itself, develop into an outdated normal,” as he put it.

Once more, there are many Bogart motion pictures to take pleasure in on the market, however solely “Casablanca” has managed to cement itself in our collective consciousness in such a profound method. It hasn’t merely been acknowledged in hindsight, both, because the movie received the Oscars for Greatest Image, Greatest Director, and Greatest Screenplay the 12 months it got here out (beating out different main contenders like “For Whom the Bell Tolls”) On prime of that, it is since been referenced in all the things from Bugs Bunny cartoons to Pamela Anderson’s cult film “Barb Wire” (which someway has the identical plot, as odd as which will sound).

Briefly? In the event you’ve by no means seen it, do your self a favor and watch “Casablanca.” It’s going to be the start of an exquisite friendship with one incredible movie.