Casablanca

1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.

In class we talked about the films success. Casablanca is rated number 3 on the
list of the top 100 films, a list created by the AFI. The themes of the movie were lost love
and romance within a chaotic world, honor, and self-sacrifice in war. The relationship
between Rick and Ilsa depicts the theme of finding love in a hopeless place. Also we
discussed the fact that this is considered to be Humphrey Bogarts best film, yet he did
not win an academy award for it.
2) Find a related article and summarize the content. (on the film, director, studio,
actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) You can use the library or the internet. Cite the article
or copy the url to your journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but
do not plagiarize any content.
The article below talks about the life of the writer of the play which the film
Casablanca was based on. His name is Murray Burnett and he wrote a play titled
Everybody Comes to Ricks which was about a saloon keeper who helps a Czech
newspaper editor escape from Casablanca with the woman whom the saloon keeper is in
love with. When the playwright could not find a Broadway producer, he sold the script to
Warner Bros for $20,000. Warner Bros. ended up changing a lot of the characters and
enhancing the plot; yet some of the films most famous lines come from the original
script. Burnett continued to fight for the copyrights to the film until he won in the late
70s.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/29/arts/murray-burnett-86-writer-of-play-behindcasablanca.html

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did the article support or change the
way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.?
Learning that the film was altered makes me wonder what the original play was
like. I would like to compare the two to see whether or not the changes were necessary
and what type of impact that they had on the film which ultimately became one of the
greatest films of all time according to the AFI. The legal battle bothers me, in my opinion
I believe that there shouldnt had been a fight; Burnett should have been given his credit
from the beginning.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of
the screening, class discussions, text material and the article. I am less interested in
whether you liked or disliked a film, (although that can be part of this) than I am in your
understanding of its place in film history or the contributions of the director.
While the movie was enjoyable I am not a fan of the ending. The theme of lost
love in a chaotic world is well versed throughout the film. Actually hearing the lines in
the movie I couldnt help but to laugh because I have heard so many of them used today
(especially by Mr. Biggs in Sex and the City), and I always thought that he was the
coolest man ever! I can definitely see why Curtis won the award for best director for this
film.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) (*) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) (*) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly
explain that in the paper.
3) (*) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used
indentation and citation within the text.
4) (*) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the
text of the paper.
5) (*) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) (*) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I
cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) (*) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.
8) (*) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and
ideas used in my paper.

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