Don't Make a Scene: Everybody Deconstructs Rick IV

Continuing December's look at scenes from Casablanca, particularly those where players speculate on the character and motivations of saloon owner Richard Blaine, and right to his face, because everybody comes to Rick's, but also...

Everybody De-Constructs Rick, Part 4: Victor Laszlo

The Story: I was going to end this series with what will now be next week's classic scene from Casablanca, but I'd forgotten about one very important, even pivotal, player in the drama—freedom-fighter and husband of Ilsa Lund, Victor Laszlo. He, too, thinks he knows Richard Blaine, and gives him some un-asked for advice, semi-judgmentally, talking about Mister Blaine's "destiny" like he was Obi-Wan Kenobi or something.

Fat lot he knows. For example, he doesn't know that, at that very moment, his wife is sneaking out the back-way of Rick's Cafe Americain so she won't be seen by him. And he doesn't know that his wife was up there to threaten Rick into giving her the letters of transit and ended up in a clinch with him.*

But the more I watched it, I realized that this scene is crucial to get to the scene next week. It's essential in the decision-making of Richard Blaine. Like everybody else, Victor Laszlo comes to some conclusion about Rick,** and, as with everyone else, it's some reflection of their own character. Laszlo looks at the saloon-keeper and sees a potential ally in The Cause and a rival in love. He tries to plead his cause by its merits, and then by appealing to Rick's relationship to Ilsa, betting that Rick will at least protect her. I think it's Laszlo's unselfish offer of saving Ilsa at his own expense that throws Rick to take the course that he does. Rick admires Laszlo (see the previous scene with Louis Renault) and his willingness to sacrifice himself for his wife surprises and moves Rick.

On closer examination there are many subtleties: Bogart's way with props and timing is on display as he lights his cigarette just as Laszlo says "Each of us has a destiny." (just as he tossed a nut-shell with a sentence-ending *ding!* in his first conversation with Laszlo) He clenches his jaw when Ilsa is brought up. In deference to his co-star, he doesn't blow a lot of smoke obscuring Heinreid's face, but there is smoke--a kind of veil that surrounds Rick in an amoral haze and separates him from Laszlo. Paul Heinreid, when talking about "something between (him) and Ilsa" looks not into Rick's eyes, but at his fore-head, as if trying to read his mind. And when Rick churlishly throws a crack about "destiny," mocking Laszlo's appraisal of him, Laszlo is surprised at the cruelty of the remark, and we exit the scene with Rick smiling and blowing out his existential smoke.

Even at this late point in the movie, what actions Richard Blaine will take are still uncertain.

The Set-Up: Well, here's an embarrassing situation: Your former lover comes to your room to threaten you to help her husband escape, and you end up in an embrace. Then, who shows up? The husband, seeking asylum and some first-aid after a Free-French meeting is raided. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) sees to it that Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) is escorted home down the back-stairs. Then, Rick sees to Victor Laszlo's (Paul Henreid) medical needs. And what does he get in return? A lecture! From somebody else who "knows all about him."

Action!

Rick descends the stair-case from his office and goes to Laszlo, who is bandaging his arm with a tea-towel.
Laszlo: It's nothing—just a little cut. We had to get through a window.
Rick: Well, this might come in handy. (Rick grabs a bottle and pulls Laszlo a drink)
Laszlo: Thank you.
Rick: Had a close one, eh?
Laszlo: Yes. Rather.
Rick: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for.
Laszlo: We might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? Then it'll be out of its misery.
Laszlo: You know how you sound, M'sieur Blaine? Like a man who is trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart.
Laszlo: Each of us has a destiny.
Laszlo: For good. Or for evil.
Rick: Yes, I get the point.
Laszlo: I wonder if you do.
Laszlo: I wonder if you know that you're trying to escape from yourself.
Laszlo: And that you'll never succeed.
Rick: You seem to know all about my destiny.
Laszlo: I know a good deal more about you than you suspect.
Laszlo: I know, for instance, that you're in love with a woman.
Laszlo: It's perhaps a strange circumstance that we both should be in love with the same woman.
Laszlo: The first evening I came here into this cafe, I knew there was something between you and Ilsa.
Laszlo: Since no one is to blame...I demand no explanation. I ask only one thing:
Laszlo: You won't give me the letters of transit.
Laszlo: All right. But I want my wife to be safe.
Laszlo: I ask you as a favor to use the letters to take her away from Casablanca.
Rick: You love her that much?
Laszlo: Apparently, you think of me only as the leader of a cause. Well, I'm also a human being.
Laszlo: Yes, I love her that much.
(The police break into the cafe in force, and storm up to Rick and Laszlo)Adjutante: M'sieur Laszlo?
Laszlo: Yes?
Adjutante: You will come with us. We have a warrant for your arrest.
Laszlo: On what charge?
Adjutante: Captain Renault will discuss that with you later.
Rick: It seems that destiny has taken a hand.
(Laszlo is escorted out, as Rick watches)


Casablanca

Words by Murray Burnett, Joan Alison, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch

Pictures by Arthur Edeson and Michael Curtiz

Casablanca is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.

* There is a short story called "You Must Remember This" written by a guy called Robert Coover, which starts in that room and that scene, and covers all the details skipped over in the long discreet fade-out between Rick and Ilsa's kiss and his cigarette-by-searchlight. If you've missed it, it's probably better, as the story's your basic crass porn. Without it, you'll always have Paris.

** If you haven't noticed by now, its interesting to note that just about everybody calls him something different. To Ugarte, he's "Rick." To Ilsa, he's "Richard." To Louis, he's "Ricky." To both Laszlo and Strasser (tellingly), he's "M'sieur Blaine." To Sasha and Sam (and all the guys called "Emil"), he's "Boss." And they all call him something different because they all see him differently, which he never discourages. It's one more subtle way that Rick maintains an elusiveness of character, and keeps the audience guessing about him.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

You Give Love a Bad Name
or
Meet the New Boss/Same as the Old Boss...

For reviews of the previous "Hunger Games" movies, start here, go here, then go here. Then, stop.

It...is...finished.

"The Hunger Games" are over...until the re-makes, re-boots, re-imaginings or regurgitations happen. It's like Chinese food—after awhile, you're hungry again. I started out cynical of the whole series at the start, but found Jennifer Lawrence's "Joan of Arc," Katniss Everdeen, a nicely unsentimental performance and Donald Sutherland's President Snow deviously played. The rest...been there, done that.

But the series got increasingly better once Francis Lawrence (Constantine, Water for Elephants, I Am Legend) took over direction and the series concentrated less on "boy troubles" and more on Capitol crimes and messiah manipulation, which I found far more interesting. By the time Mockingjay, Part 1 came along, Katniss did not know what was reality and what was manipulation and was going with her gut to ascertain what truth was. By the end of it, her co-hort in the conspiracy against the leaders of Panem, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) had been turned against her and viciously attacked her at the end of Part 1.

Part 2 finds her recovering and trying to find her voice again, which is as good a metaphor for her struggles as any. But, things have definitely changed. For one thing is Jennifer Lawrence's performance: in Part 2, Katniss is almost a zombie—there is a deadness in the eyes, the line readings are flat (except in two, no, make that three places). It's disconcerting, but probably a wise choice. By this time, Katniss is on constant view, not only by Snow's regime, but also by the Rebels' president Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), who finds Katniss remarkably similar to Snow's view—useful but not loyal enough to find trustworthy. Katniss begins to realize that she's merely a pawn, one that can be easily sacrificed and manipulated to the public's view in death much easier than in life. So, her face betrays nothing lest she be betrayed.

(L-R) Malone, Banks, Moore, Harrelson, and Hoffman

That blank face is useful professionally as well as personally, since with Peeta alive and under guard by the rebels, she faces another triangulation—between her Hunger Games ally and partner now determined to kill her, and old flame Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), who seems to be having jealousy pangs about the guy who's raving in a padded cell about what a traitorous bitch his girlfriend is. With two sides pulling at her this way and another, in all aspects of her life, it's no reason Lawrence keeps her face as tight as her own bow-string.

But, she's still useful as an icon. The rebels decide to take the Capitol, with Katniss and a team of past Victor's of "The Hunger Games" dubbed "The Star Squad" hanging back as good media fodder (with Katniss secretly planning to find a way into the Capitol residence to personally kill Snow). Not that their way is easy—the Capitol city is festooned with "Hunger Games"-style traps, some of which they have knowledge of. Others they don't. And just when it looks like they may have a better time of it than they suspected, Coin sends them Peeta to help.

The rebels go over the Death-star plans hidden in the R2-D2 unit.

Yeah. Peeta. PSTD'd Snow-brainwashed Peeta, who, only a couple of scenes previously, was screeching that Katniss was going to kill everybody, and wanted to kill her first. Good choice, that. Not a logical one from a story stand-point (as the revolution has not yet been won and all it needs is a slight tipping point either way), but it does complicate the drama even if it doesn't make any sense. Sort of like the way the Star Squad always chooses to run down the middle of corridors rather than hugging the walls (they didn't mention that strategy in the briefings).

It is this point, that the Squad decides to take their journey underground and Lawrence (the director) returns to his roots with a creepy, dark sequence that goes to claustrophobic Alien territory and to the weird creatures (mutts, they're called) that remind one of the "red Bull-zombies" from his I Am Legend adaptation. It's grisly hand-to-hand combat, and as off-putting as the sequence is, it's where the movie actually comes to temporary life. For a series that started out revolving around pivotal action sequences, they've devolved into lots of people merely anticipating what comes next. The action doesn't count for anything except an increasing body count.

What does come next? Revealing more spoils the movie, but it shouldn't come to any surprise to those who've read the books as it follows them right down the line. Unfortunately, reading about what happens has more impact than seeing it on the screen. Maybe it's JLaw's mandarin way of playing these scenes. Maybe it's FLaw's direction. For whatever reason, they're not as impactful as they could be. Perhaps it would have been better to pay a little bit more attention to the peripheral characters for that to occur, but the film is so populated now that the ones that should matter at the end get crowded out.

Then again, the movie strays back into love triangle territory when that's the least of Katniss' concerns. You would think a relationship would be the last thing on her mind, given the amount of attention that has been heaped upon her, her own independence in the face of it, and the evidence of how the world and individuals can betray would have much more of an impact and not have her fly—or rather creep, this is low voltage Jennifer Lawrence here—into the arms of a man so soon after her ordeals. You would think, given her history, she would heal, mourn, and put everything behind her now that the nightmare has ended.

In a way, she does. But, "The Hunger Games" series had better things to say about society, consumerism, media, manipulation, and the class society based on economics. It spoke of revolution, not romance, and one hopes audiences take home a little bit more of that than the soft platitudes at the end. The revolution will be televised, sure. But don't expect a happy ending.