Casablanca (Movie)

I honestly cannot remember another time when I was this touched by a movie. It has been a day since watching it, and I still can't get Rick and Ilsa's story out of my head. It surprised me to be so affected by an "old" movie. The beauty and timelessness of the film is quite surprising. Timeless in the sense that even until today, people (or at least me) can still relate to the story. It could be a typical jilted-lover-meets-ex-after-a-long-time-chaos-ensues type of story and yet the ending surprises us in the end. There's all this tension between Rick and Ilsa and even though you only see them together for only a few minutes, you can kind of feel that they really loved each other. (Not to mention those unforgettable lines, "Here's looking at you, kid" and "We'll always have Paris") I have this newfound appreciation for classics and it makes me realize that old movies sometimes have even more substance than the movies we have now. This is one of the very few romance movies I've watched where the story actually defies the romance Happy Ending formula and the lead characters don't end up together (another one being My Best Friend's Wedding). The great sacrifice Rick makes shows that he can go beyond himself and be a bigger person, putting the greater good above his own desires. I guess this is the "inevitable surprise" that we talked about in class--I was a bit surprised they didn't end up together but then, I also think that was the only way or the only right way for the story to end.