Casablanca - Good Movie

The movie that I have chosen is 1942s, “Casablanca.” To give a brief background of the movie, it is a suspenseful, romantic melodrama of two young men that want the attention of the same woman. Victor Laszlo was locked away in a concentration camp, and while there, Ricky fell in love with Victor’s wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). The film was directed by Michael Curtiz.

“With rich and smoky atmosphere, anti-Nazi propaganda, Max Steiner's superb musical score, suspense, unforgettable characters (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and memorable lines of dialogue (e.g., "Here's lookin' at you, kid," and the inaccurately-quoted "Play it again, Sam"), it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on the themes of lost love, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world” (http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html).

Humphrey Bogart played a seedy character in the film; his character’s name was ‘Ricky.’ He smoked, he drank like a fish, and he owned a saloon where he aided refugees in obtaining illegitimate documents. Ricky was a refugee, too. He fled Paris to escape capture by the Germans because there was a bounty on his head. His character did not appear to be very moral in nature.

Even though he drank a lot and smoked, that does not necessarily make him a bad guy overall. Some might say that what he was doing by providing these Visas to those that wanted to escape as being highly moral. Based on what John Stuart Mill said, Ricky was doing this for the happiness for the greatest number of people (Sommers & Sommers, 2013).

The theory behind utilitarianism is that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness (Sommers & Sommers, 2013). The ones that support this viewpoint believe that happiness is the key to all things and that happiness should be endeavored and achieved at whatever the cost. They also believe that morality is not God-based. Ricky knew how important this would be to the future and how important it was to Victor Laszlo to spread the message of what he called his life’s work. Because of this, he set aside his personal feelings and well-being for the greater good.

Major Strausser and the Nazi’s journey to end someone who rebelled against what they have decided was wrong, follows