Film Noir Movie

Casablanca (1942)

I've seen many parodies and many copycats of this movie, so I had a bunch of ideas already for how it was going to play out.  Honestly, the genre film noir to me has always been a little overdramatic and unrealistic, and that's how I expected Casablanca to be, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was definitely still dramatic with a bitter romance at the center, but as one of the first in it's genre, it does film noir best.  I had always pictured it to be about an alcoholic ex-detective in New York City or Boston, but it was about a club owner who doesn't exactly seek out the drama but gets placed in it.  I also did not think this would be set during World War II, but that definitely added to the drama I anticipated.  I didn't find all of the characters/events very believable such as Renault or the romance entirely, but it was interesting.  For a black and white movie, I enjoyed it more than I expected especially with its use of music to convey various meanings.

5.5/10