Casablanca (1942)

[dave jenkins]

In time for Christmas:

[Tucumcari Bound]

My god, that's awesome!! I own the 2-disc set already but that looks tempting.

[dave jenkins]

The Blu-ray is desirable, but a lot of the packaging is, to my mind, a joke (luggage tags?). The video extras are essentially what's been available on the previous DVD. My course is clear: I will wait for a stripped down Blu-ray release with a better price point and then pounce.

[The Firecracker]

Cool! But I'll stick with my copy.

[T.H.]

I'm content with the 2 disc.

[Atlas2112]

Yeah 2 disc is fine with me

[PowerRR]

Pretty awesome but too expensive and I don't like Casablanca enough for $65.

I'm pretty happy with my 2-disc HD-DVD though.

[moviesceleton]

Eighted.

[Dust Devil]

Casablanca (1942) - 7.5/10

All the romantic drama doesn't quite do it for me. I know this is supposed to be a movie about many things, not only WW2 and love, but it seems to lose itself in its own ambitions. Hey, it's still a pretty good movie, I can watch it every now and then, but 8.8/10... Man, 8.8 is Goodfellas, C'era una volta il West, 8.8 is... The Dark Knight!

Ingrid Bergman... an angel.

[dave jenkins]

It has a very witty script (which is why so many quotable lines come from it). Also, it's a masterpiece of plotting: everything pays off (which is why McKee uses it for his script-writing seminars). And it's well photographed. And all the performances are worth savoring. When you consider it was essentially assembled by committee (the very opposite of an auteur approach), the results seem like a miracle. Of course, at a time when every Hollywood studio was putting out a film a week, it stands to reason that the law of big numbers would come into play and a great work would be produced, if only by accident.

[Dust Devil]

Well, we'll always have Paris.

[Groggy]

It has a very witty script (which is why so many quotable lines come from it). Also, it's a masterpiece of plotting: everything pays off (which is why McKee uses it for his script-writing seminars). And it's well photographed. And all the performances are worth savoring. When you consider it was essentially assembled by committee (the very opposite of an auteur approach), the results seem like a miracle. Of course, at a time when every Hollywood studio was putting out a film a week, it stands to reason that the law of big numbers would come into play and a great work would be produced, if only by accident.

This 

I think the romance is well-done, but on the other hand that's hardly the only reason to like the film. It gets just about everything right, and it's damned entertaining to boot.

[dave jenkins]

I think the romance is well-done, but on the other hand that's hardly the only reason to like the film. It gets just about everything right, and it's damned entertaining to boot.

And interestingly, the romance is subordinated to a higher purpose, which most viewers almost always forget about. The picture is actually a message film, but the message is so artfully conveyed--well, Claude Rains dropping the bottle of Vichy water in the garbage pail is a bit heavy handed, but other than that--that what most people take away from the film is the humor and the love story. No doubt the fact that the message has long since passed into conventional wisdom helps disguise its presence. But still, there aren't too many didactic films that are this entertaining.

[drinkanddestroy]

I wanna buy a BRD of Casablanca; I've been looking through the various versions and I am wondering if anyone has personally compared them and has a preference?

forget about all the extras - I'm talking about the image quality of the feature... looks like there is one version that was released in 2008 and another that was released in 2012

According to DVD Beaver's screen comparisons, it looks like the 2008 version is brighter; the 2012 version is darker and grainier, and shows a little more information on all 4 sides of the image.
(Beaver says that [only when looked at under the microscope of screencaps], the '12 version may be slightly horizontally stretched or the '08 version may be slightly vertically stretched; I notice it only cuz he points it out; it is very very slight.)

As I recall, I think all the reviewers I read prefer the 2012 version, but I'm wondering if any of you have seen 'em both and have a preference for one over the other?

[dave jenkins]

I'm guessing I have 2008. I have not seen 2012.