We’re combining these two reviews because we’re running horribly behind with our weekly film-watching and reviewing goals but also because they’re almost at opposite ends of the classics spectrum and make for a good contrast! That’s what we’re telling ourselves anyway.
They both deal with epic love stories against historically important backdrops and they both have key scenes that have worked their way into the cultural zeitgeist – albeit for fairly different reasons. How many people have caught a ferry in the last 10 years without trying to replicate Kate and Leo’s king of the world moment? And who doesn’t know the line, “this is the start of a beautiful friendship”?
However, ‘Casablanca’ manages to deliver a poignant portrayal of one love story that reflected the choices, the conflicts and the sacrifice of so many people in wartime, while ‘Titanic’ takes an epic tragedy and turns it into an amusement park ride, complete with water features.
'Casablanca' endures because whether you like Bogart or not (mat – yes!, me – no), you care about the situation he finds himself in. You know this girl has hurt him and he’s learnt to rely on himself and do what’s best for him. Suddenly his loyalty and moral code are tested against his selfish desire for self-preservation and love. At the same time, Ingrid Bergman is faced with the ultimate pull between duty and love and I think we can all relate to the struggle between what we want to do and what we know we need to do.
The war, the location and the stories of those in limbo in Casablanca only augment the themes of love, duty, honour and sacrifice. The whole film displays the tug-of-war between the values you have the luxury to treasure in ‘normal society’ versus what needs to be done in the extraordinary circumstances of war. Mat scored this a 96 (making it one of his best rated movies), but I only gave it 82 (although I think my Bogart-bias is showing here!).
In the same way that ‘Casablanca’ managed to comment on life’s truths by showing us at our most stressed and vulnerable, ‘Titanic’ tried to comment on more overarching themes than ‘count the lifeboats before you sail’, but just can’t pull it off. The story is too manipulated and fabricated and that is the real tragedy. You only get snippets of what could actually have served as pivotal and important moments; the young Irish woman in the doomed third-class berths telling her children a bedtime story about everlasting youth or the elderly couple quietly holding hands on their gilded bed even as the water rushes in under them.
Didn’t Cameron think there was enough drama with the sinking of the ‘unsinkable ship’ without having to throw in a class war, a forbidden love, then (god help us) a frame-up and chase scene complete with firearms through the sinking ship?!?!
Having said all that, ‘Titanic’ is still pretty fun to watch, the underwater footage they shot of the real Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic is incredible and haunting, and the stars are likeable and watchable . Mat scored it a 62, but I could only get to a 56 – I don’t like knowing when they’re trying to jerk my heart strings! A decent script and some heavy editing really could have pushed this into the lasting classics rather than the generational classic I believe it’s destined to be.
Mat here.
I had to add a quick word about Casablanca, as my score of 96/100 has put Casablanca ahead of all the other Best Picture winners I've watched.
All of the elements of Casablanca come together to produce a film as close to perfect as I can imagine. Everything I look for in a film is here: engaging characters, an exciting setting, clever dialogue, actors at the top of their game, some of the best cinematography I have seen, genuine emotion and capped off with a very un-Hollywood ending.
What more is left to say? Casablanca is not only the best Best Picture winner in my book, I would also argue that Casablanca is probably the best movie of all time. We haven't finished every film on the Best Picture list yet (not by a long shot), but I'm doubtful anything will approach the heights of Casablanca.
No comments:
Post a Comment