Play it Again, Sam

My mom sent me a big package full of trail mix cookies (all of which I have already eaten!), empty tins of various kinds (which I like to collect), photographs, a sweat shirt that bears the words "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel", and yet another exotic mask to hang on my "wall of masks".
Thanks mom!!!!

I spent Valentine's Day with Lisa (hi, Lisa!), watching Casablanca. I had never seen the whole movie. It was a primordial soup of cinematic cliches -- often one after another in quick succession. This can be overwhelming and disconcerting and, as one watches, one realizes where all those iconic moments and statements originated. It was a great film, and Bogie's struggle is certainly complex -- more so than most of what we see in the movies nowadays. He is, undoubtedly, a good guy who, despite his outward materialism, is really just a sappy sentimentalist (a symbol for America and Americans, no doubt). I had to laugh whenever he would sit and drink alone, except for poor put-upon Sam (the unappreciated piano player, and my favorite character). Bogie mopes around, because "of all the gin joints in all the world" Ingrid Bergman had to walk into his. When he said this, I could hardly believe he was saying it, because I've heard it quoted so many times by so many people in so many different ways.

The movie is like a microcosm of world history at the time, and its personal and political scope is well nigh Shakespearean. Is the French policeman Bogie's ally or a tool for the Nazis? Will he and Bogart ever have a "beautiful friendship". Why did Bergman deceive Bogie about her relationship with Laslow the revolutionary? What will Bogart and Bergman choose: their love for each other or their dedication to the cause? Will poor Sam ever get the respect he deserves? I mean, *shit* people push him around and tell him what songs to play and not to play (instead of making requests), they call him "boy" (despite his age), and they treat him like a loved and loyal pet (when, like anybody, he has a mind of his own). I believe we're supposed to see his employment at the club as yet another example of Bogart's secretly soft heart, but it's pretty clear to me that Sam IS the club, especially whenever anyone else tries to sing or entertain.

*Gets off soapbox.*

Other than the temporal mistreatment of Sam, however, I thought it really was a fine film. I can only imagine the impact it had before it was cannibalized by time and repetition, and so many of its lines and speeches became cliches.

I've experienced this very same phenomenon from the other end, when introducing younger folks to the original Star Wars trilogy. "I've seen it all before", they tell me. "In various and sundry different sci-fi epics, including newer episodes of said former trilogy."

"These movies," they say, "make Lando Calrissean (a.k.a. African-American actor Billy Dee Williams) look like a cad. And besides Terminator 3 was better."

And I'm saying (emphatically .. nay ... frantically), "But ... but ... but ... it's Star Wars, man! Can't you see that Han Solo (the capitalist with a heart of gold) and Princess Leia (the bearer of the revolutionary flame, who has a mysterious relationship with Luke Skywalker) were struggling with their love for each other and their dedication to the cause? And, besides that ... Lando got to pilot the Milleneum Falcon in Return of the Jedi ..."

The fundamental things apply
As time goes by ...
-- Sam the Piano Player

Now watch this: