Casablanca: Rick Blaine, the Personification of Isolationism

I love to show my students film clips that make history come alive, and that also give us a new way to discuss current issues.  The classic film Casablanca is a fantastic introduction to the buildup of Hitler’s power in Europe prior to the US entry into World War II.  But it is also very relevant to issues we hear about now on the nightly news.

The Historical Context:

Hitler invaded Poland in September of 1939; he conquered much of mainland Europe in the next year, including France in May of 1940, and continuously bombed England during much of this time.   The USA did not enter the war until December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Why did we remain on the sidelines for more than two years?

Many Americans favored a policy of isolationism, thinking that we should just stay detached from the growing problems in the world; Franklin D. Roosevelt did not agree with this, but avoided open conflict with Congress because of political gamessmanship — he needed their support for his New Deal policies.   Hitler’s arms buildup was troublesome, and the Japanese atrocities in China were appalling, but many of these politicians wanted the USA to just not get involved.

These same ethical dilemmas exist today: evil is widespread, but what circumstances should compel us to get involved in problems beyond our borders?   This is the constant foreign policy debate we face in choosing how to respond to issues in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Libya, and Syria.

What we can learn from this Film today:

“Casablanca” is a love story and a political story; it’s a film where the characters are both engagingly human and representative of the political realities in 1941 when the film was made.   Richard “Rick” Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is the American proprietor of a café in Casablanca, where political refugees from Europe are all waiting while trying to obtain some of the scarce visas to emigrate to the USA.   Rick and Sam, the Piano Player (Dooley Wilson), themselves escaped to Casablanca from Paris only one day before the Germans occupied the city in May of 1940.   Rick deeply loved a woman named Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in Paris, but he was left standing in the rain reading a “Dear John” letter before boarding the last train leaving Paris.  He is now bitter and cynical, happy to just take anyone’s money, engage in shallow relationships and “stick his neck out for nobody.”   Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), the proprietor of the Blue Parrot, concurs with Rick that “this is a wise foreign policy.”  Rick is the personification of American Isolationism prior to our involvement in the fighting in World War II.

One of the great scenes and turning points in the film takes place in Rick’s café, starting with the German officers gathering around the piano to sing “Die Vaterland”, the German National Anthem.   Victor Lund (Paul Henreid),  a well-known French Resistance leader married to the same woman Rick loved in Paris,  is incensed, and demands that the house band play “Le Marseillaise”, the French National Anthem.  The band looks to Rick for approval, which he nods and gives; then Victor, the band, and all of the other patrons loudly and emotionally drown out the Germans.   The scene not only demonstrates Victor’s charismatic leadership abilities; it also demonstrates that Rick has now made a decision to get off the sidelines and make a choice to support the “right” side, much as the USA did in deciding to get involved in the fighting in World War II.   This choice comes with consequences;  the German Major Strasser is incensed, and demands that the French Prefect of Police close down Rick’s café.

Rick still has his moments of doubt about choosing sides; after Victor has been injured in escaping a police raid on a meeting of the Resistance, Rick asks him if he ever wonders if the cause he is fighting for is really worth it?   Victor equates the question to hypothetically questioning “why we breathe”.    Ultimately, despite the strong feelings that Rick and Ilsa still have for each other, Rick decides to help Victor and Ilsa escape to America, after coming to a personal understanding that the “problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans” in a world where a madman like Adolf Hitler is bent on world domination.  And he utters the famous line that he and Ilsa will “always have Paris.”

Casablanca was made in 1941.   It’s harder to look forward from 2012 and know whether we are at a historical watershed, but looking back we know for sure that the decision of the US to join its European allies and bring the full weight and power of the US military into World War II was a crucial turning point in our country’s development into an economic and political Superpower.  What happens now?  At one point in the film, Rick wonders what the people sleeping in New York are thinking about the war in Europe.   We should no doubt wonder what the people sleeping in Washington DC are thinking about all of the problems we are facing and what they’ll do next.