Entries in Casablanca (2)
Why I watch, part 1
movies Every once in a while I get asked the question "Why do you watch movies?" It is a bizarre question to ask someone, especially when they enjoy dramas or melancholic movies. Why would someone want to watch the painful choice of Sophie? The self destruction of Jake La Motta? The horrors of the holocaust? Or the brutality of nature? Is it voyeurism? Escapism? I figured I'd discuss some of my favorite movies and see if I answer that question for myself.
The Fall of Man
Martin Scorsese had to almost die for this film to be made. Robert DeNiro read Jake La Motta's autobiography early in the 1970s, and continuously pressured Scorsese to make a film about La Motta. For whatever reason, Scorsese kept passing on the idea, but while bedridden from a near fatal drug overdose, he finally read the book and agreed it would be his next film after his recovery. Scorsese would claim in later interviews that he poured everything he had into Raging Bull fearing he would not be around much longer.
And boy does it show. The movie chronicles the tragic, self destructive life of the famed boxer, beginning with his late rise and sudden downfall stemming from his stubbornness and jealousy. He is a man full of inexplicable rage, against his fellow boxers, his brother, his wife, and mostly himself. Not a hero, not a man to like, or emulate, yet strangely sympathetic.
This movie is my favorite Scorsese movie, and it ranges from the technical to the emotional. The film is shot in black and white, suggested to hide the copious amounts of blood during an era of stricter censorship, but more likely to give hints of a documentary style, to match the period of the 1940s, and portray the simplistic certitude of La Motta's state of mind. It seems every introduction of a character is done through slow motion to convey the importance of them to La Motta. Finally, the fights, with the ever changing ring dimensions to reflect the state of mind of La Motta in the ring, to the use of smoke and fire, the flashing of the lights, the sweat, the cleansing that is almost religiously ritualistic, and the blood, are mesmerizing and horrific.
The story is relatively simple. A Bronx bull fights his way to the top of the boxing circuit, only to lose his title and the love of those around him. However, the details of his transformation is what makes La Motta so fascinating. Proving to his brother his superior strength, both physically and mentally, La Motta asks the brother to punch him repeatedly until he bleeds. Gearing up for a fight, La Motta's wife sexually arouses him, and then he douses himself with ice water, denying himself pleasure and using that sexuality to savagely beat his opponent. Refusing to be knocked down, La Motta must prove to Sugar Ray that he can withstand any punch, and in the most memorable scene from the movie, withstands a barrage of punches. La Motta's downfall isn't quiet either, with his marriage being severed after he beats his wife and his brother after a falsely suspected affair, with an encounter with the police for an underage tryst, with the selling of his prized championship belt, and with his lousy comedy nightclub act.
It's a heart-wrenching movie, even if the protagonist is unsympathetic. Yet, what draws me to it? Do I see a part of myself in the boxer?
A Soaring Heart...
What more can really be said about the greatest love story in all of film? Written by the greatest twin screenwriters (well, other than the Kauffman twins), the movie tells the old tale of forbidden love. The film is a tragedy. Rick doesn't get the girl. Laszlo will continue to be hunted. Isla will still harbor feelings for Rick. I guess Louis and Rick will be better friends, maybe. Yet, this movie is considered a love story, a romance that women will enjoy more than men. What other great romantic films are out there that compare to Casablanca's bleakness?
More than you might think. Sure, we have our Notting Hills with love that will be "indefinitely." Harry and Sally are reunited at New Years. The hooker with the heart of gold eventually stops tricking. Meg Ryan does have mail. But, what about Gone with the Wind? Here we have the highest box office movie ever, where the man tells the girl to bugger off. In Brief Encounters, the two lovers know their moments won't last forever. Love Story ends in death, The Way We Were ends with a sappy song, and Breakfast at Tiffany's has Mickey Rooney as an offensive caricature of a chinese man.
In the end of Casablanca, much is unknown. Rick has sacrificed his happiness for that of Ilsa's, and it is not certain knowledge that Ilsa and Lazzlo will survive the war. Rick is the man I want to be. He can get any girl, but he is willing to give up the girl, and his livelihood, and his happiness, for the noble good. If I watch Casablanca to see what I want to be, do I watch Raging Bull to see what I don't want to be?
Unknown Intimacy
If I were to learn a foreign language for the silly purpose of being able to watch movies without subtitles, I would learn Swedish for the sake of being able to watch Scenes from a Marriage without being bothered by text on the screen. I want to be able to focus on the eyes of Liv Ullmann.
Here we have another romance that ends in tragedy. A man and his wife have a "convenience" abortion. A man and his wife find intimacy outside their marriage. A man and his wife betray each other emotionally and physically. A man beats his wife. A man and his wife get divorced. A man and his wife, in the middle of the night in a dark house somewhere in the world, realize they will feel true love ever again.
To watch a movie like this, I am far too young, too inexperienced, and too naive. Yet, this movie stirs in my heart both excitement and fear with the hopes of one day having such an intimate relationship and the possibility of squandering it.