Here’s Looking at Us

I recently watched Casablanca, and I don’t think it was my first time, but the first time was long ago enough to be nothing but a wispy memory. The movie felt uncomfortably relevant, as so much of what is going on in the the U.S. right now has me thinking about my Dutch father and his experiences in Holland during WWII. He and his family were only occasionally in direct contact with Nazi soldiers, but they witnessed the soldiers marching through their village, understood why the Jewish houses in their village were empty, and endured checkpoints and their young men getting rounded up for the German war machine. People being persecuted for who they are, being deported without cause, and stripped of their rights. Hmmmm, sound familiar?

I assumed the movie had been made after the war — that’s when people get perspective, right? I was surprised to learn it was made in 1942. That would be after the U.S. got involved in the war, but perhaps before people were fully aware of the intention of fascist Nazis to murder all the Jews in Europe and other people they deemed undesirable, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, and people with disabilities. We can’t have people like that lollygagging around, now can we?

I was watching the DVD because I am old school and have a DVD player, and also, as of this writing the library is tariff-free and still funded. There was a commentary by the late, great film critic Roger Ebert in the bonus material. I’m usually not one for watching movies multiple times, and I rarely watch bonus material. Who has that kind of time, and also a very bad, rambling commentary of memories by Mel Brooks for Blazing Saddles may have had a negative influence. But I remember watching Ebert for many years on TV, and thought he’d likely have something interesting to say.

I was not disappointed. He noted that while the movie was entirely shot on the Warner Bros. lot, it felt very authentic because most of the people who were extras were actual refugees from Europe, fleeing fascism and the Nazis. He called out the scene where the Germans start singing a military song, “Die Wacht am Rhein” (The Watch on the Rhine) at Rick’s Cafe. The other patrons drown them out singing the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” He pointed out that one of the reasons the scene is so moving is that when you scan the people singing in French, they are truly visibly moved. They weren’t just acting, as displaced people, they were singing from their hearts and without the knowledge that Hitler and the Nazis could be stopped.

The other thing that caught my attention was that he said that that Warner Brothers was the first studio to call out fascism and was unapologetic about it in the movie, which was made not knowing how the war would end, but with a clear understanding of the importance of resistance in all its forms. They employed a lot of the refugees who were coming into the country.

Kinda makes you think. We don’t know the outcome yet of these next four years and beyond, and I try to keep in mind that every new group Cheeto flea and his muskrat minion abuses, deports, dismisses, or financially ruins, is one more group who may join the resistance. Because whether you are Costco or Harvard telling Cheeto to shove it, or a movie extra singing the French national anthem in French, or an American deciding you are not going to give into despair, it all matters. Keep going, rest when you need to, and enjoy the simple joyful moments. Here’s looking at us, kids.