[Natalie LaCourt]

When analyzing Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1943) in terms of Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, we are able to interpret this film looking at it as a universal story that we can see played out across vast cultures and spans of time, even though this film does not appear to resemble classic myths that we typically think of. Looking at the film through Campbell, we are also able to more fully understand Rick as the hero figure, which as Sara points out in her post, is hard to fully approve of throughout most of the film.

The film begins seeing Rick as a stoic, selfish businessman in all ways of life. As Rick says at the beginning as one of his acquaintances is getting arrested, “I stick my neck out for nobody”. The film takes a sharp turn though when the monomyth begins and Rick receives the “call for adventure”. In Casablanca, I would argue that the call for adventure takes place as Sam begins to play “As Time Goes By”, symbolically indicating a sharp change in the saloon and a reversion to Rick’s time in Paris. In this case then, Ilsa would be the “herald”, but unlike Campbell’s assumption that the herald is “often dark, loathly, terrifying and judged evil by the world”(53), Ilsa is said to be “the most beautiful woman in Casablanca” and represents love, but also heartbreak for Rick. This sharp difference indicates the very personal hero journey and transformation that Rick undergoes. Hearing this “call to adventure”, Rick initially is upset by the call, but seeing Ilsa he breaks two precedents and sits down to drink with customers and then pays the bill.  By acting atypically in this situation, Rick chooses to answer this call to adventure and begins to involve himself with Ilsa once again.

With the influence of Ilsa, we begin to see Rick’s transformation and inner journey taking place. We begin to understand his emotional connection to Ilsa and his love for her when he sits at the bar drinking by himself and flashbacks from his past in Paris play for the audience. With the recognition of genuine emotion from Rick, viewers begin to sympathize with Rick and develop a connection to him. Another instance where he displays his emotions is when he helps the young Bulgarian couple win at Roulette so they will have enough money for exit visas to leave Casablanca for America. After this instance, Captain Louis calls Rick, “a rank sentimentalist”, which is a distinct departure from his original assertion that Rick was “neutral”.

The hero’s journey continues then as viewers begin to question Rick’s true transformation as he “refuses to call” at the point where Ilsa is trying to convince him to give her the letters of transit and Rick states, “I’m not fighting for anyone except myself”. This leaves the audience wondering whether Rick is a hero, since he does not seem to act selflessly towards the woman he loves in this crucial time of need for her. The real “belly of the whale” moment occurs, to me, when Rick is taken in the office of Captain Louis and Rick offers to set up Laszlo for arrest in exchange for his and Ilsa’s escape from Casblanca. Campbell describes this “belly of the whale” moment as, “Instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, the hero is swallowed into the unknown, and would have appeared to have died… But instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again” (91). By agreeing to help the police officer, the audience loses faith in Rick’s heroism and believes him to have sacrificed his morals for his own selfish reasons. Just when viewers think Rick has “died” though, we see a new Rick emerge as he pulls his gun out on Captain Louis. This new Rick “crosses the threshold” and “puts aside his pride, virtue, beauty and life and bow or submit to the intolerable” (108). By pulling the gun out on Captain Louis, Rick puts himself at peril in order to help others Laszlo and llsa escape.

According to Campbell, “The passage of the mythological hero may be overground, incidentally; fundamentally it is inward- into depths where obscure resistances are overcome, and long lost forgotten powers are revivified” (29). As Ilsa appears, Rick is forced to look back on his emotionally difficult past and remember how he once loved. As Rick accomplishes his deed and lets Laszlo leave with the love of his life, we see the heroic transformation that occurs within Rick, from this stoic businessman who “doesn’t stick his neck out for nobody” to this “rank sentimentalist” who sacrifices his own business and life in order to help those that he cares about.

—Natalie LaCourt

[Kevin Burke]

I really enjoyed your concept of looking at Casablanca as a Campbellian monomyth. The evidence you provided is all very convincing and compelling, especially the idea that the journey of the hero is necessarily inward, making the physical or geographic journey that is often paired with it only incidental. This is a great piece of evidence for Rick as a heroic figure, as he grows into that role while largely remaining in one location. Additionally, one more piece of evidence for Casablanca  as a monomyth continually struck me during our class viewing, one which as far as I’ve read I don’t think anyone else has touched upon. I had never seen Casablanca  before Monday, aside from clips of the more famous scenes, but the story hit me as familiar all the way through. Casablanca struck me as a condensed, WWII-era retelling of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. We’re given a love triangle between a woman who is recognized as beautiful by everyone in the work (as you’ve pointed out about Ilsa), and two decent men whom she cares for as well: one of which is more of a drunkard, and one is of a higher societal/political purpose. In Dickens, we have Lucie Manette as the beautiful woman, Sydney Carton as the less-successful, drunkard lawyer, and Charles Darnay as the more successful, aristocratic lawyer. Throughout much of the novel the two men vie for Lucie’s affection, much like Rick and Vick do in Casablanca. In the end, Carton recognizes that Lucie will be happier with Darnay, and makes the ultimate sacrifice for his love to be happy. This is echoed loudly in Rick’s final, selfless decision to let Ilsa go with Victor. Though Rick survives this sacrifice, and presumably continues a relatively happy life, he still made the same selfless decision to let his true love be happy with someone else. Perhaps the subtle differences of the events point further towards the idea that this story of loving sacrifice is more of a monomyth and less of an anachronistic re-telling. I’d be very interested to research how many different cultures and time periods have this same type of story, and what exactly the formal elements of it imply of humanity in a Campbellian sense.

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