MACY'S DAY PARADE, LIONS FOOTBALL, AND CASABLANCA

Thanksgiving again, and Casablanca's on TV again. Turns out it was released around Thanksgiving, 1942. Ebert calls it The Movie. Every time I watch it I remember some gem I'd forgotten, and the emotions of the thing actually intensify. I've tried to explain to my wife how the movie illustrates America's ambivalent relationship with the rest of the world, our frustration at the evil that surrounds us, our reluctance to get involved, and our deep-seated desire to do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself. And, of course, the sense of collective sacrifice that we probably haven't had since the end of that war, the subconscious longing for a worthy national objective which drives us between aimless hyperactivity and Carterian malaise. She stares back at me blankly.

Script is here.