Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Dalton (A) on November 17, 2002 at 10:59:34

In Reply to: Am I the only one here who finds "Casablanca" boring and generally poorly made? posted by Victor Khomenko on November 07, 2002 at 08:05:57:

All I see is poor acting, overwrought dialog, numerous technical flaws (bad makeup, crude matte paintings, awful sets, cheap use of stock footage, etc.) and a script that reads like a bad off-Broadway play. I can not believe that this movie is considered one of the greatest of all time. A few original camera tricks and lighting techniques just don't make up for what appears to have been a rushed and slipshod production. And even if I hadn't known from previous viewings that Rosebud was Kane's sled, the "revelation" that this multi-millionaire lived a completely miserable existence simply because his mother was a cold fish and so he never learned how to love struck me as hackneyed and sophmoric. When the film ends, we are "introduced to the players" through a series of mostly humorous snippets from the film, played over lively, cheery music. It shows how seriously Welles himself originally intended us to take the movie.

In comparison, Casablanca is a masterpiece.