Major Strasser: What is your nationality?

Rick: I'm a drunkard.

Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

--

Watched tonight with my mom in theaters as part of the 80th-anniversary celebration. As we learned from TCM's Ben Mankiewicz, the movie was originally released just 10 days after the Allied victory in North Africa against the Nazis. Warner Brothers sped up production, and the film greatly benefitted from this dual press given that the city of Casablanca was a headline in every major newspaper in the world.

I was blown away with how modern the film felt, with its dialogue on power dynamics, its understanding of complicated relationships, and its unexpectedly frequent humor. I was absolutely hooked and can claim that this is a stone-cold classic.