Propaganda Within Casablanca - Essay Example

Section/# Propaganda Within Casablanca: A Non-Traditional Approach Many times the way in which propaganda in film is understood is overly simplistic. In such a way, when one discusses the issue of propaganda in the way in which it is oftentimes relayed within historic films, the viewer comes to a simplistic understanding of how certain groups are demonized, how key issues are understood, and how a particular side is taken. Although this is oftentimes the case, the fact of the matter is that many historical films have portrayed elements of propaganda that are not nearly so overt. A further reason that individuals are oftentimes not able to recognize, or gain inference with regards to the aspects of nuanced propaganda in film, is due to the fact that they oftentimes do not expect to see such finely detailed and nuanced forms of propaganda exhibited in historical films. Such an approach is something of an arrogant approach. This is of course due to fact that the individual who engages within such an interpretation is of the opinion that films of several decades past could not have had the skill or finesse of incorporating such nuanced and non-lateral forms of propaganda within their storyline. However, as this brief analysis will discuss, the fact of the matter is that even films of over one half century ago were expertly able to integrate nuanced forms of propaganda within their storylines and integrate them with the viewer. The key differential that must be understood is with regards to whether or not the viewer ultimately understood what they were consuming was propaganda or not. In such a way, such a representation of propaganda within films such as Casablanca serves as a type of gold standard for propaganda due to the fact that the viewer may very well be unaware of the fact that the information that they are consuming has strong elements of propaganda built into it. As a means of understanding this to a more full and complete extent, the following analysis will seek to point out and interpret some of the ways in which propaganda was utilized within the film Casablanca. It must be stated that the way in which propaganda is ultimately exhibited within Casablanca is not immediately apparent. For instance, the viewer might expect that a film with propaganda would necessarily depict the Nazis as brutal, conniving, racists and unjust conquerors. However, instead, the Germans are portrayed as fully human; albeit unemotional and unnecessarily egotistical. Moreover, one of the most effective means by which propaganda is elucidated within the movie is with regards to the sinister threat that such a worldview and violent empire poses to all of humanity. As a means of affecting this particularly sinister understanding of what the Nazi regime embodied, the filmmakers purposely allowed for a languishing pause between Colonel Strasser’s question and Rick Blaine’s response with regards to what a German invasion of the United States might look like. To the viewer within 2013, such an eventuality seems all but preposterous and impossible; however, the propaganda effect that this necessarily had upon the viewer of the film must necessarily have been much different. This of course brings the analysis to the vitally important understanding that propaganda within film cannot and should not be related solely with regards to what might strike the current viewer as propaganda. Rather, it must be understood within regards to the way in which propaganda would have been understood and integrate with the audience of the time. Ultimately, the answer to such a question is that the audience of the time would find such a mental image highly troublesome and likely would have engaged with this subtle portrayal of propaganda to a much greater degree than they would have likely responded to a more overt style of propaganda. Another vitally important way in which propaganda is related within the film Casablanca is not with regards to any specific image, dialogue, or scene. Rather, one of the most effective forms of propaganda which is exhibited within this film, is with regards to the level in which Casablanca is able to represent something of an American dynamic within the microcosm of Morocco. What is meant by this is with regards to the way in which Casablanca exists within the dynamic of war. Whereas all of Europe and a great swath of Asia and the Pacific were engulfed in a global conflict, the city of Casablanca was initially represented as somehow beyond the scope of this conflict. In such a way, the viewer is tacitly made aware of the fact that Casablanca could just as easily represent “anytown USA”. Whereas Casablanca is of course within Africa and merely a brief ferry ride from Europe and the war that was currently raging there, the contrast in comparison between the isolated and insular life that individuals within the city Casablanca can lead as compared to the rest of the world - and even the rest of Morocco, cannot be ignored. Naturally, one of the messages that the filmmakers and the wartime Bureau of Motion Pictures wanted to get across was with regards to the fact that no matter how isolated and far away from the theater of conflict the American viewing member may feel, the war must be understood as a right at their doorstep (Sennett 3). Due to the fact that this was obviously not the case, this is absolutely a level of propaganda that was desired to be furthered as a means of engaging a greater level of citizens with the conflict and extorting them to forever be vigilant against the eponymous enemy. A further level of non-overt propaganda that exists within the film builds directly upon the previous element of propaganda which was discussed in the preceding paragraph. Although it was necessary for the filmmakers, and by extension the BMP (Bureau of Motion Pictures) to display a global conflict that was nonetheless relevant to the individual, this in and of itself did not necessarily engage the individual with regards to what they were responsible for doing. As a means of accomplishing this specific aspect, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine exhibits something of the proto-typical and idealistic American hero. Although the reader may be at a loss for words with regards to labeling Humphrey Bogart’s character as a hero, the fact of the matter is that Bogart’s character serves as the response to totalitarianism and the representation of how the United States, and by extension its citizens, should be understood as the savior and guardian of the helpless. As a means of providing the many expatriates of a litany of nations the correct documentation and transit letters which would allow them to escape the United States, Rick Blaine serves as something of the American ideal with regards to rescuing and sheltering less fortunate individuals. Ultimately, Rick Blaine’s efforts can be seen through the prism of the poem that is etched onto the bottom of the Statue of Liberty which contains the following lines "Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door” (Lazarus 1)! Tying in alongside this level of propaganda is the fact that the heroes of the film, Lazlo and Blaine are represented in such an idyllic matter. Although it was not unnatural for lead characters to be represented as flawless within this particular era of filmmaking, the level and extent to which Bogart’s character and that of the French resistance linked Lazlo is unmistakable. This level of support and idealization that the film portrays with regards to the French resistance is also something that cannot and should not be ignored. Ultimately, at the time in which the film was made, France itself was locked into a life or death struggle against Vichy elements. Ultimately, Vichy France was something of a puppet and/or vassal state to Nazi Germany during the Second World War. However, the dynamics that existed between the pro-de Gaulle elements within France (representing the French resistance), and those elements which collaborated with and supported the German side was a topic that was fundamentally misunderstood and little cared about within the American populace. Ultimately, this level of propaganda with regards to the way in which the French resistance was understood helps to integrate the audience with a broader understanding of the fact that the United States was not only supportive of France and her struggle against German aggression, it was supportive of any and all states and peoples within the world that struggled against the oppression that a foreign military force necessarily brought to bear. Although it may seem as a bit of the stretch to consider all of this merely based upon the idealistic representation of Lazlo, the fact of the matter is that this particular representation was not affected prematurely or in error. Rather, it was painstakingly considered and determined that the French resistance must necessarily be represented in a highly positive manner as a means of integrating the audience with struggle that was taking place within Europe at that time. Ultimately the means by which propaganda is represented within Casablanca is somewhat distinct from what an individual might expect from a World War II era film. Rather than overtly painting the enemy as somehow inhuman, racially inferior, or frozen with an unnatural passion for domination and subjugation, the film represents an enemy that is both realistic and human. From this level of representation of the propaganda that is exhibited within the film, it is the belief of this student that the greatest level of meaning in propaganda that is exhibited is necessarily with regards to what differentiates the United States, its citizens/belief systems/and approach, from Germany. In this way, rather than engaging in a litany of negative stereotypes and assaults with regards to the population and particular approach that Germany espoused, the film was instead concentric upon the way in which the United States represented an entirely different dynamic. In such a way, almost all of the propaganda that was evidenced within the film is concentric around the way in which Americans should ideally behave in a world that is threatened by a solitary and regime. Rather than attending to their own needs and specifically adopting an everyman-for-himself attitude, Blaine, and the fellow characters that exist within the same dynamic, seek to demonstrate the ideal by which the American participant in this international struggle should engage with the world and understand his/her place within a much broader and wider struggle. Works Cited Lazarus, Emma. "The New Colossus." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. N.p., 12 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 May 2013. . Sennett, Alan. "Play It Again, Uncle Sam." Journal Of Popular Film & Television 37.1 (2009): 2-8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 May 2013. Read More