Anyone who can't enjoy Warner Brothers' 1942 classic Casablanca on the level of a romance probably also can't understand why the film consistently ranks at or near the top to critical ratings of the best Hollywood films of all time. The truth is that Casablanca actually deserves much more respect than it already receives precisely because the love triangle at its center holds together the central political metaphor at play in the plot so tightly that no amount of melodramatic intrusion can untie it. If you can't enjoy Casablanca on the level of great cinematic romance, perhaps you should learn to see the film through the prism of historical allegory. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, a quick history lesson. The era: the late 1930s. The place: Europe. The problem: the uncontrolled spread of fascist ideology by force. The Nazi party that has taken power in Germany makes Europeans very nervous. They still don't know exactly what Hitler wants, but it's starting to look certain that most of the continent's population won't like it if he gets it. The invasion of Poland kicks off the most catastrophic era of the 20th century. Hitler and his jackbooted thugs devour the less militarily powerful countries one by one and with shocking ease. Like a pile of dominoes, the other powers of Europe fall under the brutal onslaught of fascism. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the United States' confidence that what is happening on the other side of the globe is an internal dispute that has nothing to do with them is starting to collapse like a house of cards facing a tornado. The situation is becoming increasingly clear to more and more Americans. That whole Hitler thing is no longer just a European problem that has nothing to do with a country desperately struggling to put the Great Depression behind it. There is a word to describe the collective perspective that held the American consciousness in the years before principal photography began on Casablanca, just over six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. being dragged into the conflagration that Europe was experiencing it for the second time in less than three decades. What is now called World War I was still called the War to End All Wars when official and unofficial Americans faced Hitler's blitzkrieg across Europe to avoid getting caught up in another bloody brawl between the powers of Old World. Or, to put it another way: America didn't risk its neck for anyone. It's worth mentioning that Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) says the same thing to Captain Renault (Claude Rains). Another thing that is mentioned is that Rick's Café is actually called Rick's Café Americain. Everyone comes to Rick's. This is the sentiment expressed by Captain Renault, but what he really means is that everyone comes to Rick's Café Americain. That coffee wants to represent America; a place where all are free to bask in the enjoyment of capitalist free enterprise and the most positive expressions of democracy. (Unless, of course, the American is in the midst of one of those periods in American history that appear every thirty or forty years in which racist immigration laws prohibit certain "everyones" from coming to America.) Rick's Café Americain is a microcosmic expression of the larger metaphorical concept at play in Casablanca. Rick may be a benevolent despot as the owner of his bar, but even more so of the country.