Line #20 Awesome/Casablanca


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/casablanca_movie_screencapscom_8542.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[MusicForCourage ♫Allons enfants de la Patrie,]] [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Le jour de gloire est arrive!♫]]]]
3
4	* Seeing a group of German soldiers in Rick's bar singing the song ''Die Wacht am Rhein'', Victor Laszlo gets the band to play ''La Marseillaise'' (with Rick's nodded assent[[note]]Which some regard to be the moment when Rick decides to cast aside his neutrality and start helping the French[[/note]]). Laszlo and all the other customers sing their hearts out, completely drowning out the Germans.[[note]]Watch the man at the back of the German group as they try to continue their song. At one point, he slips and sings "L'étendard sanglant est levé".[[/note]] The final touch is when Yvonne (who had previously been flirting with a German soldier) starts weeping as she sings, and shouts "Vive la France! Vive la démocratie!" after the song is over.
5	** Yvonne was played by Madeleine Lebeau, a [[RealitySubtext French expatriate who had fled Paris in 1940]] to escape the German Army. [[EnforcedMethodActing Those are real tears of patriotism that you see in her eyes during the song.]]
6	** Made even better by the fact that the most heartfelt line was "To arms, citizens! Form your battalions!" [[note]] Well, [[BilingualBonus "Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!"]], but you get the idea.[[/note]]
7	** And remember, this movie was produced and premiered ''during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII''. France had been under Nazi control for two years, and would not be liberated for another two years. Moreover, there was a genuine concern at times that the US could either lose the war or simply be unable to evict Germany from France, with even a small possibility that some European actors might be deported back to Nazi-occupied lands and punished for their participation in the movie. Those expatriate actors aren't ''remembering'' those times, they were ''living'' those times.
8	** Made even better in November 2015, where many people on Facebook posted Website/YouTube clips of this scene in support after a terrorist attack in Paris killed over 130 people.
9	** In May 2016, Lebeau passed away, the last living actor of the film. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Every tribute to her]] was of her singing ''La Marseillaise'' with those tears in her eyes.
10	* Laszlo gets a lot of awesome. His character has already ''escaped from a concentration camp'' and then evaded the Germans most of the way across Europe with them hot on his tail the whole time. Even other characters in-universe are impressed. But his best awesome line is when he's pointing out to Major Strasser that killing him won't stop the resistance:
11	-->'''Laszlo:''' For every one of us you kill, ten more will rise, and hundreds after them. '''Even Nazis can't kill that fast.'''
12	** Notably, this was before most of the world knew of the Holocaust. Some of the cast likely knew, however, including Conrad Veidt, though such comments were usually dismissed as propaganda. It's entirely possible this line was written knowing exactly how nasty the Nazis really were, to show how heroic those who opposed them successfully were, too. The knowledge about mass killings was just beginning to spread in the West -- and the work on establishing death camps wasn't still quite finished at the time of the shooting. So the sad fact, most likely unknown to the film-makers at the time, was that Nazis, alas, actually ''could'' kill that fast.
13	* Captain Renault's riposte to Major Strasser: "We mustn't underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI 1918]]." Though a little undermined by the fact that [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Allied troops never reached Berlin in WWI]].
14	* Captain Renault has just seen Rick kill Major Strasser. The cops show up and look to him to tell them what's happened. "Major Strasser has been shot," he says. A pause, while Rick looks tensely at him. "Round up the usual suspects."
15	** It's minor, but afterwards, Renault is about to take a drink of mineral water when he sees by the bottle that it's from Vichy. He drops it into a garbage can, and then kicks the can for good measure.
16	* In one of the most famous IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy speeches ever as Rick tells Ilsa that they can't be together because the world is more important than they are. His [=CMoA=] as he gives up the most important thing in his life for others.
17	-->'''Rick:''' I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Here's looking at you, kid.
18	* And just before that, when Rick [[TheReveal reveals]] that he was only [[FakeDefector fake defecting]] to Renault, saving Victor and Ilsa and showing he's [[DefrostingIceQueen completely defrosted]].
19	-->'''Renault''': Have you taken leave of your senses?\
20	'''Rick''': I have. Sit down over there.
21	* The whole movie is one for Humphrey Bogart, who, given only his second chance to play a heroic protagonist (third if you count ''High Sierra''), and first to play a character who wasn't a manipulative jerk [[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941 (and even his previous character had a caring side)]], a chance he only got because other actors turned it down... he turns in arguably the most iconic performance in film history. This pretty much flipped his type casting, and he didn't play another villain until near the end of his career.
22	* Rick shooting Major Strasser, symbolically representing the defeat of the Nazis.
23	* Paul Henreid, too, given less screen-time and far fewer awesome and immortal lines than Bogie, somehow manages to avoid becoming the RomanticFalseLead... which is exactly what happened to every "Victor" in every Casablanca homage/retread/imitation since.
24	* Though Ugarte's attempt to escape the police fails miserably, there's still something incredibly badass about such a little, seemingly ineffectual guy being able to cause so much mayhem. The fact that it comes so suddenly and unexpectedly is what makes the scene so memorable. Ugarte at first appears to be sadly surrendering to the police...then suddenly dashes through the door, whips out a gun, and fires into a crowd four times, shocking everyone. Even then the police pile onto him he's still fighting with raging adrenaline. Yes, Ugarte, we ARE more impressed with you!
25	* Lazlo calmly telling Rick that their triangle with Ilsa is nobody's fault and he isn't going to posture as a betrayed husband is in its way very awesome, as is his telling Rick to use the letters of transit to take Ilsa and go.

Context Awesome / Casablanca