It's worth noting that the setup for this film — to contemporary audiences — is certainly no more complicated than the oft-derided "Phantom Menace" crawl that blathers on about trade disputes and Senatorial committees:
"You got your Nazis. But they don't have any control here. But they conquered France. Except that one part of it, that surrenders. That's call Vichy, and it's run by Petain — you'll see those names later. So people are leaving France to come to North Africa. Oh, France owns that, too. Unoccupied France. But people don't want to get stuck there, so they're trying to get to America. Well, yeah, maybe some other places, probably a lot to Argentina and S America, but we're only going to mention the United States. So they want to go there, but they can't go straight there, probably because of airline deregulation. So they need to go to Lisbon in Portugal. Yes, that's a really round-about way to get to Lisbon, but I guess Franco doesn't want them trudging through Spain, and they can't get a ship there. Anyhow so it's Unoccupied France, but there are still Germans there. Remember them, they conquered France, except for the Vichy guys. So they don't control stuff, but they kind of do, except for the criminals, except they're working with the police who are kinda in bed with the Nazis except when they want to save face. But the French still hate the Germans, except when they're working with them, but probably even then. So that's why those people are sneering and those people are shouting and those people are singing real loud. And don't even ask about that Italian officer guy, or why Louie's uniform keeps changing."
The geopolitics of the background make the Rick-Ilsa-Victor triangle look like a piker.
Now … wait until Kay learns that the next movie I'm going to inflict on her has three of the same actors …
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I actually gave an abbreviated version of this briefing to Kay in front of the movie, and there is a voice-over at the beginning that talks a bit about it — but, really, if you're not watching it in 1941, the politics that frame in the plotline would be pretty difficult to follow.
Ooh! The Maltese Falcon!
Here’s looking at that, kid.
Great movie, still one of my faves that I will watch whenever it comes on the TV.
So, how in the world did Kay not know or understand any of the background of Casablanca?! I knew it when I first saw it, and I was in 4th grade. Have the school systems become that craptacular that kids do not know or understand WWII by the end of Primary School?
I don’t think I had a world history class in elementary school. I knew at the time, but only because of my interest in wargames and my subscription to “Strategy & Tactics” … And, that said, I would be surprised if elementary school kids learned about unoccupied France and the nuances of all that, vs “Germany / Poland / France / Battle of Britain / U-Boats / N Africa campaign / Italy / Normandy / Cold War” level of detail, mixed in with “Pearl Harbor / Naval Battles / Island Invasions / A-Bombs” from the Pacific Theater.
She’s going to be learning WWII in more depth in this year’s social studies class (7th grade). I’ve offered to tutor her …
Wow… ~boggles~
I guess score one for Hippy School since we covered Colorado History, US History (up to 1945) and world History (up to 1945) in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. That and once I was learning about those things in class I spent time reading more about history in general in “Private Study”.
Also, at the time KRMA use to have GED history on, so US History for an hour, World History for an hour for the entire summer, loved those shows and watched them every year until high school…that and all the great B/W movies that KWGN had on during the summer.
One idea that may be very helpful for KAY and WWII (at least I have found it greatly informative in the timeline of the war) is the WWII Tweets feed. Just seeing how things were going on in the different theaters at the same time, as oppossed to how i learned them, Europe first and then the Pacific. That tweet feed really puts the entire war into perspective.
As I recall, my grade level history / social studies was:
4 California (sugar cube missions for the win!)
5 International (Japan and Canada)
6 … (I honestly don’t remember) …
My dad was also something of a WWII buff — movies and documentaries alike — so I got exposed to things like “The World at War” and “Victory at Sea” from an early age.
I agree about the WWII Tweets (https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII), though (a) Kay is not on Twitter yet, and (b) it may be too specific detail in too short a time frame.
Ahhh, Vitory at Sea, good show.
~makes note to download theme~