play it again, Sam...

It's almost embarrassing how many times I have watched Casablanca. You can really say a movie is "great" when it has endless replay value. I don't know what it is about this movie.. maybe it's because my first encounter with the film was so "romantic". I first saw this classic on a huge white screen, over looking the Lake, outside on a blanket at Lake Las Vegas. The scene was something out of a movie... For me, it was defiantly love at first sight. And I'm sure it's because this film is simply incredible! Consider for a moment all of the amazing famous lines that come from this movie.. "Here's looking at you, kid" "Round up the usual suspects" "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"
"all the world is going crazy and we pick this time to fall in love" and probably my favorite "We'll always have Paris." They almost won an academy award for the screenplay and in my opinion, they should have! People who have never even seen this film quote it!! I love when Ilsa says "I don't know what's right or wrong anymore, you have to think for the both of us." Who has not felt like that? I know I have. It's just amazing that Rick was able to decide what he did and let Ilsa go. How do you do that? How do you let someone you love go, even when you know it's probably the best thing?...