I finally finished watching Casablanca a few minutes ago.

Most of the movie was slow yet slightly difficult to follow. It suffered from too much unnecessary set-up; the movie might have been better off without the news-reel-style opening (which seems like it was popular at the time). Also, and more importantly, I found myself disliking characters (both Rick and Ilsa) whom I was pretty sure I was supposed to like. I started to wonder why it was considered a classic. It seemed over-hyped, much like Citizen Kane.

The ending of the movie, however, redeemed its status. It got to the point at which Rick delivers one of his famous lines to Ilsa, “If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it,” and suddenly I realized that I didn’t know the rest of the story. I knew that Rick would say that, but I had no idea what would actually happen. I didn’t know whether Ilsa would get on the plane. I didn’t know what would happen to Rick, or to Victor, or to Captain Renault. Suddenly, the movie became exciting, and I ended up really enjoying it as a result.