Here's Looking at You, 'Casablanca'
Here's Looking at You, 'Casablanca'
A review of the new 4K UHD from Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released one of the greatest movies of all time, Casablanca, in 4K Ultra-high definition. Right in time for the holiday season, this release is sure to be coveted by movie lovers everywhere. For my money, it’s the best I’ve ever seen Casablanca look. But before I get into exactly how beautiful this new 4K disc is in motion, I wanted to share a little about why Casablanca continues to be an enduring classic now celebrating its 80th birthday.
Casablanca is now available to purchase in an Ultra HD combo pack wherever discs are sold. It can also be purchased from select digital retailers in 4K.
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Romance, war, and thrilling intrigue are some of the ingredients that make Casablanca one of the greatest movies of all time.
Most of the action takes place at Rick’s Cafe American, a nightclub and gambling den owned by American Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). The club attracts all sorts of strange characters— corrupt French officials, crooks, and German Nazi scum. Those are the type of people Rick expects to come into his establishment, but there is someone he never expected to see again.
Enter Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), Rick’s ex-lover who he last saw in Paris. He was a different man then— he stood up for the French against the approaching conflict with the Germans. All his fire disappeared when Ilsa left him on the train platform. Now that he has finally seen her again, his first thought is one of despair “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine…”
If only it was easy to rekindle their romance! But Ilsa is married to Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), a fugitive Czech Resistance leader. Laszlo knows how to motivate people and get them together to fight for a change; that frightens the Nazi regime. German Major Strasser has come to Casablanca to make sure that Laszlo never leaves Casablanca alive. The only thing restricting Laszlo’s safe passage is a letter of transit and the one person who happens to have two— Rick.
I’ve seen Casablanca a number of times now, but what was really striking to me about this watch was how deceptively detailed the script can be. Written by Julius and Philip Epstein, with additional work from Howard Koch, the screenplay for Casablanca has been hailed as one of the greatest in the medium for some time, but I’ve learned to appreciate it even more. Casablanca can be appreciated as this great romance between some of the greatest actors of our time. Who can ever forget Rick and Isla’s exchange at the airfield?
There is a lot more interweaved into the dialog of Casablanca though. There’s this overarching sentiment of freedom and standing up to oppression, but a lot more can be gleaned about these characters if one is truly paying attention. Casablanca is one of cinema’s most effortlessly rewatchable movies there is and I absolutely adore this movie, but what makes this new 4K transfer worth the purchase?
Disc Details
The 4K release of Casablance comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio mix that has cleaned up the original mono audio from the feature film. Casablanca was restored and remastered from a new 2022 4K 16bit film scan of the best-surviving nitrate film elements. That means this is a different restoration than seen in the 70th anniversary Blu-ray release and it’s absolutely stunning. The neon lights from Rick’s nightclub shine brightly and all the details come out just that little bit better. The film did get a pass using HDR10 which certainly explains how this vivid detail has finally come out. I don’t think Casablanca has ever looked this good.
The extras for this release are identical to those released for the 70th anniversary, so don’t expect anything new.
Final Thoughts
Casablanca is one of the greatest movies of all time and rightfully so. A fleeting romance between two Hollywood legends in Bogart and Bergman is one for the ages, and the script contains memorable lines that have stood the test of time. If you’ve never seen it before, it’s still one of cinema’s greatest treasures. Warner Bros. has now released the movie in the 4K UHD format and I couldn’t recommend it enough. While the previously released Blu-ray was in great shape, I love the vibrancy of the new HDR10 grading on the movie. I’ve never seen it like this before. It’s a must-have for 4K movie lovers.