Casablanca - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Casablanca



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
While I’m a huge fan of shiny and pretty looking modern movies in 4K ala Transformers, Bullet Train etc that can be used as demo material, very little makes me more excited than to see a black and white classic from Hollywood’s “golden age of cinema” come to 4K UHD. Black and White films seem to show an incredible ability to make use of the HDR in non typical ways, and can show massive improvements over their 1080p counterparts. And luckily for us, 1942’s Casablanca is a jaw dropper thanks to the remastering/restoration from Motion Pictures Imaging Labs.

Casablanca, Morocco. A place that’s easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if you’re hunted by the Nazis like resistance fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) who has come to Casablanca to use as a way out of his over run Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately for Victor his “mule” was captured for smuggling people out of the country illegally, and the only person who can help him is Cantina owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who has burdens of his own. It doesn’t help any that the female compatriot that Victor is bringing with him is the lovely Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who just so happens to be the lover that jilted poor Rick 10 years ago in Paris. Now Rick has to decided what is more important to him. Innocent lives that hang in the balance, or his own bitterness and longing for a woman who left him a decade ago.

Casablanca is one of THE quintessential classics of the 1940s. When people thing of Humphrey Bogart, they think of this movie. A romeo and Juliet affair that is more bittersweet than it is a classic romance, even though many over the years have miscategorized it as one. Director Michael Curtiz has an incredible resume for his repertoire of films over the years, and Casablanca is his biggest budgeted and most nuanced film yet. It pulls from classic Neo Noir storytelling, war time drama, and even romantic drama as he intertwines his main characters in the roiling beginnings of Hitler’s invasion across Western Europe. It’s tightly directed, and even at 1 hour and 42 minutes leaves the audience wishing that it doesn’t have to end with Bogart kissing Bergman in the rain as he sees her off.

Many a film is great in memory, but when you revisit them it’s a miracle that they’re as good as you remember. Casablanca remains one of those films as it has stood the test of time, spanning 80 years, and still introducing people to the world it created. It’s tense, terrifying, bittersweet, and yet entirely approachable in how the audience can just melt into the drama without feeling like it’s old fashioned cheese. Sure there’s a few lines like the classic “of all the gin joints in the world” line that are kind of dated, but overall the film is still perfectly relatable nearly a century later.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video Video:

Casablanca comes to 4K UHD with an absolutely show stopping 2160p encode that shows just how amazing black and white films can look on the format. The Blu-ray looked amazing years ago, but this is just a whole nother level with the HDR10 application. Black levels are going to paramount in a B&W film (duh), and the silky inkiness of the presentation is a sight to behold. Deep blacks that never crush even in the dark alley’s of Casablanca, or the lovely film grain texture that doesn’t ever really show any major signs of spiking or artifacting. Fine details are amazing, with every facial detail and line on Bogart’s suit looking like it was filmed yesterday. Skin tones show good saturation and even balance, and even though I tried, I just could not find something that stood out enough for me NOT to give this a perfect 5/5 rating.









Audio:

At first I thought this was the same DTS-HD MA Mono track found on the Blu-ray collector’s edition (the original minimalist edition only had a Mono Dolby Digital track if memory serves me right), but according to Warner this is a newly remastered mix for this release. It honestly sounds great too, and I’d give it has a slight bit more fidelity and crispness to it than the old Blu-ray release. Some of the hisses and pops seem to be eliminated, and the resulting dialog driven Mono mix is still superb. Think of it as a slightly more polished and refined version of the old mixing. I can’t detect any massive differences outside of the fact that it just sounds a bit more refined, with less harshness on the high end and near complete artifact elimination. Great mix









Extras:

• Commentary by Roger Ebert
• Commentary by Rudy Behlmer
• Introduction by Lauren Bacall
• Great Performances: Bacall on Bogart (1988 PBS special)
• Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You've Never Heard Of
• Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic
• You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca (1992 TEC documentary)
• As Time Goes By: The Children Remember
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes
• Who Holds Tomorrow? (1955 "Casablanca" TV episode)
• Carrotblanca (1955 WB Cartoon)
• Scoring Stage Sessions (audio only)
• Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater Radio Broadcast – 4/26/43 (audio only)
• Vox Pop Radio Broadcast – 11/19/47 (audio only)
• Trailers
• Warner Night at the Movies
-- Now, Voyager trailer
-- Newsreel
-- Vaudeville Days (1942 WB short)
-- The Bird Came C.O.D. (1942 WB cartoon)
-- The Squawkin' Hawk (1942 WB cartoon)
-- The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942 WB cartoon)

Final Score: ​

The new 4K UHD edition looks and sounds amazing, with a new remaster from Motion Pictures Imaging Labs that looks INCREDIBLE. It’s got the same extras as the old Blu-ray from over a decade ago, but fans of classic black and white movies will be absolutely stunned with what they’ve done with the film elements. Highly recommended as a movie, and HIGHLY recommended as a 4K UHD disc. Something that is a must buy for cinemaphiles.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Written by: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Spanish (Latin), Czech, Hungarian, Polish DD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Netherlands, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish (Latin American), Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 8th, 2022

Recommendation: Must Own

 

[JStewart]

Pre-order placed! I never tire of seeing this classic. Had to order this disc after reading the review.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. A great movie to have and own. I have seen this many times.

One of the best propoganda films that the USA ever made during WWII..

When I was in high school, we had to watch this movie and discuss in class all the various points the film was trying to make as part of America's propoganda . We actually had to go frame by frame and make note of all the symbolism and what it meant and explain/debate.

Very interesting how a film could be made to not only entertain but also to help give direction to the audience in how to think and act.

 

[JStewart]

Thanks for the review. A great movie to have and own. I have seen this many times.

One of the best propoganda films that the USA ever made during WWII..

When I was in high school, we had to watch this movie and discuss in class all the various points the film was trying to make as part of America's propoganda . We actually had to go frame by frame and make note of all the symbolism and what it meant and explain/debate.

Very interesting how a film could be made to not only entertain but also to help give direction to the audience in how to think and act.

Thank you for the link!

 

[tripplej]

JStewart, the movie is indeed a very well done movie but when we were studying it in high school, we didn't realize how much symbolism and consequently propoganda was put into the film from each frame/scene to the next. It was fasinating to find while we were dissecting the film in history class. An amazing film for sure to analyze and understand/debate.