Casablanca: 70th Anniversary [Blu-ray] [US Import]

A fabulous wartime drama. It's got one of the most mis-quoted lines in cinema history, but for me, more importantly as it was filmed during the dark days of WW2, the German army officers in Rick's Bar start to sing the German National Anthem and are completely drowned out by the predominantly French customers and band and encouraged by the owner Rick singing La Marsellaise (many apologies if I've spelt the French National Anthem title incorrectly), showing neutral American support for the French and allies. If you haven't seen the film I recommend it to you.

Epic movie.

A classic movie, one of the best ever made, great film noir with awesome quotes and atmosphere of pathos. Let's hope they never do a colour version. Black and white really takes you back to the 30s and lack of HD makes it more romantic.

Great acting from all the cast, Started watching Humphrey Bogart films recently, great seeing the cars and clothing of that Era.

A masterclass in the art of romantic cinema. How theydid it they could not really tell you. They acted their parts picked up their pay looked at the film and could not believe what they achieved. The Colorado load of golden cinema.

My purchase of Casablanca's 4K was prompted after seeing it was available on I-player and watching parts of it, also a clip on U-tube. I must say seeing this film in 4K was a revelation to see such a finely detailed image that had so much depth to it. On my Panasonic 820UHD you can monitor the bit rate of the image. This 4K version has as far as I can judge an average bit rate of between 60Mbps to 70Mbps per second with a peak value of over 100Mbps and a minimum of about 50Mpbs. Comparing these figures to the Blu-ray it had an average of between 20Mbps to 30Mbps with a peak value slightly over 30Mbps. I then played the DVD from the three disc special edition of Casablanca that I already owed.....the bit rate on this DVD had a very a meagre average bit rate of about 4Mbps to 7Mbps with an absolute maximum figure of 10Mbps. I played on my 4K TV via two Panasonic players roughly in sync the 4K version and the Blu-ray.... I think if you watched the Blu-ray version on its own you would have been fairly satisfied....however it was very noticeable flicking between the two versions how much better the 4K disc looked compared to the Blu-ray. I then played the DVD in sync with I-player; the DVD was only slightly better and very poor in comparison to the 4K version which must be as close to perfection as will ever be possible. I suppose on film it would be like comparing a Super 8mm film print to a pristine 35mm print. Its a must have copy if you have 4K equipement.

I had this on dvd in a Bogart box set and never thought it one of my 100 best films. I do now.The restoration has stripped off the visual accretions of time, making the performances much more transparent. The chief beneficiary of this is Paul Henreid, whom I previously had thought a wooden dolt. But even the great performances seem much better nuanced. The other big gain is the soundtrack, with Dooley Wilson shining even brighter.So is it worth upgrading or investing first time in this 4k transfer? Could it be that this is the start of a beautiful friendship? Round up the usual suspects, in all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, and play it again.

I watch this about every 5 years. Not one of my top 20 but still very good.