Reviewing the Best Movies Ever Made: Casablanca, Beau Travail, The Godfather Part II

In this edition of Reviewing the Best Movies Ever Made, I’ll take a look at one film from the American Film Institute’s list of the best films ever, one from Sight and Sound’s, and one chosen by the users of the Internet Movie Database.

I had pretty strong feelings about each of these three movies, and as was the case with the first trio of films I reviewed in this series, I’d only recommend two of the three.

Casablanca (1942)

AFI No. 3

Warner Bros. Pictures, 102 minutes

Casablanca is a romantic drama based on Everybody Comes to Rick’s, an unproduced stage play. The story’s protagonist is Rick, a bar owner with a past now living in Casablanca, and focuses on what happens when a past lover and her husband enter his bar in need of help. The film boasts strengths in many areas, but has a particularly fantastic script with excellent characters and a great setting – Casablanca, which at the time was part of the French State, though actual France was occupied by Nazi Germany.

The screenplay for Casablanca won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1943 Academy Awards (with the movie also taking home Best Picture), and it’s still a fantastic script that holds up well by 2023 standards. The dialogue is fast-paced and clever and the movie is filled with memorable quotes. In the American Film Institute’s List of the 100 best movie quotes of all-time, Casablanca had a record six quotes included. I won’t mention any of them here, but you’ll recognize most of them if you watch the film.

Character-wise, the script is filled with a colorful cast. Humphrey Bogart fits the bill as our lead, Rick, with Ingrid Bergman starring opposite him as Ilsa Lund. What really stands out though are the side characters, from the owner of the Blue Parrot bar, to everyone working at Rick’s, and even characters with less screentime, like a pickpocket and a young couple who go to Rick for help getting visas. Everyone is interesting and great in their own way. Still, my favorite character was definitely Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains, the local police captain. He’s just got some great lines and Rains’ delivery is fantastic.

Casablanca as a setting is equally great. The film is black and white, so it’s funny that the best way I can think of to describe Casablanca is “colorful,” but that’s simply what it is – colorful and full of character.

The plot is interesting enough, though I felt that the pace slowed a little bit towards the latter third of the movie. When viewed today, it also stands out that the female half of our couple leaves all the decisions to be made by men. She’s still a developed and somewhat complex character, but I think if Casablanca were made today, Ilsa would take a little more authority in driving the outcome of the story.

Overall though, Casablanca is definitely still an enjoyable watch in 2023. This is a quality film, most noteworthy for its writing, that’s deserving of the praise it’s received. 

Grade: 9/10

Beau Travail (1999)

Sight & Sound No. 7

Pyramide Distribution, 93 minutes

What makes a movie a movie? Merriam-Webster defines the word “movie” as, “a recording of moving images that tells a story and that people watch on a screen or television.” If I film myself for half a day and then cut the footage down so that it’s two-hours long, that would technically be a movie – it probably wouldn’t be a very good movie, but by the definition it would be one. I have no doubt though, that this fictional two-hour film, which could be titled something riveting like, “Half-a-Day in the Life of Jeffrey,” would be more entertaining and watchable than Claire Denis’ French film, Beau Travail.

Imagine that you are walking through a museum or art exhibit and there’s a projector aimed at the wall and it’s showing some grainy clips of an artistic-looking scene that maybe has some sort of story loosely being told. You stop for a minute or two, watch a little of the artsy scene that’s supposed to be profound for some reason or another, and then you get bored since what’s being shown isn’t really all that interesting and head into the next room. Beau Travail is that artsy, pretentious and boring scene, but stretched out into two hours. It is a film trying so hard to be a piece of art and to be profound, but that is actually without anything really – any depth, any characters, any semblance of something interesting to say.

Beau Travail centers on a man reflecting on what happened when he served in the French Foreign Legion. If that sentence makes the film seem potentially interesting to you, you are, sadly, being misled. Beau Travail is more of a collection of artsy scenes featuring underdeveloped (or not developed at all) characters. If you enjoy scenes of men doing things like running obstacle courses, or shaving, or making a cup of coffee, well, then this might be a movie for you. 

Denis tried to make a film addressing important topics like masculinity, and that’s great. But please, please, give me a movie with some actual substance – a movie with characters or an actual decent plot. Give me something other than an art project that feels as though it were created solely for critics wanting to be impressed by something “profound.”

In Sight & Sound’s poll of the Best Ever Movies, 106 critics voted for Beau Travail, which was released in 1999, as the best film ever made. Other movies that were released in 1999 include: Big Daddy starring Adam Sandler, Will Smith’s Wild Wild West, and Stuart Little. I honestly would rather watch any of those three films than be forced to sit through Beau Travail ever again.

Grade: 1.5/10

The Godfather Part II (1974)

IMDb No. 4

Paramount Pictures, 202 minutes

Many film fans prefer The Godfather Part II to 1972’s The Godfather. Having just recently watched both though, I firmly believe that the original movie is the superior of the two. That’s not to say that The Godfather Part II isn’t a worthwhile sequel or a quality film overall, it simply doesn’t have the same magic, or pack the same punch, as its predecessor.

First, the positives: As a whole, this is an extremely well-made movie. The writing is smart, the acting is first-rate, and the overall aesthetic of the film is still great even by 2023 standards. I didn’t feel like there was a real standout acting performance the way I felt about Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone after watching the first film. Robert De Niro did win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the same character, and he’s good here, but I wasn’t blown away the same way I was by Brando. Everyone here is “very good,” but I wasn’t truly amazed by any of the performances.

Story-wise we follow both Michael Corleone, whose power has continued to grow after the events of the first film, and Vito Corleone, as we learn more about his history and rise to power. The Godfather Part II has a lot to say about how we can become our parents, even if we don’t necessarily want to, and there are a lot of interesting parallels between the characters of Michael and Vito.

There is a lot going on with the story though, specifically in what’s happening with the parts of the movie following Michael (which is a majority of the film). There’s just tons of plot to cover here and things are pretty talky, with plenty of scenes of characters speaking in a room about various power moves. If you’re a fan of watching people make deals and try to get the better of one another, there’s definitely no shortage of that – there’s not the level of action or excitement that was there in The Godfather.

The parts of the film focusing on Vito’s rise to power are sort of the opposite to the parts with Michael, in that while in Michael’s story there’s a lot going on and a ton of players to follow, the “Vito comes to power” story is about as basic as they come. Since we know Vito will become the Godfather, we can focus more on him as a person. Neither part of the movie is bad by any means, but if the Michael storyline had a little less going on, and the Vito storyline had a little more going on, things might’ve worked even better.

There also aren’t really any surprises in terms of the story. That’s not to say that every movie needs to have unexpected occurrences, but everything that ends up happening in The Godfather Part II is exactly what you’d expect to happen given the setup. There were several times in the first movie where things happened that I didn’t necessarily expect, but that still made sense in terms of the what was going on. Here though, what viewers figure will end up happening by the end of the movie does, in fact, end up happening.

The Godfather Part II is still a finely crafted piece of cinema that can be appreciated today. For me though, it falls more into the “very good” camp of films.

Grade: 8/10

Rankings: The 25 “Best” Movies Rated So Far

Schindler's List (1993): 10/10 (AFI No. 8, IMDb No. 6)

Casablanca (1942): 9/10 (AFI No. 3)

The Godfather (1972): 9/10 (AFI No. 2, IMDb No. 2)

The Godfather Part II (1974): 8/10 (IMDb No. 4)

Citizen Kane (1941): 4/10 (AFI No. 1, S&S No. 3)

Beau Travail (1999): 1.5/10 (S&S No. 7)