Taking shots at ‘Casablanca’

I’m no slave to tradition. Neither am I prone to loving something just because it’s new. There are old films that I love, just as there are new films that I loathe - and vice versa.

I’ve noticed, though, that the Web is full of lists. Hell, I’ve even contributed a few. But like the talking heads that argue over the television airwaves, they’re there to arouse your emotions. To get you not just thinking but ready to fight.

That’s certainly how I felt after reading this Web site , which seeks to attack one of the most beloved films in Hollywood history. And trust me, I’m not saying that “Casablanca” is beyond criticism. There are aspects to the film that are pure corn.

But the strengths of “Casablanca” balance them out. Those strengths include, of course, the beauty of Ingrid Bergman, the gloriously hammy acting of Claude Raines, some of the great lines of dialogue in cinema history and, most of all, the moody presence of the classic antihero, Humphrey Bogart’s broken-hearted club owner Rick Blaine.

So read the site and its list if you want. It makes some interesting points. I just don’t take any of them particularly seriously. As if to underline that, I add the following list of my favorite lines from “Casablanca”:

1. “We musn’t underestimate ‘American blundering.’ I was with them when they ‘blundered’ into Berlin in 1918.”

2. “But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that. Now, now… Here’s looking at you kid.”

3. “I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.”

4. “I came to Casablanca for the waters.” ” The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.” “I was misinformed.”

5. “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

6. “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.”

7. “Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.”

8. “Round up the usual suspects.”

9. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

10. “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’”

Below : The great “Casablanca.”