hill of beans in this crazy world

----------------------------- A waiter comes up to the table with a tray of drinks.  He places one before Ugarte.
UGARTE:  Thank you.
(to Rick)
Will you have a drink with me please?
RICK:  No.
UGARTE:  I forgot.  You never drink with...
(to waiter)
I'll have another, please.
(to Rick, sadly)


You despise me, don't you?
RICK (indifferently):  If I gave you any thought, I probably would. --------------------- [from Casablanca]


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yesterday as I read the Derek Thompson article in The Atlantic, I thought, Wow, this explains a lot.  One point:


"Studios were better at making great movies when they were worse at figuring out what we wanted to see."  I think these sentences that say that some business, whether it's movies or tabloid journalism or unhealthy food, is "giving the public what they want" are always fallacies.  They sound right, but they're wrong. 


We, the public, do not really "want" silly gossip-stories about famous people, for example; we don't want junk food that's going to make us unhealthy and possibly dead; we don't want boring, average movies.  To the people trying to sell stuff, it sometimes may look like we want these things, because the money comes in, but it isn't true, we didn't WANT those things --


but the things got our ATTENTION, and we sort of slipped into a habit of -- eating the food, clicking on the gossip, taking children to the average movies.  Part of the reason those movies make money is because they become events, and people go because their children's friends are all being taken to see them, and it becomes what everyone's doing.


The answer to why some of this stuff sells is two-fold --
It got people's attention; and
Other people were attending it (or eating it, or whatever...)


That doesn't mean it was good.


And it doesn't mean that we wanted it.


If a fleet of Russian tanks were to come lumbering down the street, it would definitely get my attention and I would probably keep watching to see what was going to happen.  That doesn't mean I "wanted" those Russian tanks.
(Marketers:  "Get more Russian tanks and send them in!  It's What-The-Public-WANTS!!!!!!!!!!!")


Using the marketing-logic which states, "If people buy it -- or watch it -- then that means that's what they want" you would have to believe that I wanted those tanks.


(It isn't really what the public Wants, but What can we get the public to notice?  What can we get the public to tolerate?  Now we're a long, long way from creating art.  We're off the track....)

On an episode of 'Murphy Brown" someone says their news show has to give people what they want.  Murphy answers, "If you went by the surveys, it would show that what people want is free money and public hangings."


Part of mankind's civilizing process is making ourselves better, and making life better, by watching the good movies, reading the good books, etc.  It's why we have religion, and education.


And art.


Asking the public ("test audiences") how the movie should go is the wrong thing to do.  The public is not a filmmaker.



----------------------- RICK:  You've got to listen to me.  Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here?  Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in a concentration camp.  Isn't that true, Louis?


Renault countersigns the papers.
RENAULT:  I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
ILSA:  You're saying this only to make me go.


RICK:  I'm saying it because it's true.  Inside of us we both know you belong with Victor.  You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going.  If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it.
ILSA:  No.


RICK:  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.


ILSA:  But what about us?
RICK:  We'll always have Paris.  We didn't have, we'd lost it, until you came to Casablanca.  We got it back last night.
ILSA:  And I said I would never leave you.


RICK:  And you never will.  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...


Ilsa's eyes well up with tears.  Rick puts his hand to her chin and raises her face to meet his own.


RICK:  Here's looking at you, kid. ---------


__________________________
{script excerpts from Casablanca, directed, Michael Curtiz.  Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casey Robinson.  Based on the play, "Everybody Comes to Rick's" -- by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison.}


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