{"id":11825,"date":"2026-09-24T05:03:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/24\/iconic-film-character-intros-how-casablanca-teaches-us-to-reveal-a-protagonist\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:03:41","slug":"iconic-film-character-intros-how-casablanca-teaches-us-to-reveal-a-protagonist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/24\/iconic-film-character-intros-how-casablanca-teaches-us-to-reveal-a-protagonist\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Film Character Intros: How &#8216;Casablanca&#8217; Teaches Us to Reveal a Protagonist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/media-library\/casablanca.jpg?id=67819668&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;coordinates=0%2C82%2C0%2C82\"><\/p>\n<p>If I were voting for the best movies of all time, you&#8217;d better believe that <em>Casablanca<\/em> would be on my ballot. It&#8217;s one of those rare films that gets more perfect every time you watch it. You&#8217;re on the edge of your seat rooting for both love and revenge and righteous justice the whole time. And the ending still gives me chills. <\/p>\n<p>The movie is perhaps the best example of screenwriting I have ever seen, with different writers contributing lines at different times to build something that truly turned out great. <\/p>\n<p>You can study <a data-linked-post=\"2661197061\" href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/casablanca-script\" target=\"_blank\">the <em>Casablanca<\/em> screenplay <\/a>and learn many lessons, but today I want to talk about how it introduced Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and why every filmmaker should study this scene.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s dive in. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube\"> <span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"ebbcd5317081cbb978e6c8ac614ba270\" style=\"display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"auto\" lazy-loadable=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IfOQRKYfEmk?rel=0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/span> <small class=\"image-media media-caption\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Caption...\">&#8211; YouTube<\/small> <small class=\"image-media media-photo-credit\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Credit...\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IfOQRKYfEmk\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com<\/a> <\/small> <\/p>\n<h2>Build the Myth Before the Man<\/h2>\n<p>What this movie does so well is that it builds our expectations of who Rick is before introducing him, so we&#8217;re on the edge of our seats with anticipation. <\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re inside his bar, <em>Rick\u2019s Caf\u00e9 Am\u00e9ricain, <\/em>for a very long time before we even glimpse him. We hear his name spoken in hushed tones by refugees, gamblers, and corrupt officials. We even know a few things about him..<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;He won&#8217;t drink with guests.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;He never accepts checks.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But we take time getting to the man because director Michael Curtiz built high expectations in the audience&#8217;s mind. When a camera finally cuts to the man himself, the audience is already primed to pay attention and to embrace the star power of Humphrey Bogart as this legend as well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube\"> <span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"56f4c7bb2a4a47af19f7316c6cf71f72\" style=\"display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"auto\" lazy-loadable=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S9ID5DHsX8g?rel=0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/span> <small class=\"image-media media-caption\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Caption...\">&#8211; YouTube<\/small> <small class=\"image-media media-photo-credit\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Credit...\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=S9ID5DHsX8g\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com<\/a> <\/small> <\/p>\n<h2>The Anatomy of the Reveal<\/h2>\n<p>When Curtiz finally brings us into Rick\u2019s presence, we get glimpses of his body before we reveal the person. He&#8217;s signing a piece of paper when we meet him. <\/p>\n<p>The camera doesn&#8217;t start on Bogart\u2019s face. It opens on a close-up of a check authorization. We immediately see his authority and economic power within this ecosystem. He&#8217;s totally in charge here. <\/p>\n<p>The next thing we notice about Rick is that he is totally alone.<\/p>\n<p>We have the tilt now, revealing Rick in a medium shot. He is smoking and playing chess against himself. With no dialogue, Curtiz plants three traits that matter as the story unfolds. <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>He is a strategist.<\/li>\n<li>He is entirely alone<\/li>\n<li>He controls both sides of the board in his world.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>&#8220;I Stick My Neck Out for Nobody&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>We&#8217;ve said it before, but I&#8217;ll say it again: <a data-linked-post=\"2661197894\" href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/why-characters-need-a-code\" target=\"_blank\">your character needs a code.<\/a> We hear Rick&#8217;s as soon as we meet him. We have our visual reveal, and then a high-rolling customer tries to enter Rick&#8217;s private gambling room. <\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when Rick calmly stops him, rips up his check, and denies him entry. He doesn&#8217;t need to yell; we understand, as this guy does, that Rick has all the power here. <\/p>\n<p>And when Ugarte (Peter Lorre) later asks why he didn&#8217;t help a refugee, Rick delivers his ultimate thesis statement:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I stick my neck out for nobody.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This establishes Rick&#8217;s starting point on his character arc. The whole rest of the movie is about Rick breaking that pledge and all the good reasons he does it. <\/p>\n<h2>Summing It All Up <\/h2>\n<div>Okay, so the next time you draft a character intro, try it without any dialogue. How can you show this person being themselves without words? <\/div>\n<div>Can the audience pick that up right away? <\/div>\n<div>If the answer is no, take a page out of Curtiz&#8217;s book and let the visual storytelling do the work.<\/div>\n<div>Even if it doesn&#8217;t, you&#8217;ll always have Paris. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Author: Jason Hellerman<br \/>\nThis article comes from <i>No Film School<\/i> and can be <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/casablanca-rick-character-intro\" target=\"_blank\"><b>read on the original site.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I were voting for the best movies of all time, you&#8217;d better believe that Casablanca would be on my ballot. It&#8217;s one of those&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[38,37,43,42,39,40,44,41,36],"class_list":["post-11825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-news","tag-editing","tag-film","tag-guide","tag-info","tag-news","tag-tips","tag-topics","tag-tricks","tag-video"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Brokenmount","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/author\/sysop\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/category\/video-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Video and Film News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"If I were voting for the best movies of all time, you&#8217;d better believe that Casablanca would be on my ballot. It&#8217;s one of those&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}