Casablance
...in the
police raid on the Resistance meeting. After going to investigate from the upstairs balcony, Rick privately instructs
Carl to take "Miss Lund" to her hotel room through a side door so that Laszlo won't know of their meeting. As
Carl sneaks Ilsa away, Rick engages Laszlo in a conversation and a drink to stall for time - and hears again of the
Czech's firm belief in the "good" of the Cause.
Rick: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean, what you're fighting for.
Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If you stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop
fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: And what of it? It'll be out of its misery.
Laszlo: Do you know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of
something he doesn't believe in his heart. Each of us has a destiny - for good or for evil.
Rick: I get the point.
Laszlo: I wonder if you do. I wonder if you know that you're trying to escape from yourself, and that
you'll never succeed.
Rick: You seem to know all about my destiny.
Laszlo does know of their mutual love for "the same woman" - a love for which no one is to blame. Without a
need to seek vindictive revenge or find an explanation, he suggests, in his own self-sacrificial offer, that Rick use
the letters of transit to take Ilsa away from Casablanca to a safe location - as a favor to him. He would remain in
Casablanca and take his chances. Incredulous, Rick is impressed by Laszlo's self-less caring, virtuous trust and
devoted love for her:
Laszlo: I know a good deal more about you than you suspect. I know, for instance, that you are in
love with a woman. It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we both...
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