65 Introduction Casablanca (Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942) has been the subject of two opposing sets of critical discourses over the years. The irst focuses on its development as a tool to help shape public opinion on the United States’ entry into World War II. The other explains its eclectic visual and narrative style(s) as a failure on the part of the ilmmakers to decide on a single, con- sistent artistic vision. Critics in this second camp cite several popular myths about the production history of the ilm as evidence of their thesis, which suggest that it feels disjointed because its plot was still being charted by a frantic cadre of writers well after shoot- ing began (Scharnhorst 2005: 167). For Andrew Sarris, the ilm is the ‘happiest of happy accidents’, an unin- tentional success story in which everything fell into place through sheer luck rather than by design (1968: 176). Diana Paladino calls Casablanca a ‘superposition of ictions and a mixture of genres. It is a pastiche. A dynamic, heterogeneous, and exuberant text, that builds its own imaginary universe using the base of other texts (ilms, characters, genres) with diferent laws and diferent codes’ (2002: 30). According to Um- berto Eco, the writers unintentionally stumbled onto a hit in their panic to complete the picture (1985: 6). The result, according to this narrative of the produc- tion, was a messy and inconsistent ‘hodgepodge’ (Eco 1985: 3). Eco argues that the ilm was able to achieve a kind of inadvertent cult status 1 because it serves as a ‘reunion’ of ilmic archetypes, writing, ‘Casablanca became a cult movie because it is not one movie. It is “movies”’ (1985: 10-11, emphasis in original). It is all the pleasures of Hollywood wrapped up into a single delicious (if incoherent) bundle. Indeed, according to Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik, ‘as a rule’ cult ilms ‘blur and push the generic conventions they are supposed to respect’ (2008: 2). As such, ‘the consumption of cult cinema relies on continuous, intense participation and per- sistence’ on the part of ‘an active audience’ (2008: 4). In the case of Casablanca, audiences must borrow Issue 9 May 2017 www.intensitiescultmedia.com Last Action Hero?: Casablanca’s Cult Film Propaganda Strategy Megan Condis Stephen F. Austin State University Abstract Casablanca has been described as both a masterwork of propaganda and as a chaotic production that only accidentally became a cult classic. Several myths about behind-the-scenes problems imply that its look and tone, which shift radically from scene to scene, were the result of a rushed and hectic production process. I argue, on the other hand, that the rapid and jarring generic shifts the movie deploys are a means of extend- ing its anti-isolationist political message. The ilm requires audience members to draw upon not only their knowledge of the situation abroad (which might be scant) but also upon their knowledge of ilmic conven- tions, particularly of other recent releases from the Warner Bros. Studios, to imagine multiple potential outcomes for the ilm’s love story; and, by extension, the battle against the Axis forces. Ultimately, a ‘happy ending’ and an Allied victory are only possible if Rick (Humphrey Bogart) rejects the cynicism of the ilm noir and embraces the role of the romantic hero. Film fans are able to intuitively grasp this notion not because they have a nuanced understanding of international afairs, but because they may have nuanced meta-under- standing of ilm conventions and of Hollywood as a meaning-making machine.