DVD cover choices

I was at a friend's place yesterday, and I happpened to see the case for the Casablanca DVD. Perhaps it's a little trite, but Casablanca is one of my favorite movies. So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw how poorly designed the case is. I approve of the front cover, it is one of the original promotion posters:

But the stills selected as well as the blurb on the back leave alot to be desired. The case that a movie comes in should give some sense of what it is about, without giving anything away. This case gives everything away, without giving any sense of what the movie is about. Casablanca is so good because it involves the audience in a completely self-contained world. The love story really isn't all that interesting. Its almost a cliche. The creation of the city of Casablanca with all its inhabitants is what makes it so successful. The real accomplishment of the movie is the same as that of The Lord of the Rings, you get a sense that there are things going on outside of the main action. The fictional universe of the story takes on a certain reality because of that. So, which stills are chosen to represent this word? On the back this one. And on the inside flap this one. The focus is completely on the love story, entirely missing the actual point of the movie. What would I have chosen? Easy. Unfortunately, I can't find them online. For the back I would pick the final shot, of Bogie and Claude Raines walking off into the night. The reason is simple. It captures the sense of mystery in the movie. Where are they going? Who are they? All you can see is their backs as they walk off into limbo. Which, of course, is what the city of Casablanca is, limbo, a way station, a sort of purgatory where one stays until he finds a way out. This shot gets a person wondering, which is exactly what the DVD case should do. For the inside flap I would choose an interior shot of Rick's indoors after closing. Doesn't matter which one, so long as it shows most of the bar, and doesn't have Ingrid Bergman in it. Rick's is where most of the action in the movie takes place, and it embodies the rootlessness of Casablanca. I don't want Bergman in it for the simple reason that she is beautiful and hogs every shot she's in. For this purpose, the barroom needs to dominate, so that a person who picks up the case casually will connect to it, and not to Bergman's star power. I have more to say about Casablanca, alot more, but I'm done for now.