La batalla de Argel

In 1962 after more than 130 years of French colonial rule, Algeria became independent. Gillo Pontecorvo's `Algiers' shows the decade leading to that liberation in a powerful story about Muslims asserting their rights through violence, hiding, and plotting in the Kasbah, a demiworld of narrow, winding, seemingly endless alleys that are the only protection the rebels have from the eyes of the French. The re-release of the 1965 black and white film is a convincing story of a people who do not want to be occupied and will give their lives so their families can one day be free.

The story centers on a couple of Muslim leaders, the charismatic Col. of the French forces, and the bombings and shootouts that at one point averaged just over 4 per day. The film's sympathy is for the Muslims, but the Colonel has moments of reflection that could be sympathetic, especially with the revelation that he was a member of the resistance in WWII and may have suffered in a concentration camp. The director shows the influence of Italian neo-realists like Roberto Rossellini (`Paisan') by shooting in documentary style on location, using non-actors (except for the Colonel), and generally avoiding an agitprop angle.

But the film's sympathy in the end belongs to the occupied people. When 3 rebel women change appearance to look French, infiltrate, and plant bombs, the irony obvious to American audiences in their current struggle is a tribute to the strength of the narration and characterization and the universal dislike of occupation and subjugation.

The torture of the Muslim prisoners is the most poignant relevance to the recent scandal in Iraq. The Colonel's justification for the practice to gain life-saving information is classic `ends-justify-the-means' logic still being used by great nations. In fact, the Pentagon reportedly had seen this film during the first days of the second Iraq War; some say they learned nothing from the film, which is an unforgettable study of occupation and defeat.

I wish I could locate a videocassette of this film--subtitled, not dubbed. The first time I saw it, I was a little put off by what I thought was a pompous disclaimer that "not one foot" of documentary footage had been used. But, in light of the finished product, it's a remarkable statement. If a film has better captured the harsh and ugly realities that are an inevitable part of a true revolutionary movement, I never saw it. It is greatly to its credit that one never gets a sense of "good guys vs. bad guys" here--only of people trapped in a truly impossible set of circumstances, from which no escape is possible without confrontation and bloodshed. It was depressing to see this movie in Berkeley in the early 70s, and hear the audience cheer the "heroic" Algerian revolutionaries while booing the "villainous" French, in view of the great pains that had been taken to present a balanced viewpoint. This film is thrilling, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and beautiful--sometimes by turns and sometimes all at once. If you haven't seen it and it show up anywhere in the vicinityh, drop everything and go--and pray that it's subtitled and not dubbed. (There are dubbed prints and, as is usually the case, dubbing pretty nearly wrecks it.) This is a masterpiece.

As Algerian, I watched this movie 2 times a year for 20 years, this movie is a part of my story. It helped me to put imagines and sounds to stories I heard from my teachers, cousins, as my grand-parents and my parents still can't talk about that horrible war.

By now, as I'm growing old, I understand that this movie is not the 'Truth', it was 'war', and in a war even good people can do horrible things. And I know what I'm talking about as I was there, in Algeria, during the 'Dark Decennial', while we were fighting against our own people whom turned terrorists in the name of Islam.

So for those who will watch this film, please just remember not to judge any of the parties : Algerian /or/ French. It was a war and no war is nice, people die, and those who survive will suffer. Films/art are a form of exorcism for that pain we keep silently inside.

I like this movie, because I saw tears in the beautiful green eyes of my grand mother every time she watched it and it always gave her a good opportunity to cry for my grand father that she lost during the war. I saw my father crying for his father that he never knew, and saw him also being closer to his mom because.

For me, this movie will always be a 'Good movie to watch in Family'

You will struggle to find a better argument to dissuade budding and existing occupiers of territory they have no legitimate claim to embarking on, or continuing with their despotic occupations of populations and their lands. The people of Algiers demonstrate as determined a will to overthrow their oppressors as their oppressors had demonstrated just over a decade previously in their fight to regain their freedom from tyranny. It is however, the gripping presentation of a reality into a thoroughly convincing and believable portrayal of that reality that grabs the audiences attention, giving it longevity, linking it to future conflicts, keeping it relevant. It leaves you questioning what you would have done under the same or similar circumstance, while juggling the difference in semantics between freedom fighter and terrorist and considering the situational similarities that currently exist in the world today.

An historian writing about the Algerian war against the French colonial authorities entitled his book "A Savage War of Peace". "The Battle of Algiers" provides many answers to that enigmatic title. It does not attempt to show us the entire war but centers on the city of Algiers. Even though you are told at the beginning that no documentary footage is used it is at times hard to believe as many of the images you see have a stark and often unsettling reality to them. Considering that this was a co production between Algeria and Italy the film is remarkable in that it does not turn itself a political tirade by taking sides. Instead the camera is a sort of neutral observer allowing us to witness events that spiraled from individual demonstrations to a full scale war of savage intensity. French officers who fought the Nazis a few years before degenerated into the mode of their former enemy while Algerians had no problems exploding bombs that would kill their own people. The camera shows no heros or villains but humanity in its darkest forms. This is a powerful film with superb direction and cinematography. It truly is one of a kind and once seen will never be forgotten.