Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès

A rare cinematic achievement and a courageous picture, one of the very few fictions in French cinema to address directly the Algerian war and colonial army practices such as rape and torture. The film looks semi-improvised, but the story is still very strong, centered on the fascistic officer played by a young, believable Philippe Léotard. Director Rene Vautier spent years in Algeria during the war fighting on the side of justice, and everything here feels completely authentic. Moving songs (by Pierre Tisserand), poignant desert landscapes, and a modest and deeply effective sense of what is right and what is wrong add to this underrated masterpiece.

This is film is not very good. Some could tell it is mediocre. Why? 1) the acting is bad, 2) the plot is not very good, 3) the sound track is awfull, 4) The photography is just bad too.

Nevertheless it is watchable and even interesting. Why? The topic is very interesting. A group of anti-war young activists (one is a priest, some are leftists, one is a teacher) from Brittany are sent to the front in Algeria during the civil war. On the one hand they are reluctant to fighting and on the other hand they have to and, even, they begin to like it. From this point of view this is a very good anti-war film which can be compared with Warriors (1999) even if Warriors is very much better (better acting etc...) but it cannnot be compared with Kubrick's Paths of Glory which is a master piece. For sure it is better than MASH but it is not very difficult. I give 6/10.

When I saw the movie in a theater,some 30 years ago,we were two.

"Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès" is ,technically ,a rather poor ,nay,amateurish work.And nevertheless ,it's an important one.It preceded the much more accessible "RAS" (Yves Boisset) by almost one year.

It's some kind of scribbled notes about the war,but the words do not cut,they bite.All the soldiers on the screen are conscripts who do not know why they are fighting for and who are always screaming "la quille!" (=demob!)Tired,pitiful soldiers ,in a dirty war ,which was to France what Vietnam was to America.

The movie is made of several flashbacks and an epilogue .Rebellious draftees in les Aures (south of Algeria).A lieutenant (an excellent Philippe Leotard,it's interesting to note that this actor,now deceased,was known for his liberal lefties ideas),whose job is war and who is in the end more intelligent than the intellectual of his platoon.His takeover of Nono's death ,at the end of the movie ,followed by the lines in the final credits, shows that the last laugh is his.He knew from the start that the proles union was nothing but a good joke.

With the exception of a schoolteacher,all the draftees are non educated guys.One of them does not even know what a putsch is !"First,we shoot because we have the jitters,but little by little,we get to like it". There is no music,but there are plenty of songs ,most of them overtly anarchist and anti militarist :"do not set foot in this s...,or you will sink into it up to your neck".

Please ,do not compare it to "paths of glory" .René Vautier is not a great director ,but his movie was made from real facts and it is a moving account of how in Algeria ,young boys'lives were stolen -two of them disappeared mysteriously ,we're told during the final credits,and their family did not have any information about what happened-.

A beautiful scene shows the boys screaming "now we are the generals !what shall we do?" "No more wars,no more uniforms !" is the answer as the soldiers strip bare and one of them shows his a....

This movie is not really about Algerian war but is actually the tale about French soldiers sent to Algeria and how they deal with such a situation, as non-professional - they were all young conscripted men - and as human. Not to forgot this is inspired by the memory of one of these men.

Shot with a (mostly, Philippe Léotard being terrific in the movie had a lifelong career) amateur cast, it is not a masterpiece but remains very powerful and should not let you indifferent. It is backed up with a terrific soundtrack of anti-war songs, forgotten since.

The quality and the limit of Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès is its naively natural style. The low-key tonality may work some times but on the whole you only see a fake documentary. Cinematographically speaking this movie lacks directing, acting, some pace, a hook...