A Batalha de Argel

Although most of Gillo Portecorvo's films are usually documentaries and in this fantastic one it is clearly reconstructed and with the grainy newsreel looks as if it is real. The two hours go fast and because the story is so well told that we watch the amazing streets and alleys and steps of the wretched white buildings and the Casbah. There is also the rather brutal French occupiers and their torture methods. The Italian style we know as neorealist and it works so well that we think that even of the thousands of people we can hardly imagine it was not really we have actual seen in the streets. It is all so terrible that we begin that maybe the bombings and shootings by the Muslims have our sympathies and we certain have the wonderful music of Morricone.

"Battle of Algiers" is simply one of the greatest films every made. If film making can be about truth as well as fantasy, then a movie that includes a title card telling viewers that there is not one foot of documentary or newsreel footage in it must deserve viewing.

"Battle of Algiers" contains scenes that seem so real, you suspect that they couldn't have been staged. When three Algerian women come down from the Casbah to plant bombs in the French quarter of the city, you can almost cut the tension with a knife. When the bombs go off, you think they must have been real bombs. And when you see the devastation they leave in their wake, you cannot fail to be moved. The massive rebellion in the streets at the end of the film also seems so real, you sit wondering how many extras must have been injured filming those scenes.

"Battle of Algiers" combines brilliant photography, crisp direction, an intriguing plot and some very fine acting. Throw in a terrific music score, splendid editing, impressive special effects and the best example ever of docudrama style production and you have a masterpiece of film making.

But film making is not nearly as important as human life and no film in general release today says more about America's current involvement in the middle east and many other parts of the world than this picture about the French in Algeria, made more than three decades ago.

Every American should view this film, then think about our current occupation of Iraq.

..who had lived through the real battle.

Director Pontecorvo and cinematographer Marcello Gatti are true geniuses who amazingly filmed the movie in black and white and experimented with various techniques to give the film the look of newsreel and documentary film and that too making it an engrossing n enlightening experience.

Although the rebels lost the Battle of Algiers, they won the Algerian War n their freedom from the French colonial regime.

This movie showed the impact of colonialism on daily lives.

The guy who played Ali is noteworthy, one of the rebel female has a sharp contour cheeks and the character lil Omar will always be remembered.

The torture of the rebel prisoners is the most poignant relevance to the recent ongoings worldwide.

The ironical aspect is that of the Colonel, who himself suffered torture by the Nazis in a concentration camp, now torturing common civilians to obtain information.

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.

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'