Battle of Algiers
by Gillo Pontecorvo
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Yacef SaadiDirector: Gillo Pontecorvo
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Running Time: 125 minutes
Release Date: 1993-04-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Rhino / Wea
Studio: Rhino / Wea
VHS Movie Reviews of Battle of Algiers
Movie Review: Dated Sensibilities
Summary: 3 Stars
I recently saw this movie and for me it has some interesting features but is far from being the ultimate war movie it was supposed to be. Maybe at the time it was released it had something new to tell but after more than 40 years I think its sensibilities are dated.
I do not like the glorification of violence in the name of leftist politics, even though their cause could be considered as just the methods the Algerian FNLN guerrilla used were despicable, the cowardly murder of police and army personnel and the bombing of civilians is far from heroic. We can empathize with the anger of the Algerian people at being dominated by a white French minority but resorting to criminal brutality was unjustified even if at the end the aims were achieved and indeed Algeria won its independence (more because of negative political sentiment in France that ultimately sapped the moral of the troops and led the nation to finally give up in this struggle). The director clearly aims at creating a sympathy with the urban guerrillas true to sixties sensibilities at a time when Che Guevara and Ho Chi Min were considered heroes by the young and the leftist inclined intellectuals and lay people. Today we are seeing the devastating effects these so called heroes created in their societies bringing not the final redemption of the masses but brutal dictatorships and ultimately economic failure of their economies and now we have only Cuba openly professing Communism and supporting guerrilla groups such as the soon to be defunct FARC in Colombia. So I do not support left wing freedom fighters knowing what we know today but in the early sixties still the Soviet Union was going strong creating a sixth column around the world aided by the bleeding heart leftist intellectuals and the youth openly professing revolutionary ideas all over the world and movies such as this aided in this aim.
I commend the director (Pontecorvo) in presenting a well balanced character in Col. Mathieu, the French paratroop commander. Considering the ideological leanings of the film it could have been easy to present a caricature of a nazi sadist but we are given a more profound character that indeed addresses the tough necessities in fighting a dirty war but with a sense of morality.
I cannot root for the French either as they were only trying to preserve a colonial rule that by the time was outdated and in moral bankrupcy, of course they were tough and at times brutal but the enemy did not give them other choice, that is the sad truth of fighting urban guerrillas, you cannot recognize the combatants from the civilians and to find them you have to bend the rules of decency and civilized warfare. Thus we have torture being used as a necessity, spies, informers and traitors also were used in order to reach the safe houses and hiding places the guerrillas used and to ultimately find the few die-hards that are hiding among the society that only wants to be left in peace to resume normal life, this is the essence of dirty war that leftist groups and freedom fighters have forced armies to use.
The movie was well crafted, the style was almost a documentary, the use of native actors gives it some authenticity. Being a little bit pedantic I found it rather annoying to listen to the dialogs in Italian as the movie took place in French speaking Algeria and I would certainly have preferred to see it in French for authenticity.
In summation this was a good movie, not very revealing, its outdated with current sensibilities but the hype surrounding it does not match with the quality or impact of this movie.
Summary of Battle of Algiers
Director Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 movie The Battle of Algiers concerns the violent struggle in the late 1950s for Algerian independence from France, where the film was banned on its release for fear of creating civil disturbances. Certainly, the heady, insurrectionary mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. Decades later, the advent of the "war against terror" has only intensified the film's relevance.Shot in a gripping, quasi-documentary style, The Battle of Algiers uses a cast of untrained actors coupled with a stern voiceover. Initially, the film focuses on the conversion of young hoodlum Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) to F.L.N. (the Algerian Liberation Front). However, as a sequence of outrages and violent counter-terrorist measures ensue, it becomes clear that, as in Eisenstein's October, it is the Revolution itself that is the true star of the film.
Pontecorvo balances cinematic tension with grimly acute political insight. He also manages an evenhandedness in depicting the adversaries. He doesn't flinch from demonstrating the civilian consequences of the F.L.N.'s bombings, while Colonel Mathieu, the French office brought in to quell the nationalists, is played by Jean Martin as a determined, shrewd, and, in his own way, honorable man. However, the closing scenes of the movie--a welter of smoke, teeming street demonstrations, and the pealing white noise of ululations--leaves the viewer both intellectually and emotionally convinced of the rightfulness of the liberation struggle. This is surely among a handful of the finest movies ever made. --David Stubbs
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