The Battle of Algiers - Criterion Collection

Starring:Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Fusia El Kader, Omar, Mohamed Ben Kassen, Gene Wesson, Franco Morici, Tommaso Neri, Michele Kerbash
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
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.

Amazon.com

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.

Description

One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers focuses on the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed. The Criterion Collection is proud present Gillo Pontecorvo's tour de force—a film with astonishing relevance today.

Customer Reviews:

Oldie but Goodie.......2007-05-26

By Far the best movie to document the algerian war. A Must See for Film Buffs

Lessons of history indeed!.......2007-05-11

This film now being touted as a 'lesson in history' (even though there is little comparason to the Iraq war)it is indeed a lesson in history.

Almost every war/civil war since the Algerian war of independence has been veiwed through the eyes of the Algerian war, even Robert Fisk during the recent Algerian civil war gave us the idea that the civil war was something of a 'continuation' of the initial F.L.N struggle. It should be kept in mind however, that this film was and always has been the darling of the far left and has little if anything to do with recent Islamist movements.

Regarding the historical lessons there are many to gather, the use of bombing campaigns against civiliam targets (a cafe in one scene) The use of females to carry bombs past checkpoints because the French would "not dare to search an Algerian woman" On the part of the French, the enclosing of entire sections of the city turning them into impoverished ghettos, torture to 'gather information', target killing of leaders asuming that this will 'quell the rebellion'

Lessons indeed, not least events that followed in Algeria, how those who fought for independence turned a country into their own personal property, a military that cancelled a legitimate election, lessons indeed not just for Algeria but for Africa and the Middle East. The same lessons have not been learned Zimbabwae being the perfect example, ex revolutionary turns dictator.

While the film surrounds the life of an ex petty criminal turned revolutionary (how very leftist!) and attention is given to the lives of ordianry people in the Arab quarter, how marriages were conducted under the terrible conditions of near seige and not least how the F.L.N. began to administer their own law within the lawless Arab quater. Little is given to the rural battles where some of the bitterest fighting took place and while many today may think there are some comparasons with the current situation in Iraq please keep in mind, this film along with Land and Freedom was the film to watch if you were a young left wing student it's hardly a blueprint of current conflicts.

An interesing film but would be far more useful if watching wishing to learn something of the struggle for independence and the post independence struggle in what is called the 'developing world', something that continues to this day.

not sure the film is as relevant as it's touted to be.......2007-05-06

If, for some reason, you are a loyal fan of Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 black-and-white "The Battle of Algiers," then your train has definitely come into the station with this release. (The film, by the way, is an Italian one, though many seem to think it was French.)

What you are buying is the deluxe box, believe me, with all the bells and whistles: three exhaustively informative disks laden with extras, and a handsomely produced booklet.

The subtitles are available only in English, in white print. You can remove them and hear only the French, but you cannot get either French or Italian subtitles, or Italian or English audio. So I guess if you're a polyglot purist, your train has yet to come in.

As for the film itself, you're getting a mixed bag, in my view. The box proclaims it a film with "astonishing relevance today" -- presumably a reference to America's quagmire in Iraq.

Well, the film certainly captures the chaos, confusion, and simple undoability of trying to govern a contrarian people who simply don't want to be governed -- and have access to gunpowder.

One of its central merits is the way in which it limns war as an irretrievably ugly business. There are some good tense moments, but the pace is jerky overall, and from time to time gets downright tedious (it takes a strictly calendrical approach to the action). It would have benefited, I feel, from better characterization.

Also: it's hard to symphathize with anything or anybody in the film. The methods of the insurgents do not render them admirable, much less heroic. And the French: is there nothing they won't stoop to? Yes, in this film, folks, absolutely nobody has the moral high ground; unlike, I submit, our current foray into Mesopotamia, where we are at least trying to do the right thing. It is for this reason I remain unconvinced about the "relevance" today of Pontecorvo's film.

Worse, we are never really told what the insurgents are fighting for, or why. As for the French, what on earth are they going out of their way to hold the property for? Can they really think it worth the trouble. Certainly, there are very definite answers to these questions, but you've gotta bring them to the film yourself.

To sum up: After spending a few attentive hours with this film, I can definitely see while many consider it a worthwhile but not truly great piece of work. I definitely started getting bored toward the end until the film became a positive chore to watch. Parts of it struck me as confusing, inept, and even naive.

And what's with the festive Mexican cover?

relevant.......2007-04-10

It's very matter-of-fact. Documentary, relevant, grim. You'll hear the word casbah so often, you'll have The Clash in your head for a week.

IN THE TIME OF THE ALGERIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE.......2007-03-29

I first saw the fictionalized French, subtitled in English, version of the Battle of Algiers in the early 1970's when I, along with other like-minded political types, were under the influence of the vanguard role that `third world' national liberation struggles against the imperialist heartland played in world politics. Moreover we were under the influence of Frantz Fanon's concept of the `cleansing' nature of such struggles on the revolutionary organization and the population, especially compared to the `bought off' workers in the West that were key to classical Marxist thought. Much water has passed over the dam since then in Algeria but it is still fair to say that the Algerian struggle for independence against the hated French occupiers was, in hindsight, still an important liberation struggle to support if not for the same reasons as in my youth.

After a recent viewing of the film what is surprising is that with due regard to differences in time, geography, political conditions and other factors the drama of this film could reflect today's reality in Baghdad, including some aspects of the Islamic political program of the insurgents. Most of the scenes in the film took place in 1957 as the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) initiated various actions including unsupportable acts of individual terror against civilian targets and supportable acts against military targets, a general strike that the French frantically tried to break and on-going urban guerilla warfare against the occupying forces.

Some of the issues raised in film that were capable of making my blood pressure rise then still do so today. The foreign occupation's indifference or hostility to the `natives' and their political wishes. The endless arbitrary searching of houses and persons by the occupiers in order to pacify the population. The escalation of military tactics by both sides as the body counts rise. The ready and refined use of torture by the French occupiers. Moreover, a point not appreciated by this reviewer at his first viewing was that when the seasoned (from Indo-China) professional French Army ratcheted up the ante they were able to destroy, for a time, the urban guerilla infrastructure. But in the end they had to leave, just as the Americans will have to leave Baghdad in defeat. Yes, this all seems very, very familiar.

A point about one of the central characters, Ali. The above-mentioned Fanon in Wretched of the Earth, his most famous work, that chronicles the Algerian struggle highlights the key organizational role of what is commonly called the dregs of society, the theives, pimps and other criminal elements. Marxists use the term lumpenproletariat. Ali as a self-professed and convicted con artist is just such a character. According to Fanon's theory if revolutionary forces can recruit enough Alis then a real 'purified' revolutionary organization can be formed. Naturally that assumes that an Ali, as portrayed in the film, is a true prototype of this kind of recruit. A quick glance at revolutionary history, however, belies that notion. More frequently this layer of society provides the shock troops of the counterrevolution. Moreover, this is a very unstable base on which to form an organization. There was a reason that the Paris Commune inscribed `death to thieves' on its banners. The Black Panthers here in America also learned the hard way the difficulties of recruiting (and, more importantly, holding) that layer as they attempted to emulate, among others, the Algerian experience.

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