The Battle Of Algiers

I watched this film slightly under duress as it was my other halfs choice. But I thought it was excellent. They whole style of it was remeniscent of a documentary (its in black and white with subtitles) but that really matched the subject matter.

It kept my interest all the way through and I learned a lot about some recent history I knew nothing about.

A masterpiece of film making that will be appreciated by a select audience.

Battle of Algiers is not a film for family entertainment and your partner probably won't watch it if they don't have an interest in historical matters.

The film shows the extreme degree of violence that human beings will use in order to emerge as victor of a conflict. It is a theme that is as relevant today as it has been since the beginning of history.

We see the light and dark side of both adversaries, and not one side as dark and the other as light.

Italian film with French and Algerian speech with subtitles in English. Shot in Black and White it could be a template for what goes on today which is labelled as terrorism when it was then called anti colonialism. One of the few films to show the view from the terrorists/freedom fighters side. Still packs a punch.

This should be compulsory viewing for any politician or soldier (or journalist) thinking of engaging in counter-insurgency or occupation activities. This was made in 1965 but the parallels with Northern Ireland (sending in the paras to resolve a police/civil unrest issue), Iraq and Afghanistan (insurgents appointing themselves as moral guardians of population, introduction of religion to a previously civil situation, use of female bombers) are striking. The film is a little disjointed at times and there aren't subtitles for all the lines, tho anyone with any French will understand what is going on. The style is not out-dated and the director pulls no punches, showing acts of torture that would cause outrage if presented in a modern film (perhaps the matter-of-fact presentation makes it less obscene in comparison to the usual overblown Hollywood style?). More detail of the background might be useful, but I guess the director assumed that the audience (mostly French) in 1965 would know the background, while a lengthening of the film would make it overlong.

No suicide bombers here as such, but there are still gruesome similarities with Iraq and Afghanistan. The FLN were fighting for an independent Islamic Algeria, and the French were fighting because the alternative would be to leave their North African colony. The film is matter-of-fact in its newsreel-like depiction of the violence that started in the mid-50's and ran on till Algeria was granted independence in 1962. At the end I found there was no side to take in a bloody and cruel conflict from which we do not appear to have moved very far forwards.