Director Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film 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. With the advent of the "war against terror" in recent years, the film's relevance has only intensified. The classic anti-colonial film. A fast-paced portrayal of the spitral of violence in the late 1950's and early 1960's that led France to pull out of its Algerian colony. Encapsulating the terrorist maxim that an act of terror will draw out a state reaction of greater brutality which will therefore justify in the eyes of the people a new terroristic outrage, Pontecorvo manages to convey the brutality of the terrorist as well as that of the state.
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 FLN (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.
mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. With the advent of the "war against terror" in recent years, the film's relevance has only intensified. The classic anti-colonial film. A fast-paced portrayal of the spitral of violence in the late 1950's and early 1960's that led France to pull out of its Algerian colony. Encapsulating the terrorist maxim that an act of terror will draw out a state reaction of greater brutality which will therefore justify in the eyes of the people a new terroristic outrage, Pontecorvo manages to convey the brutality of the terrorist as well as that of the state.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 FLN (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.
The Washington Post Article on the screening of the film by the Pentagon for 'training purposes' that was raised in the discussions:
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