THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS Movie Review
La Bataille d'Alger
La Battaglia di Algeri
Gillo Pontecorvo's powerful and remarkably balanced depiction of the Algerian rebellion against the French in the 1950s has one especially surprising effect when seen again today, nearly 30 years after its initial release. The massive demonstration scenes and breathtakingly realistic glimpses of urban guerrilla warfare remind us not so much of a film that we may have seen decades ago, but rather of a real moment in history. Just as that actual footage of a Ione man standing in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square became that entire uprising in the eyes much of the world, Pontecorvo's recreated revolution in The Battle of Algiers has become the event to us—it's what most of us flash on when the Algerian anti-colonial uprising is mentioned. Told in flashback as the rebellion's leaders are about to be flushed out, The Battle of Algiers intercuts personal stories (including that of the surprisingly complex French colonel at the film's core) with the terrorist bombings and retaliatory violence that grows and spirals logically, inexorably, and terrifyingly, ultimately ripping apart the lives of characters we've come to know. A landmark work of power and passion, the picture generates much of its power from a lack of stereotyping that leads to the tragic inevitability of what we see; each side is seen as having its reasons, its prejudices, and its blindness. Supercharged by an Ennio Morricone score, The Battle of Algiers was designed to be—and remains—a wake-up call every bit as powerful as any of the explosions depicted in the film.
NEXT STOP … The Battleship Potemkin, I Am Cuba, Burn!
1966 123m/B AL IT Yacef Saadi, Jean Martin, Brahim Haggiag, Tommaso Neri, Samia Kerbash, Fawzia el Kader, Michele Kerbash, Mohamed Ben Kassen; D: Gillo Pontecorvo; W: Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas; C: Marcello Gatti; M: Gillo Pontecorvo, Ennio Morricone. Venice Film Festival ‘66: Best Film; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘66: Best Foreign-Language Film; Best Story & Screenplay. VHS, LV IHF, TPV