1954 marks the beginning of the Algerian War of Independence that officially ended on July 2, 1962. Parents Guide. Judged by that standard alone, then, torture is presented as an effective tactic. The commander (Col. Mathieu played by Jean Martin) enters and tells the man to put on a French uniform. Watching The Battle of Algiers in 2018 is both a fascinating and disturbing experience because the film shows brutal scenes of random bombings, military torture and rebellions which look like news footage that we see on TV every day. The Battle of Algiers is available on Amazon Prime or you can watch it for free, as I did, on Youtube. It is clear The Battle of Algiers is not a propaganda film. Synopsis Surprisingly, the film quickly drew me in, gluing me to my laptop. Ali is a bit of a hot head and smashes the French boys face. Close to one million inhabitants of the region were of European origin, mostly living in metropolitan areas like the city of Algiers. So, when I stumbled upon this film on Youtube, I wasn’t expecting it to hold my attention for 121 minutes. Famously, the Pentagon arranged a special in-house screening in 2003, evidently fascinated by exactly the same qualities that have mesmerised the movie's followers elsewhere: its icy candour on the subjects of counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, and the vital importance of torture in eliciting information. Rather than vilifying either French forces or FLN rebels, Pontecorvo exposes the rationals that both sides used to justify various acts of brutality. The opening scene is of a man who has presumably been tortured by some French military personnel. The film is a depiction of the Battle for Algiers, a segment of the Algerian war that charted the course for freedom. Receive email notifications the instant new articles go live. In the movie Battle of Algiers sound is manipulated in many different ways. Ali is obviously going to be a main character. The Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, tells the story of the French foreign legion’s involvement in the Algerian fight for independence in 1954. The terrorists are beaten, but a later popular uprising drives the French out, precisely as Mathieu had enigmatically appeared to predict, using Dien Bien Phu as his benchmark: the Indo-Chinese imperial burden which the French fatefully handed on to the Americans. 1954. In the next scene you have the commander again speaking to some young men who are hidden in a wall. This song carries on throughout the beginning of the movie until the French first bomb the Algerians. In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight … The FLN began their campaign in shooting military police in the Casbah, the predominantly Muslim quarter of the city, as they were able to blend back into the scene with the support of the populace. A look at war as a nasty thing that harms and sullies everyone who participates in it. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and site URL in my browser for next time I post a comment. The score also includes St. Mathew’s Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. The heated controversy kept the film outside of France until 1970. In 1962, the Algerians finally achieve their aimed independence. In the second scene, white citizens perform a similarly gruesome chore in the aftermath of an FLN terrorist bombing. The viewer gets the impression that Pontecorvo has sprinkled actual news footage throughout the film, but all of the scenes were staged. They now know where the last of the leaders of the freedom fighters, Ali Pointe is hiding and the French commander gives him thirty seconds to surrender. He is obviously being forced into something he doesnt want to do. Pontecorvo was devoted to reality, daring to depict scenes of terrorism and torture. Copyright © 2017-2020 Carol A. Seidl. In 2003, the pentagon presented The Battle of Algers to an audience of 40 officers and civilian experts. In 1971, during a trial for members of the Black Panthers, jurors were asked to watch the film. It is of its time in many ways, yet somehow more extreme, and more contemporary, than anything else around. Despite the accolades that followed, The Battle of Algiers got off to a rocky start. Those torture scenes are laid out in montage for us without any self-conscious emotional affect or drama; they include blowtorching the suspect's naked torso, waterboarding, and clipping electrodes to the earlobes before hand-cranking the voltage. More than a groundbreaking production, filmed without professional actors, The Battle of Algiers continues to have an international influence. I can well imagine that the fear on the actors’ faces is often genuine. These scenes are presented without any of the internal humanising or dramatising conflict that would be considered vital now: they do indeed look almost like a military training film. I’m not particularly fond of old, black-and-white movies, especially those in the warfare category. When a handful of theaters finally presented it, a hateful campaign of right-wing protests and violent threats ensued, ending with the film being pulled from distribution. Many in this latter category were 2nd, 3rd, even 4th-generation descendants of Europeans who had colonized the region in the 19th century and had never before taken a step in mainland France. American war films almost always glorified one side of the conflict while demonizing the other. Filmed in a semi-documentary format, this film deals with the battle of Algiers (1956-57) part of the broader fight for Algerian independence (1954-62) from French colonial rule. (Both French and Arabic are spoken throughout the movie, again underscoring Pontecorvo’s dedication to realism.) Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Some French young men trip him. Granted, the audio dubbing of gunfire sounds a bit rickety now, and the way the intertitles switch between Italian and French is eccentric, but everything else makes this a newer-than-new release. La Bataille d’Alger, released in 1966 and banned in France for more than 5 years, is a remarkable movie, by Italian journalist and filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo. The movie starts with a scene where French paratroopers have just used torture to extract information from an old man. The second is French paratrooper Colonel Mathieu, a lead French strategist whose main goal is to dismantle the FLN activities by "cutting off the head of the tapeworm". Leading Algerian role, combatant Ali La Pointe. All Rights Reserved. When bombs go off in the film, there are no special effects at play. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. While Pontecorvo strived for neutrality, most viewers will take the side of the Algerians. Scenes of the narrow stairways and passages of the Casbah add to the intrigue. "The culprits are presumed to be Muslim ..." Mathieu crisply briefs his men, and a 2007 audience holds its breath. The rebels began their attacks by shooting policeman and other government officials. T he rerelease of Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 black-and-white film The Battle of Algiers, recreating France's suppression of the 1950s Algerian uprising, …

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