Battle of Algiers, The (re-release)

Movie Info

Genre(s): Classic  |  Drama  |  Foreign  |  War

Written by: Gillo Pontecorvo
Franco Solinas

Directed by: Gillo Pontecorvo

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 9, 2004
DVD: September 21, 2004

Running Time: 117 minutes, B/W

Origin: Algeria / Italy

Language(s): French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, and Fusia El Kader

This 1965 film chronicles the Algerian people's struggle to overthrow the French Colonial Government in the mid-1950s.

Also On Metacritic

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What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a9:
So immersing that one hardly notices as it shifts between being an action drama and a documentary. Told from the leftist perspective, it invites the viewer to form a political opinion, which is how these things always get started in the first place. But, as history, knowing what happened in Algeria is essential to understanding what is happening now. Blaming the French and wanting to exterminate terrorists have always been no-brainers, and the film almost condones both. The ending is tidy, but the implications are not, so one may find the show awesome and informative without clarifying one's moral compass.

Wael S. gave it a10:
The best I ever saw at my house.

Cian M gave it a10:
Absolute classic. Brilliantly shot in grainy newsreel style. Never more relevant than now with what is happening in Iraq. Atrocities on both sides but in the end colonialism is the loser.

John A. gave it a 10:
An absolutely stunning film. It is gripping from start to finish. The pace is incredible and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The story essentially boils down to the passion of the Algerians versus the efficiency of the French. I imagine this film was not particularly well received in France, but I could be wrong. Several scenes blatantly resemble stormtroopers hunting down Jews. One can very easily argue that the Islamicists politics and seemingly disspasionate murders are reprehensible. However, in one of the most poignant scenes the leader of the FLN says to the French, "We'd gladly trade our baskets for your planes."

Mark B. gave it a 6:
First, the good stuff. This is a fascinating political psuedo-documentary-thriller that puts nearly all so-called TV "docudramas" to shame. The grungy, grainy look of the film adds immeasurably to its veracity; at times it looks like the filmmakers walked all over the print with dirty shoes, just like Orson Welles supposedly did with the newsreel-within-a-film in Citizen Kane. The Battle of Algiers isn't timid about showing the consequences and horrors of violence committed by both sides, and it's careful to provide at least one more or less fully rounded character employed by the French military. That said, I'd still have to place this in the (thankfully) very small category of films led by Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will: films that represent the unholy marriage of totally unassailable filmmaking technique and utterly loathsome, reprehensible content or point of view. Colonialism and forced occupation are bad, to say the least, and I think we all know it, but the filmmakers seem to really believe that this justifies the resistance "heroes" committing acts of terrorism against innocent bystanders and cops who are largely ordinary citizens doing their jobs. (Note in particular the scene in which one member of the police force stops another from searching a Muslim woman's dress out of respect for her religion, and it turns out she was using her clothing to hide a gun that she proceeds to shoot them with.) Last year's excellent, Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground, at least had some of the members of that radical organization questioning some of their "by any means necessary" actions; here you're about as likely to get some sort of tempering or balancing statement as the poor woman who has a "basket bomb" placed under her chair by one of the underground members has a chance of surviving the explosion in less than eighty-seven pieces. (Needless to say, later scenes in which the French military interrogate and torture some of the instigators are understandably presented as horrifying--as they should--rather than with the matter-of-fact tone of the bombings themselves.) Look at it this way: I think we can all agree that the war-related murders of American soldiers, dragging of their bodies, etc. by hostile Iraqis is horrible and anger-provoking, but would that justify somebody making a movie condoning some of our military's torture of Iraqi prisoners? Biggest mystery of all: why is this film being rereleased now in these post 9/11 days? I can only make three guesses: either because of the 50th anniversary of Indochina's liberation of France (discussed in one of the film's most effective scenes),or because the theme of Arab liberation is once again a very topical one, or maybe because the distributor is a bit of a sick puppy!

Yoon Min C.> gave it a 9:
Feverish, impassioned, thrilling.. and manipulative and simplistic. in retrospect, the movie's triumphant 'happy' hollywood ending is the biggest joke of all; as soon as the french left, rival algerians used torture upon one another and the nation swayed from anarchy to brutal authoritarian rule. more an artifact of the political pipedreams of radicals of the era than anything truthful about algeria. worst of all, its pretension of being fairminded makes it sometimes as phony as do the right thing. in some ways, it probably had an influence on some of today's hipsterish attitude among armchair radicals. matrix is battle of algeiers as cgi sci-fi.

Jade B. gave it a 10:
Simply one of the best movies to come out of the 60's. It takes a strong anti-colonialist stance but it does so with fairness and integrity. Beautifully balanced militant film-making.

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