La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers)

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  June 18, 2009

  kenstachnik

  The Paul Greengrass crib sheet. Great Ennio Morricone score

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  April 27, 2009

  sanjurosamurai

  strirring and perfect from start to finish. although difficult to watch, it is at the same time one of the more beautiful films ever made. non traditional for a semi-war film, the reality of the story and method of film making provide a shocking glimpse into the tragic reality ...( read more)of the life of people in the midst of struggle. one of the best films ive ever seen.

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  January 10, 2009

  kiriyamakazou

  Flawless and relevant film making. Over 40 years on and the world is still dealing with similar circumstances. It has even been reported that The Battle of Algiers was screened by the Pentagon is relation to Iraq. It's politically charged but has no agenda. Each side is treated a...( read more)s equals, with no emotional manipulation or justification for the actions. On paper both sides are in the "right" but we see just how devastating the outcomes can be. Shot like a documentary and every bit as important. This is a film that has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. You'll never find a fairer or more powerful film.

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  December 4, 2008

  wellmeetagain

  Terrific "docu-style" film based on the war of independence between Algeria and France in the 1950's and early 60's. Very engrossing. Strongly recommended.

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  October 6, 2008

  PvtCaboose91

  "There are 80,000 Arabs in the Kasbah. Are they all against us? We know they're not. In reality, it's only a small minority that dominates with terror and violence. This minority is our adversary and we must isolate and destroy it."
  

  
  The Battle of Algiers is a

  ...( read more)vigorously haunting, eye-opening cinematic recreation of Algeria's struggle for independence from France that unfolded merely a few decades ago. This is a film that's widely regarded as one of the most important productions in the history of political cinema. The events that transpired during the depicted years can only be described as harrowing.
  
  The Battle of Algiers adopts the style of cinema vérité to retell the events with gripping documentary-style realism. The footage is therefore thoroughly convincing and memorable. Apparently the portrayal of the period is quite accurate as well - barricades around the city, dozens of soldiers donning extensive attire, makeshift clothing worn by the Algerians, etc. On top of this the faces in the cast are largely unfamiliar, mainly due to the predominant utilisation of non-actors to appear in front of the camera. The film was so incredibly realistic, in fact, that the producers felt the necessity to append a caption during the opening titles, assuring viewers that "not one foot" of actual documentary footage had been included.
  
  "We aren't madmen or sadists, gentlemen. Those who call us Fascists today, forget the contribution that many of us made to the Resistance. Those who call us Nazis, don't know that among us there are survivors of Dachau and Buchenwald. We are soldiers and our only duty is to win."
  
  Director Gillo Pontecorvo helmed several movies throughout his career, but many still regard The Battle of Algiers as his masterpiece. It isn't difficult to see why. Pontecorvo's direction for the film is so focused and unflinching that he was acknowledged with an Oscar nomination. Throughout the course of the film, Pontecorvo depicts the intensification of violence as inevitable. The police react to the embattled killing of their officers by bombing an apartment block in the Casbah. The FLN then respond with more unsystematic carnage. This effectively compels the French to institute checkpoints, fundamentally quarantining the Casbah. This forces the FLN to continue their campaign by blowing up cafés frequented by French civilians (using Arab women to plant the bombs to reduce suspicion). Soon the French are using torture as a method of identifying and locating the FLN members.
  By no means does the film glorify either side. The audience's sympathy naturally lies with the Algerians. Nevertheless the film doesn't hesitate to depict the killing of innocents by either side. The Algerians are at times no better than their enemies. The French aren't portrayed as evil colonialists either. Pontecorvo appears to be suggesting that it is an historical inescapability that the Algerian citizens would rise up against colonial rule and accomplish their freedom, in line with Communist ideology.
  
  The Battle of Algiers vividly recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French force. The film is largely based on true events - although it isn't without its moments of fiction. A majority of the focus is on the French tracking down the members of the FLN. The French paratroops soon arrive, led by Colonel Mathieu (Martin). Over a number of years, the cynical Mathieu pits his wits against the Algerian freedom fighters. The French win the battle, but in the end lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.
  
  The film is based on a book by Saadi Yacef. During the bloody uprising, Yacef was one of the leaders of the FLN and wanted a movie to be made about the violent struggle for freedom. Eventually the film was released just a few years after Algeria had secured their independence. Due to the tenderness of the political situation, the film was banned in France for a number of years. It's this contentiousness on which the film's reputation still rests.
  Jean Martin was probably the only professional actor in the entire cast. Martin handles the role of Colonel Mathieu with indelibly powerful intensity. With the actor, the film is imbued with momentum.
  
  "The word "torture" doesn't appear in our orders. We've always spoken of interrogation as the only valid method in a police operation directed against unknown enemies. As for the NLF, they request that their members, in the event of capture, should maintain silence for twenty-four hours, and then they may talk. So, the organization has already had the time it needs to render any information useless. What type of interrogation should we choose, the one the courts use for a murder case, that drags on for months?"
  
  If one watches The Battle of Algiers in this day and age, its unruly potency has undoubtedly dated a fair bit. Blasphemous as it may be to cinema enthusiasts, the film has now been far surpassed - in both technique and execution. While the authenticity of each shot is truly eye-catching, the film occasionally struggles to engage a viewer. The director's sole misstep is the lack of emotion. This effectively cuts off our involvement with any of the characters. Therefore I found the film difficult to connect with. Also, the film sorely needs context. If you have no prior knowledge of the events, you'll find the proceedings difficult to follow. Throughout the movie there's also a lack of a spark, so to speak. The scenes on the streets are thoroughly enthralling, especially towards the end, but there's a seeming lack of focus in developing its story. Some scenes appear random, adding a degree of incoherency to the proceedings. Filmmaker Howard Hawks always said a film is "made up of a few good scenes and the rest is just getting there". With the occasional spark deficiency, there is too much "just getting there". That said, the final 30 minutes are thoroughly engrossing, absolutely remarkable and utterly heart-wrenching. If only the rest of the film were as good as this.
  
  Overall, The Battle of Algiers is an admirably unbiased account of one of the bloodiest revolutions in modern history. The film apparently portrays the period and events with a chillingly high level of accuracy.
  In 2003 the movie was screened at the Pentagon as they were seeking tips to win their current war. What they obviously didn't realise is that, in the long run, the Algerians won and the French lost. In the contemporary war on terror, the Americans are essentially doing what the French are doing. By taking tips from the movie, they're taking tips from a side that lost the struggle in the long run. Oops...

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  November 18, 2009

  ythelastman89

  While it is a visually amazing movie, everything else seems to be in a sense of disarray. The plot was over obvious and sold to you like a used car salesman and the acting was just atrocious. It's hard to convey a message when there is no emotion behind it.

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  October 21, 2009

  kylemydude

  Will be watching next week

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  October 19, 2009

  kmansell1

  Add a review (optional)...

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  October 18, 2009

  ElCochran90

  - What do you want?
  - Independence! Our pride! We want our freedom!
  
  LA BATTAGLIA DI ALGERI (1966)
  
  Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
  Country: Italy / Algeria
  Genre: Drama / War
  Length: 121 minutes
  
  ...( read more)ER>
  
  After having the glorious and meaningful cinematic opportunity to see La Battaglia di Algeri, I dare to state the argument of it being one of the best films ever made as a shocking fact. Gillo Pontecorvo achieved an extraordinary direction for such a complicated and revolutionary movie, which was particularly controversial for the time it was released, that is, 4 years after Algeria achieved its independence. This is one of those shockingly powerful films that actually represent both sides of the independence movement. During the French New Wave movement this film was released, which combined some few elements of Neorealism in a highly realistic and violent atmosphere which resembled (and still resembles nowadays) the reality that the world had to face by those times.
  
  As most of you already know even if you haven't seen the film yet, La Battaglia di Algeri is a realistic and historical movie about the brutal French occupation in Algeria and the decisions taken by the National Liberation Front of Algiers since 1954 until Algeria became independent in the year of 1962. The film received 3 Academy Award nominations, one in 1967 for Best Foreign Language Film, and two of them two years later for Best Director and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen. Once again, we are talking about the year when Oliver Reed and his film Oliver! (1968) stole the Academy Awards that 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) deserved. La Battaglia di Algeri certainly deserved the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, since it was fantastic and definitely the best developed script. On the bright side, the film won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in the year of 1966 beating good films like Fahrenheit 451 (1966) by François Truffaut.
  
  La Battaglia di Algeri has a lot of masterful aspects. First of all, it required a really daring and talented director for directing a plot which was considered very controversial and tragic for that decade. Not only that, but it was made with gripping and undeniably graphic realism. He elaborated the script with the help of the Italian screenwriter Franco Solinas, which was extraordinary, perhaps the best cinematographic aspect of the film. The scenes that involved raids and big crowds were shot perfectly, and although some people of the cast had no experience in acting whatsoever, all of them gave awesome performances, especially Brahim Hadjadj as the rebel Ali La Pointe and Jean Martin as Col. Mathieu.
  
  The movie was fortunate enough to have one of the first successful musical scores composed by genius Ennio Morricone, who also worked with Pontecorvo for composing the music for this film. Although he has made several music styles throughout his career and composed the music for Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo. (1966), the music was perfectly adequate and even stylish for this kind of movie. This film has also perhaps the best cinematography I have seen in any other movie with very few exceptions. It was just amazing and the camera angles were astonishing, wonderfully managing different heights. The editing was also very daring and quick but brilliantly accurate due to the nature of this politically epic masterwork and the necessary hyperactive and energetic pace it had, paying attention to essential details and relevant sequences.
  
  The neorealist influence in La Battaglia di Algeri is a considerably noticeable aspect. In a similar fashion to Roma, Città Aperta (1945) and Roberto Rosellini's direction, Pontecorvo portrays the sentiments of a newly born nation which still was feeling the emotional outcomes of events occurred few years before, focusing on the common citizen and the usual daily struggle for survival. The film is also very convincing because of its historical accuracy. While Hollywood films (purposely or not) alter historical accuracy in a very alarming way, making people dumber under the belief that it is not an important element since "cinema is only about entertainment", La Battaglia di Algeri was very aware of this fact and ended up being a very realistic and believable film. In the end, this resulted to be a masterpiece of cinema. Not ignoring the positive outcome of honesty and bravery when facing reality results in controversial, yet positive reviews and answers from both worldwide audiences and critics, and immaturely negative comments coming from people that form part of a conservative party or trend.
  
  The film is also a very powerful and controversial social commentary, one of those rare films that actually dared to portray a reality that most of worldwide governments tend to deny and hide from general populations because of its liberalist nature. The film does not only follow each event that preceded Algeria's independence, but also the infamous violent and torture tactics that the French used against the NFL command, and the shootings of French policemen and the several bombings that the NFL organized in bars and in the Air France office in the European quarter. The film has graphic violence and some torture scenes, most of them implied. I worship this film because of its content, its brilliantly-directed thematic elements and, above all, its honesty and realism.
  
  This is arguably one of the best war films ever made. It doesn't get any old with each new decade, since a similar film could be filmed nowadays with the same style of realism, and it is the realism the film had and the documentary filmmaking style that Pontecorvo used in La Battaglia di Algeri the main elements that influenced several modern directors. This film has passed the test of time and should be seen even by modern audiences to understand why things are as they are today and why war films are made the way they are made. Unfortunately, Hollywood (and some other countries as well) has forgotten and ignored the importance of historical accuracy and replaced it with over-patriotic themes and sequences, such as Saving Private Ryan (1998) and the annoying Flags of Our Fathers (2006) for mentioning some overrated and immature Americanized examples. From the neorealist movement to a newly born modernized and purposely superior form of filmmaking and direction, La Battaglia di Algeri is, nowadays, a masterful reminder of the ideals that a united nation should stand for and represent without resorting to general exaggerations and overdramatized forms of speaking, bur rather resorting to fairly patriotic homages, cinematic or not, for enhancing the positive outcomes by the people who proudly shared their own blood for the freedom, recognition and a possibly momentary, if not permanent, peace of a country.
  
  100/100

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  October 12, 2009

  PattyCsU

  An amazing informative and still relevant political revolutionary film. While watching this I got fooled into believing this was a documentary on actual footage of the Algerian revolution, its a remarkable directing accomplishment. A real "does the ends justify the means" movie t...( read more)hat has a foil for just about any revolution in history. While this is clearly a masterpiece in political themed film its entertainment value lost it a star for me.

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