The Battle of Algiers

A+

Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo

There are a few films that can be considered the final word on a certain genre or movement. A film like Visconti's "The Leopard" for instance, can fairly be considered the touchstone of costume epics, the beginning and end of any conversation on the genre. Likewise, Gillo Pontecorvo's flawless "The Battle of Algiers" is THE film about armed resistance, a perfect storm of inspired film making, politically astute commentary, and biting social critique.

Pontecorvo's film opens as popular opposition to Frnehc colonial rule begins to mount in Algiers. Local casbah resident Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjadj) joins the Algerian insurgency and begins to carry out tactical assasinations of French police officers in the city. The violence soon escalates, however, and the insurgents and European settlers exchange increasingly violent blows, culminating in the bombings of a trio of cafés in the city's European district. Desperate to cut off the insurgency, the French government calls in the grizzled Lieutenant Colonel Mathieu who mounts a counter offensive against the insurgents in hopes of stifling the movement once and for all.

"The Battle of Algiers" is rightfully regarded as one of the finest films deal with popular uprising or armed conflict and its accuracy in depicting armed insurgency's is breathtaking. Indeed, the film was screened in The Pentagon by the Department of Defense in 2004 during the thick of the Iraqi insurgency in order to give viewers insight into the realities of armed insurgency and the difficulty of both stifling an insurgency without alienating the local population. The political stance of Pontecorvo in "The Battle of Algiers" is far from unbiased but one could argue that no truly good political film has ever been completely objective. Pontecorvo, despite his obvious sympathy for the insurgents and their plight, nonetheless treats both sides fairly and seems to concede that despite the errors of colonialism, at least some of the French were simply trying to defend a political structure that, although woefully outdated and repressive, they still strongly believed in. Despite the politically charged nature of the subject matter, Pontecorvo does an impressive job of letting the intrigue play out without getting overinvolved or becoming preachy, preferring to let the story unfold in a way that seems authentic. As ambitious as the film's subject matter is, its particular aesthetic (equally ambitious, I would argue) shines through brightly. Street scenes, large public gatherings, riots, bombings, military operations and more are all rendered with complexity and stunning realism, giving the film an even more authentic feel.