The Brutality of War

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2011)

The Battle of Algiers is recognised as a classic film, having a high IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores and being placed 120th on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time in 2008. There is a great reason why it is so regarded, getting all areas of filmmaking right and having such an impact that the French banned it: the French need to learn to accept criticism.
As the title suggests the Battle of Algiers focuses on the Battle of Algiers between 1955 to 1957 during the Algerian War of Independence. Gillo Pontecorvo's film focuses on both sides of the conflict, Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjadj), a young ex-prisoner who joins the National Liberation Front (FLN) and becomes a senior leader and Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu (Jean Martin), a Free-French veteran who heads the Counter-Terrorism operation.
Pontecorvo shows the harsh nature of this war, the Algerians fighting for independence, a simple nationalist idea of self-rule and the French, whilst not explained in the film, fought for two main reasons, the first being Algeria was seen as a part of France and the closest colony they had India that British had and they had already suffered two major defeats, World War II and Vietnam, they did not fancy a third. During this conflict there was no real good guys, the FLN were willing to use women and children to pass on messages, weapons and place bombs in busy cafés. Teenagers are used to kill police officers and the FLN organises strikes to show it is a wider movement. On the French side Mathieu is show to be a competent commander and that leaders of FLN work in cells so they could not betray each other, but the French resort to torture, checkpoints and quick raids, using intimation and violence. Whilst the Colons (French colonists) start to turn their racism against Arabs into violence attacks against anyone Arab, including children.
Pontecorvo sets out to show the wider picture of what went on during the war: it was a tough, brutal war that American Generals during the Iraqi War have studied the conflict because of the similarities between them. There are a lot of modern parallels, from army officers having to talk to the media, the army trying to use media for their own aims, that there is two sides and two stories during a war and that characters are mixed, what is considered a legitimate target, what is terrorism, who is your real enemy, how you gather popular support and many more issues. You could thrown in a lot other historical events that are similar to Algeria, from the General Strikes in Apartheid South Africa to the Arab uprising.
There is great acting throughout the film and you could easily believe in them and their actions. They are fully developed and there is a true mixed picture because that is what the world is like. Both sides were willing to do unpleasant, illegal acts. Pontecorvo knew how to add tension in a film, from the action scenes, to where people hide from the police and army or weapons. The music really adds to the atmosphere, some of the best judge music as the tension builds in scenes. There is no glamour in this war.