A review and deeper analysis for this wonderful film!

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2010)

The Battle of Algiers I believe, is the basis of Pontecorvo's fame - a model of how without prejudice or compromise, a film-maker can illuminate history and tell us how we repeat the same mistakes. This study of the Algerian guerrilla struggle against the French colonialists in the 50s should be looked at not just as pure cinema but as a warning to those who seek by force to crush independence movements.
No doubt I was aligned with the seditionists by the unconscious nature of the appeal. The test of this comes in the unforgettable sequence where three Algerian women plant bombs at various crowded hangouts in the French quarter. Masquerading as Europeans, carrying life and death in a hand basket, they would be sinister femmes fatales (I love Noir by the way, took a class on it last year) in another context. But we have been made to collude with their perspective and look through their eyes at the innocents about to be slaughtered.The French settlers are particularized—in vivid snapshots of teenagers dancing, men sipping drinks and idly chattering, a toddler licking an ice cream cone. The women take no pleasure in their mission and shoulder full responsibility for its appalling consequences. But history has spoken. If we can accept the grievous necessity of these deaths, then we consent to everything. Pontecorvo has penetrated our Western self-absorption and let in the harsh light of reality. If not, the movie at any rate offers iconography—checkpoints, interrogation rooms, torture chambers—that has become timely again and worth meditating on.This is today for the US. This is our history, now I think it's time to take a look from the other side of the table and see what we are truly doing in Iraq, and around the world.
What does the IMDb community think about this? Do you think that history truly repeats? If so, would today be the prime example? Am I completely wrong?