Inside and outside...

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2007)

Although in the final analysis there's just a single "side" (we're all, like it or not, made of the same stuff- to the very core), it can be- and has been, interminably- argued that there's an inside and an outside (especially if you're a politician or a religious fanatic). "Place your bets," someone says at one point in THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. That one statement says much (too much, perhaps) about wars like this one. The bottom line is, all too often, the bottom line (and nobody knows that as well as Americans: in this country, money not only Talks, it clearly Walks- especially when one is forced to ante up in the hallowed halls of Justice, which can be an expensive proposition, indeed). The opening sequence with the guillotine lends a Grand Guignol ghoulishness to the proceedings. Evenhanded film-making? Perhaps. As someone posits along the way, "Men have two faces." Two men, therefore, have four faces. Some of the carnage here has all the objectiveness of newsreels, and THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS certainly manages to capture the feel of a city (and two Peoples) under siege. (The claustrophobic interior shots involving explosions are truly amazing; it's a miracle no one was killed.) When the soldiers (whose bullying has forced fed-up civilians to strike back) opt to "make their own opportunities," by way of torture no less ("Legality can be inconvenient."), one can't help but lament- again- the timeliness of this movie. Excellent guerilla film-making.