The grim reality of war - and colonialism

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2019)

A film that has a documentary feel to it, with extraordinary footage that was shot on location. The context - four years after Algerian independence had been won from the French and looking back on the war it took to get there, and at a time when the Vietnam war was being fought - puts it in stark contrast to the war movies from a couple of decades before. The film pulls few punches in showing violence and torture, so beware of its realism.
What I found striking is that the leaders of the two sides seem upstanding, or at least living to some sort of rational code with moral values, and yet in the situation they're in, they choose to do some horrifying things. There is the leader of the French, who had been part of the (certainly noble) cause of the Resistance in WWII, explaining to reporters that if they want the French in Algiers, they have to accept the consequences. We then see the prisoners his men have captured being brutally tortured. There is the leader of the guerillas, explaining to his lieutenant in one scene how terrorism must segue to other forms of protest, and to reporters in another that if he had airplanes at his disposal, he wouldn't have to resort to it. And yet when we see baskets with bombs being left in public places with innocent civilians and children, it's hard to see the actions as necessary or honorable.
The French military are in a difficult position, as when they strong-arm the population it naturally leads to more hatred of their presence, and when they're too lenient, letting Algerian women through security as a show of respect or because they've donned Western clothing, arms or bombs can slip through with devastating consequences. Meanwhile the insurgents adopt some nonviolent measure ala Gandhi, e.g. a worker's striker, but they believe that the French aren't just going to voluntarily give up their country without being forced (a reasonable view), and that violence in the form of terrorism is a big lever.
It's hard to understand whether either side has to employ the tactics that they do, and it's in this fog of war, with violence leading to violence, that the film has devastating power. The underlying enemy is of course colonialism, which in this case lasted from 1830 to 1962, and whose inevitable outcome seems apparent - resentment, rebellion, bloodshed, and (eventual) independence, with variations on these themes all over the world. The film shows events as they happened in what I believe is a factual way, and it allows both sides to express their views, but its sympathies seem to be with the Algerians, or maybe it feels that way because we know in our hearts they should have a right to their country. And yet, it's tough to feel good about either side, or to be all that sanguine about mankind after watching it.