This film attains a level of importance that has never been achieved before

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2005)

We all go to the movies because we love to be entertained and it's hard to argue that it's the greatest form of entertainment but when serious viewers talk about film in terms of being important you would have to expect this title to be instantly brought up. This film covers the years from 1954 to 1962 in Algeria when the Arab section of Algiers started an uprising to fight the French and gain their own independence. Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) is a petty thief and hustler and when he gets out of jail he teams up with El-hadi Jaffar (Saadi Yacef) and together they form the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in which they start terrorist attacks.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** French authorities bring in Col. Mathieu (Jean Martin) to head the anti-terrorist unit and he uses methods of torture to slowly eliminate the insurrectionists who hide behind walls in apartments in the Casbah. Eventually Col. Mathieu kills Ali and it seems that everything will go back to what they were but two years later the Arabs take to the streets in huge numbers which causes the U.N. to take notice and in 1962 Algeria finally gained it's independence.
This was made by Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo who shot this in the actual locations in Algeria and used mainly non-actors in his cast (Martin is the only professional) and the story is based on a book by Yacef who not only is a survivor of these true events but is cast in an important role. Pontecorvo has created a film that seems so real that he had to have a disclaimer put into the credits stating that no newsreel or documentary footage was used which is incredible because there are so many scenes in which it appears that real events were caught on film. The script does it's best to show both the positive and the negative of both sides of the French and the FLN but it does seem that Pontecorvo leans towards the side of the Arabs. This all takes place in a time when most American viewers were not aware of what terrorism was about and in 1965 it was probably easy to just point at the French and think they should just get out but now in our day and age audiences are a little more sophisticated to the world and it's politics. There are scenes that take place that we will probably never see done again because of the lack of safety especially the shots of the bombs exploding and the (so-called) actors scrambling for their lives. Another point in the film shows a French soldier bursting into an apartment to search it and accidentally stepping on a crying baby! There is no doubt that this is one of the most important films ever made not just because of the subject matter but in the skill that Pontecorvo applies to achieve his vision. In 1965 this may not have been perceived as a truly great film but now 40 years later it's looked at as one of the most important films ever made and one that is studied by military personnel and those in the Pentagon.