Review for Film Class 2010 (Santa Monica College)

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2010)

I have to admit I had vague knowledge of the occurrences in the capital city of French Algeria between November 1954 and December 1960, during the Algerian War of Independence. The two opposing forces were the Casbah and the National Liberation Front. I had never heard of this film until my film teacher introduced it in class. It was interesting that the director Pontecorvo had several protagonists, based on historical war figures. I found it interesting how the story begins and ends from the perspective of Ali la Pointe -- a petty criminal who is politically radicalized while in prison, and is then recruited to the FLN by the military commander El-hadi Jafer. Jafer is played by Saadi Yacef, playing a character based on himself. The French colonialists resort to lynch mobs and indiscriminate,racist violence against the natives. It was difficult to watch when the women hid bombs on their bodies to kill the Europeans. "The Battle of Algiers," made me realize that I am going to continue to research topics I discovered in my film class.