The Battle of Algiers

1966 [ITALIAN]

Action / Drama / War

38
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 99% · 95 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 95% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.1/10 10 74803 74.8K

government revolution muslim algerian insurrection bomb

Director

Gillo Pontecorvo Photo
Gillo Pontecorvo

Top cast

Mohamed Ben Kassen Photo
Mohamed Ben Kassen as Petit Omar
Gene Wesson Photo
Gene Wesson as (uncredited)
Yacef Saadi Photo
Yacef Saadi as Djafar
Rouïched Photo
Rouïched as The Drunk Man
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.07 GB
1280*684
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 1 min
Seeds 44
2.01 GB
1888*1008
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 1 min
Seeds 100+

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 8 / 10

Powerful , award-winning flick depicting the uprising against French Colonial rule

An impressive and historical film in semi-documentary style . Set when the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) is leading the resistance in Algeria against their French rulers , the FLN that the colonial authorities believe, or want to believe, comprise only a small minority of the Muslim Algerian population in wanting Algerian independence. Subsequently , specifically violent incidents taking place in the battle in Algiers -between 1954 and the final time of independence in 1962- are introduced . The final scene happens some time later in 1960. There is a riot going on with soldiers shooting into the crowds. Finally , the Évian Accords were a set of peace treaties signed on 18 March 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France, by France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, the government-in-exile of FLN, which sought Algeria's independence from France . The Accords ended the 1954-1962 Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for 19 March and formalized the status of Algeria as an independent nation and the idea of cooperative exchanges between the two countries . The movie ends with the captain narrating that on July 2, 1962 a new nation of Algeria was born . The French Colonel...who was forced even to torture ! . One of the many women...who stopped at nothing to win! The Algerian Street Boy...who became a rebel hero!. The Revolt that Stirred the World!This seminal semi-documentary style film was well directed by Gillo Pontecorvo , who also participated in the script and the music (in this last aspect, advised by the great maestro Ennio Morricone) . The main characters were represented by Brahim Hadjadj , Yacef Saâdi and Jean Martin who was the only professional actor . The Battle of Algiers was inspired by the 1962 book Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger, an FLN military commander's account of the campaign, by Saadi Yacef . Yacef wrote the book while he was held as a prisoner of the French , and it served to boost morale for the FLN and other militants . After independence, the French released Yacef , who became a leader in the new government. The Algerian government backed adapting Yacef's memoir as a film . Salash Baazi , an FLN leader who had been exiled by the French, approached Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas with the project . To meet the demands of film, The Battle of Algiers uses composite characters and changes the names of certain persons . For example , Colonel Mathieu is a composite of several French counterinsurgency officers , especially Jacques Massu . Saadi Yacef has said that Mathieu was based more on Marcel Bigeard , although the character is also reminiscent of Roger Trinquier . Accused of portraying Mathieu as too elegant and noble, screenwriter Franco Solinas denied that this was his intention . He said in an interview that the Colonel is "elegant and cultured, because Western civilization is neither inelegant nor uncultured". For The Battle of Algiers , Pontecorvo and cinematographer Marcello Gatti filmed in black and white and experimented with various techniques to give the film the look of newsreel and documentary film . The effect was so convincing that American releases carried a notice that "not one foot" of newsreel was used.Pontecorvo's use of fictional realism enables the movie "to operate along a double-bind as it consciously addresses different audiences" . The film makes special use of television in order to link western audiences with images they are constantly faced with that are asserted to express the "truth". The film seems to be filmed through the point of view of a western reporter, as telephoto lenses and hand-held cameras are used, whilst "depicting the struggle from a 'safe' distance with French soldiers placed between the crowds and camera" .La battaglia di Algeri (1966) is an excellent film which makes most political films seem intellectual by comparison in its use o of non-professional actors , realistic violence , gritty cinematography and a boldly propagandistic sense of social outrage . The motion picture was competently directed by Gillo Pontecorvo . Although Gillo made fewer than 20 films , he is regarded as one of Italy's greatest directors . He moved to France in 1938 to escape Italy's fascist racial laws . He eventually returned to Italy and led a Resistance brigade during WWII. After the war, he studied chemistry and worked as a journalist before becoming a film director; he started out making documentaries . His first feature film was ¨The Wide Blue Road¨. Pontecorvo was born into a Jewish family , as he directed ¨Kapo¨ that was one of the first films about the theme of Jewish holocaust and one of the more realistic in its recreation . Gillo subsequently directed this successful ¨Battle of Algiers¨ and ¨Queimada¨ with Marlon Brando and his final feature movie : ¨Ogro¨ , later on , he made Documentaries and Shorts . This ¨The Battle of Algiers¨ won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for three Academy Awards (in non-consecutive years, a unique achievement) : Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and Best Screenplay (Gillo Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas) and Best Director (Gillo Pontecorvo) in 1969.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by Xstal 9 / 10

The Hypocrisy of Occupation...

You will struggle to find a better argument to dissuade budding and existing occupiers of territory they have no legitimate claim to embarking on, or continuing with their despotic occupations of populations and their lands. The people of Algiers demonstrate as determined a will to overthrow their oppressors as their oppressors had demonstrated just over a decade previously in their fight to regain their freedom from tyranny. It is however, the gripping presentation of a reality into a thoroughly convincing and believable portrayal of that reality that grabs the audiences attention, giving it longevity, linking it to future conflicts, keeping it relevant. It leaves you questioning what you would have done under the same or similar circumstance, while juggling the difference in semantics between freedom fighter and terrorist and considering the situational similarities that currently exist in the world today.

Read more IMDb reviews

10 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment