La battaglia di Algeri (1966)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Gillo Pontecorvo

Writers:

Gillo Pontecorvo (writer)
Franco Solinas (writer)

Release Date:

20 September 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Tagline:

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!

Plot:

A surprisingly unbiased account of the bloodiest revolution in modern history.

Plot Keywords:

Bomb | Independence | Government | Torture | Revolution

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 7 wins

Cast

Brahim Hadjadj	...	Ali La Pointe (as Brahim Haggiag)
Jean Martin	...	Col. Mathieu
Yacef Saadi	...	Djafar (as Saadi Yacef)
Samia Kerbash	...	One of the girls
Ugo Paletti	...	Captain
Fusia El Kader	...	Halima
Omar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohamed Ben Kassen	...	Petit Omar

Also Known As:

The Battle of Algiers (UK) (USA)
Maarakat madinat al Jazaer (Algeria: Arabic title)

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

Italy | Algeria

Language:

Italian | French | English | Arabic

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Norway:16 | USA:Not Rated | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-16 | France:(Banned) (1965-1971) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1993) | UK:X (original rating) | West Germany:16 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Algeria

Company:

Igor Film

Trivia:

In 2003, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon screened this film for officers and civilian experts who were discussing the challenges faced by the US military forces in Iraq. The flier inviting guests to the screening read: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas".

Goofs:

Continuity: The foot responsible for tripping Ali when running down the street changes from the right to the left foot between cuts.

Quotes:

Journalist: The law's often inconvenient, Colonel.
Col. Mathieu: And those who explode bombs in public places, do they respect the law perhaps? When you put that question to Ben M'Hidi, remember what he said?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Remembering History (2005) (V)

learn from the history it conveys

If one has not seen this film, one cannot begin to imagine Pontecorvo's extraordinary achievement. The acting is so natural and convincing that many viewers and even some critics assumed that the movie was a documentary. Only a master director could have taken this raw acting material and gotten such performances out of it. And despite his leftist viewpoint, Pontecorvo neither ridicules or demonizes the French, as does Michael Moore the Americans in his recent putative documentaries Bowling at Columbine and Farenheit 9-11 -– though I do a disservice to Pontecorvo to compare his work to that of Moore.

See this movie now that it has been released on DVD in the United States and learn from the history it so brilliantly conveys.