Battle Of Algiers

I read the New York Movie Review article concerning the Battle Of Algiers written by Pete Rainer. Rainer overall enjoyed the film immensely, as I did as well, but doesn't really fuel that opinion too much into his review of the film. He more talks about the technical aspects of the film and what an accomplishment it is than just talking about whether he liked it or disliked it. He talks about the parallel between the events that happen in the movie, such as the cafe bombings and the hit and run assassinations of French policemen, and how ironic and strange it is that those events happened in the real conflict, many times perpetrated by the very same people that star in the movie. It is very interesting to note that the film wasn't made many years after the fact, but a mere 3-5 years later and shot in the same areas that the actual events took place in.

Rainer also notes the two opposing sides of the movie; The Algerians and the French. The Algerians are represented by one of their leaders, Ali LaPointe, who is brought up from being a lowly peasant to one of the main ringleaders or the FLN organization. At his opposite is the seemingly ruthless yet collected Colonel Mathieau. Both ends of the spectrum are treated equally and Pontecorvo isn't biased towards either side, telling each as it is, as is exemplified in this quote by Rainer.

What reveals Pontecorvo as an artist, and not simply a propagandist of genius, is the sorrow he tries to stifle but that comes flooding through anyway—the sense that all sides in this conflict have lost their souls, and that all men are carrion.

With this, Pontecorvo shows the extent to which the conflict has played out and that neither side is a sinner or a saint over the other, but both have seemed to have lost their souls and forgotten what they are really fighting for.

I also agree with Rainer's point that he makes by saying that

The strongest scene in the movie comes when three FLN women drop their veils and assume a Western look in order to infiltrate the European Quarter and plant explosives in two cafés and an Air France ticket office. We see tired businessmen at a bar, passengers waiting to board buses, teenagers dancing, and, most pointedly, a baby licking an ice cream cone—all soon to be blown to bits

This to me was also the strongest scene of the movie, as it shows both sides of a terrible conflict; The French citizens about to die, whom the viewer feels great sympathy for, but also the Algerian women who have to carry out this terrible act in hopes of winning their freedom.

I think Rainer did a terrific job in his review and touched on most of the key points/ moral dilemmas that the viewer was most likely feeling at the time. I also have to say the this, behind Kiss Me Deadly, was the second best film we have viewed in class so far, as it was entertaining in the intelligent sense in that it actually made you think, a trait not seen too often in most movies nowadays.