Episode 738 - The Battle Of Algiers (1966)

One Movie Punch

Hi everyone!

We’re closing out the week with another entry in our series, Under the Kanopy. Kanopy is a library and university funded streaming service that grants card holders six free streams a month, featuring a combination of classic, mainstream, independent, and international films. They currently have streaming deals with some of our favorite distributors, like A24 and Kino Lorber, which offer the critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful films.

Today’s film was one recommended early last week, when I was suffering from a migraine and looking for distraction while the medicine worked. While not getting any recommendations on Twitter, I got an avalanche of films on my Facebook page. A good friend had been recommending this film for quite some time, and after catching it on Kanopy, I can see why he was so excited. I’ll have my thoughts on THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) in a moment. For a few other films in this same series, check out MARIANNE AND LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE (Episode #731), HAVE A NICE DAY (Episode #724), and TO DUST (Episode #717).

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our good friend Rory Mitchell, from the Mitchell Report Unleashed podcast. He was gracious enough to have yours truly on as a guest recently, which you can check out in Mitchell Report Unleashed Episode #173. You can follow Rory on Twitter @officallyrory, on Facebook @mitchellreportunleashed, and on Instagram @re3684. You can also subscribe to the podcast at anchor.fm/rory-mitchell8. Don’t miss a single episode of his insightful interview-driven show.

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Here we go!

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Today’s movie is THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966), directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, and written for the screen by Franco Solinas, based on a story developed by both. In 1954 French-occupied Algeria, Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjdadj) is recruited into the FLN (National Liberation Front) by Djafar (Yacef Saadi). Over the next three years, the FLN recruits and organizes the people into a revolution against the French, which escalates into a full-out counter-insurgency operation lead by Colonel Mathieu (Jean Martin).

No spoilers.

Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, I knew a lot of people who served for some period of time in Vietnam. Up until our occupation of Afghanistan, Vietnam was the longest war the United States was ever involved in, spanning roughly twenty years from 1955 through 1975. An entire generation of soldiers committed to occupying a foreign country. It’s a strange position for the United States to find themselves within, having kicked off the decolonization era with the American Revolution, but the United States also wanted to get in on the colonization action wherever it could after World War II, especially if France was withdrawing. It would take us twenty years to learn what the French did before withdrawing: occupying another country without the consent of the people is generally impossible without the application of brutal, draconian policies.

Of course, the French didn’t actually learn the lesson after withdrawing from Southeast Asia. France simply couldn’t support a long-term war halfway around the world and rebuild at home, so after relinquishing their claim in 1954, they consolidated around their other colonial territories, including Algeria in North Africa. The French had already segregated Algiers into European and non-European quarters, along with segregating the economy along those same lines. Revolution was in the air, especially after the French were kicked out of Asia, and rather than accept that colonialism was being dismantled, the French doubled down in Algeria, leading to the first major phase of the Algerian War for Independence, documented in today’s film.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS has two key strengths. First, and foremost, is the straight-ahead storytelling. All too often when it comes to films about timely political topics, the filmmakers take a particular perspective, usually siding with one side or the other, and calibrating the characters and plot to further that perspective. Think of any of the many films about US soldiers stationed in the Middle East facing down caricatures of radicalized local residents. But Pontecorvo and Solinas don’t sugarcoat the war between France and Algeria, as Italian filmmakers, happy to show the real concerns of the colonial authority and the revolutionary front, as well as the horrific torture techniques by the French and the civilian bombings by the revolution. We see the equal terror on European and Algerian, as collateral damage in the larger struggle. They let the story speak for itself.

Second, and probably more important, is the almost play-by-play handbook for engaging in guerilla insurgency, and how it escalates from peaceful oppression, if such a term is even possible, into an all-out armed conflict. We see what passes for an unequal and exploitative peace, how the people are organized first in secret, then publicly in disobedience, and how the violence escalates based upon the colonial power’s response to each protest. Pontecorvo and Solinas also don’t waste a whole lot of time on character development, letting history and actions speak where dialogue would in most historical epics. The film serves as an accounting, a handbook, and a cautionary tale all in one.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS keeps a steady pace throughout, never failing to engage the viewer, much in the same way as THE IRISHMAN (Episode #658). Ali La Pointe and Colonel Mathieu represent the revolution and the colonial authority, with commanding performances by Hadjadj and Martin. And helping to bring it all together is a wonderful score by Ennio Morricone in collaboration with Pontecorvo, a delightful guitar-driven affair that captures the espionage like quality to the guerilla tactics. The result is a film that makes it so clear not just what happened, but what went wrong, and why. It also became an inspiration for other revolutionary movements, against colonial powers or otherwise.

One would think that anyone who saw this film would see the futility of military occupation. The United States was already 12 years into the Vietnam War when THE BATTLE FOR ALGIERS was released, steeped in political drama at home that made leaving difficult. We should have learned our lesson after that travesty, and yet, the United States is currently occupying another two nations since 2001, lasting so long that it has become the new longest war in United States history, despite rebranding efforts. And we continue to make the same errors the French made in Algiers, the most heinous of which is believing we can make it work this time, as if fixing the errors of the present would help us fix the errors of the past. Hopefully future nations are wiser.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS is a landmark military epic that doubles as an important fictionalized documentation of the historical record. Pontecorvo and Solinas deliver a well-paced, even-handed look at the French occupation of Algeria, and the stakes that rapidly escalated. Fans of historical epics, or folks who want to learn more about the decolonization era in North Africa, should definitely check out this film. I’ll be playing the score on repeat tonight.

Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 96 (MUST SEE)

One Movie Punch: 10/10

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) is not rated and is currently playing on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy.