Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Battle of Algiers (1966)



Click on the picture above to see the whole movie with English Subtitles.

The Battle of Algiers (Italian: La battaglia di Algeri) is a 1966 black-and-white film by Gillo Pontecorvo based on events during the 1954-1962 Algerian War against French rule.

The film depicts an episode in the war of independence in then-French Algeria, in the capital city of Algiers. It reconstructs the events of November 1954 to December 1960 in Algiers during the Algerian War of Independence, beginning with the organization of revolutionary cells in the Casbah. From there, it depicts the conflict between native Algerians and European settlers (pied-noirs) in which the two sides exchange acts of increasing violence, leading to the introduction of French paratroopers, under the direction of General Massu and then Colonel Bigeard, to root out the National Liberation Front (FLN). The paratroopers are depicted as "winning" the battle by neutralizing the whole FLN leadership through assassination or capture. However, the film ends with a coda, depicting demonstrations and rioting by native Algerians for independence, in which it is suggested that though the French have won the Battle of Algiers, they have lost the war.



Battle of Algiers - Ennio Morricone

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