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E-mail'The Battle of Algiers' can stand as parable about Iraq war
"The Battle of Algiers"
Rialto Pictures
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo.
Stars: Jean Martin, Brahim Haggiag, Saadi Yacef.
MPAA rating: Unrated but PG-13 in nature for realistic depictions of war and terrorism.
Now playing: Regent Square Theater.
Pontecorvo, a Jewish-Italian ex-Communist, made it as an Italian movie in Algiers with a primarily Algerian cast of non-professionals.
Despite its documentary-like quality, he says no newsreel or archival footage was used.
"The Battle of Algiers" was Oscar-nominated as best foreign-language film of 1966, losing to France's "A Man and a Woman."
Released commercially in the States more than a year later, it became eligible for Academy Awards in most other categories as a 1968 picture. It was nominated for Franco Solinas' original screenplay, losing to "The Producers," and for Pontecorvo's direction, losing to "Oliver!"
The screenplay was drawn from a book Saadi Yacef wrote while in prison. Yacef not only became the picture's co-producer but plays El-hadi Jaffar, head of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), a character based upon himself.
The picture begins Oct. 7, 1957. The French have arrested Jaffar and Ben M'Hidi, another FLN leader, and are closing in on the last surviving guerrilla leader, the young terrorist Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag).
As the French move in on La Pointe's hideout behind a wall, we flash back to Nov. 1, 1954, and sift through the 35-month interim.
Algerians thrash about for independence from the occupying French. Jean Martin, the only professional actor in the cast, acts Col. Mathieu, based loosely on Gen. Jacques Massu.
The French torture their Algerian captives for information about the hideouts of the FLN's leaders. The Algerians respond with terrorism.
Although the picture regards the Algerians more sympathetically, it strives for at least a bit of balance. When Algerian women place explosives in an airplane ticket office and two cafes, we see that those killed include a child with an ice cream cone.
The French in their frustration regard the FLN as "a tapeworm ... infinitely regenerating."
Considering that Algeria did not win its independence until 1962 and that the film was made in the mid-1960s, it's odd that the story concludes in 1957, which we know historically was a temporary French victory.
Pontecorvo has said he was influenced most in his directorial style by Italian neorealism of the mid to late 1940s, especially "Rome: Open City" and "Paisan."
His strongest images are of the poor, the desperate and the determined -- some portrayed as victims, others defined as heroes.
Reportedly screened by the Pentagon and U.S. military leaders last August, "The Battle of Algiers" some time earlier was used as a training film by the Black Panthers.
