Battle of Algiers
By Today, I showed The Battle of Algiers to my Military Intervention class. I was thinking about skipping out; a film doesn’t really require my presence beyond an intial hit of the “play” button. I’m glad I didn’t. Every time I watch The Battle of Algiers, I’m impressed by how magnificent of an achievement it is. In this case, staying was a particularly wise decision, because I had just acquired the new Criterion edition.
The new transfer is nothing short of outstanding, and the subtitles have been retranslated. The latter doesn’t make a big difference, but a couple interactions are more clear. The extras, however, are even more impressive than the film itself. Included in the edition is a booklet which describes the conception and production of the film. Remarkably enough, Pontecorvo and Solinas initially envisioned the film as centering on the experiences of a European journalist covering the Algerian War. The journalist in question would have been a former French paratrooper, and would gradually have grown disillusioned with the French effort. Weirdest of all, the journalist would have been played by. . . Paul Newman.
Ok, so now that you’ve recovered from that, on to the two discs of extras. The first disc has a documentary on Pontecorvo (narrated by Edward Said), and a documentary on the making of film. The second, and perhaps most interesting, disc has documentaries on the history of the Algerian War and on the use of torture by French forces. Most interesting to me, it features a 24 minute debate on the relevance of the film between Michael Sheehan and Richard Clarke. I haven’t watched it yet, and it may not live up to its potential, but it sounds great.
If you haven’t seen The Battle of Algiers, do so at the first opportunity. Pontecorvo and Solinas were not trying to make a film that understood both sides of an insurgency on their own terms; they were very sympathetic with the Algerians. What’s most impressive to me, however, is how complicated and interesting the French come through. Without a doubt, the most compelling figure in the film is Lieutenant Colonel Mathieu, with his sardonic manner and attachment to a set of norms that seem both honorable and horrific. Although in the end we must sympathize with the Algerians (the French are, after all, aliens), each French victim is treated with care, and you get the sense that even the paratroopers who commit torture are, in some sense, victims. This is perhaps why The Battle of Algiers can be so easily mapped on to any other insurgency, regardless of how we evaluate the justice of competing causes.