"The Battle of Algiers" (1966)

(Originally released as La Battaglia di Algeri)

Starring: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi

First, the Lowdown: An unbiased account of the events leading to the Algerian independence from the French.

Fear is the great equalizer. Fear makes idiots of all men. The more we fear, the more we find ourselves controlled.

A personal example: when the 9/11 attacks happened, my ex-wife and I were living in a crappy multiplex. One of its few saving graces was that it was only a block away from a 7-11. This particular franchise was owned and operated by a Middle Eastern family (I think they were Pakistani, I never asked where precisely they were from). The brother of the owner was a devout Sikh and always wore a neatly-kept blue turban. This man was proud to be working at a 7-11, a job most people think as menial. Every time I went it, he would be behind the counter practically beaming at everyone who came into the shop. He was a happy and content to be working at a convenience store as any merchant at a bazaar.

Then a group of religious fanatics slammed three airplanes into prominent buildings, and the United States was swathed in a blanket of jingoism and fear. My wife was a nervous wreck at the time, raising a newborn baby during a time of crisis is no picnic. To restore a bit of normalcy to a now-chaotic world, I went to the 7-11 to get some Slurpees and hopefully make things right with the world. What I saw when I got there sickened me. The counter was surrounded by a group of men, about 18-25, who out of fear and ignorance were hurling insults and racist epithets toward a man who's only crime was wearing a turban as part of his faith. The man's once smiling face was lined with worry . He kept trying to get his attackers to leave, but couldn't bring himself to use any force.

Fortunately someone had called the police and a officer came and dispersed the angry group. When I made my purchase I noticed the mans hands were shaking and he sheepishly apologized. I told him "I'm glad you're here," and he smiled again.

The Battle of Algiers capitalizes much on people's fear, on both sides of its focal conflict. In a scene that brought the above anecdote to mind, a terrorist bomb goes off at a race track, the predominantly European crowd flees the destruction while an Algerian boy who is vending the event looks on in worry. A group of Europeans, feeling fearful and helpless, start attacking the boy, accusing him of bringing the destruction upon them. He collapses in a mass of people (including women and children) and is saved by a police officer who lifts him out of the crowd.

The movie focuses on Ali La Pointe and his involvement with the National Liberation Front (FLN). Recruited in prison after witnessing the execution (by guillotine) of a Algerian nationalist, Ali La Pointe signs up believing he can change what his country has turned into. Only to find out that once provoked, the French authorities are equally ruthless.

The French occupation of Algeria was indicative of many of its other colonies. The exploitation and suppression of the native majority; the racism of the occupying colonials: all signs pointing to eventual unrest and insurrection. It's interesting how this pattern has been routinely repeated over the course of history, yet no one's taken note of it. Point in fact, the Foreign Legion's recent retreat in Indochina (now Vietnam) had left them further emboldened to prevent it from happening elsewhere.

Thus our stage is set: Loyal nationalists trying to shrug off the bonds of colonial oppression against a patriotic military determined not to lose again. The actual streets of Algiers were used to film this movie, giving the scenes of bombed buildings, police actions, and riots an almost newscast feel to it. For the time it was made, "Algiers" is a very graphic movie. Shots of the dead pulled from the rubble of a collapsed tenement look straight from a war atrocity film.

Throughout the movie there is the pall of fear. Fear of losing another conflict (the military), fear of losing their lives in a random attack (the colonists), fear of losing their country and way of life entirely (the Algerians). Algiers underscores much of how fear can motivate or paralyze.

The movie is thankfully apolitical in its reporting. It was based on the memoirs of Yacef Saadi a political prisoner at the time (who has a starring role in the movie), and rather than being a rallying cry for revolution (as apparently Saadi originally wanted the movie), it is an even-handed portrayal of how revolution makes victims out of both sides.

Line of the movie: "Acts of violence don't win wars. Neither wars nor revolutions."

Five stars. Not to be used for investment purposes.