Just when I thought I was starting to hate every movie in sight, I had the amazing priveledge to watch "the Battle Of Algiers" which is this amazing account of the oppression of the Algierian people by the French in the 1950's.

When the movie starts, we see 4 people hiding from the French Army. Then all of a sudden, this amazingly haunting music starts, and we're told the story in flashback of how the Algierian people tried to revolt against the French Soldiers.

From what I understand, the movie uses no documentary footage, which is amazing as some of the scenes in the movie must have taken a great deal of effort to produce., There are some pretty amazing crowd scenes and the explosion scenes are just breathtaking.

Also, I guess some of the actual revolutionaries are in the film as well. They are pretty hard to point out as all of the acting here is amazing, very realistic.

So, looking for a war movie? Dammit, don't go for Private Ryan, go to Algiers.

This is a documentary-like film about the Algerian revolution against the French in the 1950s and 60s--though 95% of the movie is set between 1956 and 1957. At first, it appears to be a documentary-like film about a revolutionary named Ali Le Pointe. It follows him episodically from his teenage years, to his joining the FLA (the Algerian Independence group) and follows many of his terrorist exploits as well as those of his compatriots. However, despite this being the focus, the film then diverges towards other characters and even after Ali's death, the film continues--giving spotty accounts all the way up until their independence in 1962. While the film is greatly admired and it does seem to show both sides of the equation, it looks as if the film was made by two or more directors and then pieced together, as the focus and style of the film changed repeatedly. While this doesn't undermine its overall impact, this keeps it from being a truly great film.

Also, and this is definitely a politically charged opinion, I had a bit of a hard time watching this film. While the French (and British and others) were dead wrong to establish colonial empires, the organizations that in many instances replaced these empires scares the life out of any thinking person. Also, no matter how noble the cause, so many innocent people were murdered it makes you wonder if it was all worth it or was it just a chance for nihilists to kill for the sake of killing?

Told in a brutally realistic style The Battle For Algeria is the ultimate in docudrama. Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo made this film with a bit of distance between the French-Algerian War post World War II. Pontecorvo skillfully uses documentary footage to blend in nicely with the story he shot. You think you are getting an inside look at the war.

Looking back this seems so ludicrous. Post the Napoleonic age France's colonial expansion took her to North Africa just across the Mediterranean and between Morocco, Tunisia, and the countries carved out of French Equatorial Africa and French West Africa she had one large chunk of the continent. By degree and somewhat hurried by the end of World War II. Except for Algeria and particularly Algiers it's capital city on the coast. For some inexplicable reason the French took a proprietary interest in the place and would not let it go.

No hearts and minds were won by the French among the Moslem population. Especially after use of torture. Why they just didn't let them go with the rest is beyond me.

The Algerian story is told from the point of view of freedom figter Braham Hadjaji. The French point of view is covered from high ranking officer Jean Martin. Martin's attitudes are frightening as his sense of propriety concerning Algiers.

This is one great film with a lot of lessons to be learned about neo-colonialism.