August 29, 2003

DVDs We Need, Vol. 3.

The Battle of Algiers If there's been a single running motif around here throughout this week, it's been the relation between reality, particularly political reality, and the movies - the lessons that can be learned by considering one in the light of the other and the dangers in going too far, that is, mistaking one for the other. But not just here, evidently. On Wednesday, Charles Paul Freund, a senior editor at Reason, "the magazine of free minds and free markets" (we'll get to that), took note in Slate of an interesting bit of reportage in David Ignatius's column in Tuesday's Washington Post:

Pentagon sources report one hopeful sign that the military is thinking creatively and unconventionally about Iraq. The Pentagon's special operations chiefs have scheduled a showing tomorrow in the Army auditorium of The Battle of Algiers, a classic film that examines how the French, despite overwhelming military superiority, were defeated by Algerian resistance fighters.

A Pentagon flier announcing the film puts it in eerie perspective: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas.... Children shoot soldiers at point blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film."

This leads Freund into his "primer about this famous and controversial film, and about how the ever-shifting moral of its story relates to the Battle of Baghdad." It is awfully interesting that the Pentagon would be screening what Freund calls "the premier political film of the 1960s. It was studied by the campus left for its lessons in revolutionary-cell organization and was obligatory viewing for Black Panthers." But it's been embraced by libertarians as well. Freund has several bones to pick with director Gillo Pontecorvo over the way the film plays fast and loose with the facts of the Algerian War. His is a valuable primer first for painstakingly pointing them out, and second, for hammering home the obvious, that while "[t]he United States is not France, Iraq is not Algeria, and whatever the sources of resistance in Iraq, none is the equivalent of the FLN," there are nonetheless more than a few scenes that are going to resonate at that Pentagon screening.

Back in June, Kevin Beary was thinking the same thing: "Although nearly forty years have passed since its creation, Battle of Algiers is more timely than ever - especially for Americans, given the American involvement in a contemporary colonial war in the Middle East. One hopes that it will soon be available in videocassette or DVD in the United States."

Indeed, but the key word here is "colonial." It's because The Battle of Algiers is probably the exemplary anti-colonial, anti-imperialist film that it's been embraced by both libertarians and the left. Beary, who stresses Pontecorvo's disillusionment with the Italian communists following the Soviet put-down of the Hungarian uprising but doesn't neglect to mention that Pontecorvo didn't abandon his "communist convictions" altogether, is writing for a staunchly libertarian site, one that looks at least a bit more rad than Reason (which, a couple of years ago, turned to that cyberlibertarian extraordinaire, Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired, for advice on spiffing itself up). And yet, if you turn to last year's Sight & Sound poll, you'll find the film on the top ten lists of three critics and four directors, among them Ken Loach and Tim Robbins, neither of whom would get carded at the door to any leftish gathering.

I've never seen this thing, dammit. And now I'm burning to.

(DVDs We Need, Vols. 1 and 2.)



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Posted by dwhudson at August 29, 2003 8:43 AM

Comments

Great blog, DHudson, your entries are consistently excellent.

I was just thinking about this film this morning, which is an astoundingly powerful and timely investigation of the events in Algiers. (It's on my personal Top 20 list at YMDb.com, too.)

Your best bet, if you can, is to check out the recently-released Italian Region 2 special edition DVD, which is a beautiful transfer with English subtitles and lots of polished extras (in Italian only) like a director's commentary and various interviews.

http://www.dvd.it/index.cgi?page=dett&froms=Y&arti=25266

Keep up the great work!

Posted by: Doug Cummings at August 29, 2003 9:19 AM

This may sound like logrolling, but I don't care, I'm saying it anyway: Coming from you, your complimentary words are highly appreciated.

And so is your tip. I saw in the Beary article that an Italian DVD was out, but didn't really know where to begin looking for it. Thanks very much for pointing me straight to it. And while I'm in Berlin and most of my DVDs are Region 2 anyway, I do still hope, though, that somewhere not too far down the line, a Region 1 version will be available.

Thanks again!

David

Posted by: David Hudson at August 29, 2003 10:37 AM

I did have the pleasure of seeing Battle of Algiers a few years back in film school, a scratchy film print but a print nonetheless. For some reason one of the things that most stuck with me about the film is Ennio Morricone's score -- it's one of my favorites, very memorable. The film itself was one of those "ahead of its time" works that predated some other documentary-like political thrillers, including Four Days in September and Z and so on... It's an unforgettable film and you are so right, these tumultuous times are just crying out for a DVD.

C

Posted by: Craig P at August 29, 2003 11:37 AM

i had something long to say but it's in that "primer"...

The United States is not France, Iraq is not Algeria, and whatever the sources of resistance in Iraq, none is the equivalent of the FLN. But to listen to [the fictional French military commander in the movie] is nevertheless to be challenged on whether moral compromise is also inherent in the American role in Iraq.

where he doesn't go with it: that the FLN was somewhat suicidal as an organization, and wanted the french to fight dirty, to make flaming enemies out of algerians living in the embers.

anybody who hasn't seen it oughta find costa-gavras's the confession, which gets into the meat of what made pontecorvo and company mad enough to make their movie.

Posted by: "chirp" at August 29, 2003 11:54 AM

In the film theory class I took in film school we were supposed to watch "The Battle of Algiers" on September 12, 2001.

Needless to say it was pushed back and then pushed back again until, finally it was decided that it would be too traumatic to show "Algiers" at all that year.

Instead we watched "Three Kings" some weeks later while bombs dropped on Afghanistan.

Posted by: Fred at August 29, 2003 3:41 PM

Well at least they let you watch Three Kings; I'm surprised that Ashcroft hasn't worked to ban that one. Not that it's all anti-American, but critical enough, and certainly has become prescient again hasn't it? Yeah, Battle of Algiers is a tough film to watch, was so even when I saw it ten years ago and certainly so now....

C

Posted by: Craig P at August 30, 2003 2:21 PM

the battle of algiers is a lesson to every unjust nation that want to rule by the iron,and the bombs,against the will of a nation wich doesn't accept the rule of tyrany...it's a strong message that can be used any time any where..for people who want to live free and die for their freedom and dignity.

Posted by: someone at April 22, 2004 5:15 PM