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!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.