Battle of Algiers

UPC: 037429195628

Studio: Criterion

Summary: This highly political film about the Algerian struggle for independence from France took "Best Film" honors at the 1966 Venice Film Festival. The bulk of the film is shot in flashback, presented as the memories of Ali (Brahim Haggiag), a leading member of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), when finally captured by the French in 1957. Three years earlier, Ali was a petty thief who joined the secretive organization in order to help rid the Casbah of vice associated with the colonial government. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell what soon becomes a nationwide revolt. After the flashback, Ali and the last of the FLN leaders are killed, and the film takes on a more general focus, leading to the declaration of Algerian independence in 1962. Director Gillo Pontecorvo's careful re-creation of a complicated guerrilla struggle presents a rather partisan view of some complex social and political issues, which got the film banned in France for many years. That should not come as a surprise, for La Battaglia di Algeri was subsidized by the Algerian government and -- with the exception of Jean Martin and Tommaso Neri as French officers -- the cast was entirely Algerian as well. At least three versions exist, running 135, 125, and 120 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: United Nations Award – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Foreign Language Film – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Golden Lion – Venice International Film Festival Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: New high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions
Production gallery
Theatrical and re-release trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
"Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth" (1992): A 37-minute documentary, narrated by literary critic Edward Said
Exclusive 51-minute documentary on the making of The Battle of Algiers, featuring new interviews with the director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actors, and film historians
"Five Directors" (17 mins., 2004): Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film's influence, style, and importance
"Remembering History" (69 mins., 2004): An exclusive documentary that reconstructs the Algerian experience of the battle for independence, featuring interviews with historians and revolutionaries, including military leader Saadi Yacef
"?tats d'Armes" (2002): A 28-minute documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the rebellion
"The Battle of Algiers: A Case Study" (25 mins., 2004): Richard A. Clarke, former national counterterrorism coordinator and author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," discusses the film's relevance with Michael A. Sheehan, former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, in a conversation moderated by Christopher E. Isham, chief of investigative projects for ABC News
"Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers" (58 mins., 1992): The filmmaker revisits the Algerian people after three decades of independence
A 56-page book featuring excerpts from Saadi Yacef's original account of his arrest, a reprinted excerpt from the film's screenplay, a reprinted interview with co-writer Franco Solinas, a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, and biographical sketches on key figures in the French-Algerian War

Battle of Algiers

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 09/21/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 121 Minutes

Sides: 3

Number of Discs: 3

Language(s) French

Subtitles: English

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Battle of Algiers
1. Opening Titles: Algiers, 1957 [6:40]
2. Algiers, 1954: Ali La Pointe [3:13]
3. Witness To an Execution [2:27]
4. Message From Jaffar [5:38]
5. FLN Communiqu? No. 24 [4:03]
6. A Wedding Ceremony [2:39]
7. June 20, 1956, 10:32... [2:09]
8. Police Precinct [2:29]
9. Barricades and Barbed Wire [:47]
10. July 20, 1956, 11:20... [4:44]
11. No. 8 the Casbah [4:56]
12. "The FLN Will Avenge You!" [1:39]
13. Three Women [6:53]
14. Three Bombs [5:46]
15. Paratroopers Arrive [1:22]
16. A Faceless Enemy [5:07]
17. General Strike [3:12]
18. Larbi Ben M'Hidi [4:15]
19. Raiding the Casbah [3:08]
20. A Word From Col. Mathieu [1:58]
21. Intelligence Gathering [2:05]
22. Day Six of the Strike [2:06]
23. Un Resolution [3:50]
24. Four FLN Leaders [5:49]
25. February 25, 1957: The Racetrack [1:19]
26. Press Conference With Ben M'Hidi [2:38]
27. "We Are Soldiers, Our Duty Is To Win." [4:04]
28. Public Torture, Random Killing [2:37]
29. August 26, 1957: Ramel and Murad [3:41]
30. September 24, 1957: Jaffar [3:40]
31. "Ali La Pointe Is Still Free" [3:54]
32. Mahmud, Hassiba, Omar, and Ali [4:56]
33. December 11, 1960: Uprising [4:36]
34. "Long Live Algeria!" [2:47]
Disc #2 -- Battle of Algiers
1. Introduction [2:56]
2. Youth and Politics [7:34]
3. Kap? To the Battle of Algiers [8:36]
4. Burn! and Ogro [10:00]
5. Burden of His Convictions [6:11]
6. Questions Raised [2:09]
1. "A Marxist Poet" [2:32]
2. Gillo and Franco [3:17]
3. Par? To the Battle of Algiers [7:28]
4. Finding the Right Face [6:09]
5. "Reportage, Reportage" [2:51]
6. "The Heart of the Subject" [6:03]
7. Under Gillo's Direction [7:05]
8. Editing and Music [7:56]
9. The Golden Lion [5:06]
10. Epilogue [2:47]
1. Five Directors as Viewers [5:58]
2. The Choices Pontecorvo Made [3:56]
3. Poetry and Politics [3:41]
4. Making Political Films Today [3:38]
Disc #3 -- Battle of Algiers
1. Introductions [3:28]
2. The Film and History [1:46]
3. Colonization / The Algerians Organize [11:43]
4. November 1, 1954: The War Begins [6:36]
5. From Country To City / FLN Leadership [7:04]
6. Bombings and Retaliations [12:54]
7. The Battle of Algiers [8:38]
8. Torture [7:10]
9. The Battle Ends, the War Continues [6:49]
10. Epilogue [2:35]
1. A City at War [3:56]
2. "Cop Work" [2:02]
3. "Everyone Must Talk" [3:23]
4. Dirty Work [2:53]
5. Larbi Ben M'Hidi [4:40]
6. War Crimes [4:06]
7. Approval From the Top [7:21]
1. Terrorism [9:03]
2. Torture [5:46]
3. "Hearts & Minds" [1:37]
4. Lessons [8:10]
1. Credits / Boudiaf Assassinated [5:05]
2. Twenty-Seven Years Later [4:27]
3. Fearing a Fundamentalist State [5:00]
4. Memory Lane [8:30]
5. Islam and the Media [5:46]
6. Islamic Identity [3:40]
7. Acceptance and Access [7:34]
8. Two Worlds [7:06]
9. The Casbah, 1992: Empty Promises [9:13]
10. A Final Conversation With Boudiaf [1:40]

Brendon Hanley

The principal characteristic of Gillo Pontecorvo's La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) is its ferocious authenticity. It is a monument of neo-realism in the best tradition of Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves) and Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City). La Battaglia di Algeri is made with such astonishing, feral realism that it effectively blurs the line between documentary and fiction filmmaking. Using professional and non-professional actors, and, unbelievably, no newsreel footage, Pontecorvo draws out the passion and story of the Algerian people trying to free themselves from French rule in the mid-Fifties. There are any number of striking, memorable sequences, and the film became influential for the revolutionary mentality which hit the United States around the same time (it was apparently a favorite film of The Black Panthers). A stylistic connection can also be made between one of the most important American films of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde, and this movie, which preceded it by a year. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Fred Baker  Executive Producer 
Ennio Morricone  Composer (Music Score) 
Antonio Musu  Producer 
Gillo Pontecorvo  Director 
Gillo Pontecorvo  Composer (Music Score) 
Gillo Pontecorvo  Screenwriter 
Yacef Saadi  Producer 
Franco Solinas  Screenwriter 
Brahim Haggiag  Actor 
Yacef Saadi  Actor 
Jean Martin  Actor 
Tommaso Neri  Actor 
Fawzia el Kader  Actor 
Michele Kerbash  Actor 
Mohamed Ben Kassen  Actor 
Samia Kerbash  Actor 

Country: Italy,Algeria