Film Review: The Battle of Algiers (dir. G. Pontecorvo, 1965)

The Bush Administration is remaking this classic film as "The Battle of Baghdad," or maybe as "The Global Struggle Against Common Sense" (alternate working title), but the original is still very much worth seeing. (Those remakes are never quite as good as the originals, and don't even get me started on what they did to Rollerball.)

The scary thing here is how much of the film seems relevant. The press conferences with Colonel Mathieu, the commander of the special forces in Algiers are eerily familiar. Consider the following quote (not from a press conference):

Col. Mathieu: We need to have the Kasbah at our disposal. We have to sift through it and interrogate everyone. And that's where we find ourselves hindered by a conspiracy of laws and regulations that continue to operate as if Algiers were a holiday resort and not a battleground. We've requested a carte blanche, but that's very difficult to obtain. Therefore, it's necessary to find an excuse to legitimize our intervention and make it possible. It's necessary to create this for ourselves, this excuse. Unless our adversaries think of it themselves, which seems to be what they're doing.

How many times have you heard similar "hindered by a conspiracy of laws and regulations that continue to operate as if [this] were a holiday resort" arguments from the executive branch and its supporter since TGSACS started? (That's pronounced "tag sacks.") The Pentagon has less requested "a carte blanche" than just assumed one.

Oh, I could go on and on about the eerie parallels, but I'm sure you can find that somewhere else on the web. In terms of the filmmaking, the style here is French New Wave, a style that I like, in moderate doses, mixed with documentary style footage. It is also a bit of a "crime caper" movie, in that we see the planting of bombs and the like; the terrorists are, first, if not foremost, criminals--although that will get me in trouble with the TGACS warriors, won't it? Well, here's Colonel Mathieu:

Col. Mathieu: To know them means to eliminate them. Consequently, the military aspect is secondary to the police method.