The Battle for Algiers

The Battle for Algiers is a 1966 film produced in black and white with white colored subtitles for English viewing. This made  it hard to understand and read since the letters were white and some of the background was white so it would blur the lettering. But this is a mute point as it was intended for viewing in its own language. So anyway, the film was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and is a war film based on the Algerian War in Northern Africa.

This film deals with the harsh realities of war. This particular war focused on the French foreign legion facing off against the Algierians who are seeking their Independence. The French use torture tactics to gain intelligence to help them plan their attacks. They are criticized for using torture but defend themselves by saying something along the lines of the fact that it is very important to get the information quickly otherwise the opposing group will have already moved out and relocated making it difficult to plan an effective attack. Which is true.

The National Liberation Front (NLF) send three women with bombs to two bars and the Air France office in the European quarter, killing many people. They offset the torture techniques with these suicide bombings. The Algerians finally achieve their Independence by 1962.

This is the true story of realistic events that actually happened. This film recreated all of the events that happened of course and I looked it up according to an article it said that it was advertised in America as having "not one foot" of newsreel used.  The director was going for a documentary feel when producing the movie. I think it worked as most of the scenes with many extras involved seemed to be real. The rioting and chaos that was happening looked like it was taken from a real riot and just used for this film. This is the reason that this film is held in high regard and awarded with praise by being nominated for Academy Awards and winning the Venice Film Festival. 

I agree from watching this film that it must have been a chore to produce especially dealing with all the extras to be able to get them to all run the same way at the right time. When there is a crowd as large as the ones in this film there has to be time when some of the people didnt hear the directions properly and waited too long or went the wrong way or something. I wonder how much, if anything that the extras got paid in order to be in this film. I think I remember that you said that they used real soldiers for some of it so maybe they were just following orders from their superiors and got no extra pay for the film.