The Roots of Real Terrorism: "Battle of Algiers" As Topical Case Study

I rented "The Battle of Algiers" after reading several recent newspaper articles in which various experts on terrorism said it was the most authentic movie recreation ever made on the genesis and implementation of a modern terrorism movement.

The film is not a documentary, though by-and-large stylistically it feels, looks and sounds like one. Relying on unknown Algerian and French actors re-creating real historical figures in real locales and situations, produced on site by Algerians, and directed by Italian Gillo Pontevorco in a grainy, black-and-white cinema verite style, "The Battle of Algiers" breathtakingly takes viewers right to the heart of what makes a "True Believer." The film was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars in 1966, and received 11 major international film awards.

It certainly is effective and gripping. And even more important, the film is topical to today's news even though it's about an anti-French uprising in colonial Algeria by Muslims and freedom fighters between 1954 to 1957.


OF "PLASTIQUE" AND SPRAY-PAINTED ACRONYMS:
When I was 8, my family moved to Paris, France. It was the summer of 1959, two years after the events depicted in this film had transpired on the other side of the Mediterranean.

By the time we arrived in Paris, what had been a regional battle in Algiers that brought a movement to the fore was already a nascent war of independence that was only just being exported from Africa to the streets of Paris.

The legacy of the Battle of Algiers literally exploded in 1960 and 1961 on French soil itself in the form of running battles and acts of terrorism. On the one hand were military hardliners and groups of French ex-pats who had lived in Algeria (known as the "pieds-noirs", or black feet)who wanted France to crush Algerian independence militarily. On the other were trained revolutionary guerrillas and liberals who advocated France getting out of Algeria and giving the country freedom.

I remember the sound of bombs made of "plastique" exploding willy-nilly around Paris for months on end. I remember the spray-painted initials of both the FLN (the Algerian revolutionary National Liberation Front) and the illegal French para-military hard line OAS (the Secret Army Organization) appearing on buildings throughout the region before and after terror attacks. I remember a classmate of mine telling me how the wall of his family's apartment was ripped apart by a bomb blast against a bank in the building next door.

And mostly I remember the day my father and mother pulled my brother and me from school and quickly took us on a weeklong "vacation" in the country. As our car rolled south, we saw loyalist French Army tanks rolling north to the centers of government as it was feared the OAS would seek to topple the De Gaulle government to prevent capitulation to the FLN.

Bloody civil unrest had turned to possible Civil War.

THE FILM:
The film follows the emergence and eventual demise of a militant young terrorist dubbed "Ali la Pointe" by the French, played unforgettably by Algerian actor Brahim Haggiag. The angry and desperate Ali is recruited and tested by the movement's leadership in cells throughout Algiers, and he is quickly promoted over a period of three years as the Algerian political resistance turns to increasingly frequent and bloody violence against French targets, both military and civilian.

Ali's foil is the ruthless legendary French paratroop commander Col. Pierre Mathieu, played by Jean Martin with a cool detachment that nonetheless conveys real empathy for a secretive enemy he both understands and respects.

Both Haggiag and Martin are surrounded by a convincing supporting cast -- terrorists young and old, male and female; both innocent civilian victims and ugly racists from both sides; and policemen and soldiers trapped in their unsavory roles while sporadic unrest turns into a general strike and ultimately a veritable Battle of Algiers.

Some of the most effective scenes include speeches by Col. Matthieu to his lieutenants in which he explains just how the French military will divide, conquer and crush the rebellion, as well as small secret gatherings of terrorists in underground cells as they plan, train, strike and hide, and then plan, train, strike and hide again.

The terrorism itself is graphically portrayed. What starts as hit-and-run assassinations of policemen turns into bombs ripping apart restaurants, cafes, and social clubs frequented by young French students. But equally graphic is the image of colonial repression -- the blatant French racism against and disdain for the Arabs, the cordoning off of the Casbah ghetto behind barbed wire and armed troops, and the brutal torture of any suspected Arab activists.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
Filmed in 1966 in French, and available with English subtitles, "The Battle of Algiers" is a worthwhile lesson for all of us. The Algeria of 1954-1957 could be about any terrorist flash point in today's news -- Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Ireland, and parts of South America and Africa.

Thematically "The Battle of Algiers" falls somewhere among other celluloid anti-colonial messages of the early to late 60s like George Englund's classic The Ugly American starring Marlon Brando, Otto Preminger's epic Exodus starring Paul Newman and Sal Mineo, and Costas-Garvas'incendiary and politically-charged Z starring Yves Montand.

But it stands out from those superb mass audience productions because its grainy documentary-style images, B-movie feel and titles, and muddy sound track force the characters and dramatic events to the fore in an indelible message untainted by artifice or the veneer of technology. Die Hard is for fans of Hollywood pyrotechnics; this film is for fans of the down-and-dirty truth.

This is one powerful movie.

MEANWHILE, OUT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE:
I remember hearing on the radio and seeing on TV reports that a civil war in France had been avoided when within 48 hours of our flight from Paris the bulk of the French military chose to stand with the government of Charles de Gaulle.

The government had General Salan and the other OAS leaders and their supporters arrested, and France quickly allowed Algeria to become a free country.

And my brother and I had to go back to school.