Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle Of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo’s film The Battle of Algiers takes a street level, personal approach to portray the titular struggle which occurred during the Algerian War of Independence in the country’s capital. As such, and because of the film’s great effort to convey verisimilitude, The Battle of Algiers is useful to historians as a study of the impacts which this violence had on the Algerian population and on the movement for independence. Though attempting to be realistic and convey both sides of the battle, the film cannot escape bias, and one can observe undertones of Frantz Fanon’s philosophy on decolonization violence—recorded in his work The Wretched of the Earth —throughout. Observing this, this paper contends that Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers argues that violence was necessary for the ultimate goal of liberation, as the escalating cycle of violence and retaliation leads to unification among the Algerian people. Central to The Battle of Algiers’ portrayal of violence between the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the French authorities is the focus on the way said violence escalates through a cycle of revenge violence. Indeed, Col. Mathieu calls this a “vicious circle.” Chronologically, the first attacks by the FLN shown in the film are assassinations of

The film presents an argument in favour of violent resistance as a unifying and motivating force that is vital in the struggle for decolonization and independence. This violence was necessary in Algeria not because of its direct military effects, but because of the revolutionary influence it had on the people which would ultimately lead to their success. Unification and motivation of the people, then, are the key factors of liberation, and violence, rather than being one of these factors itself, is a path to fostering