"Battle of Algiers" -- great (and timely) gun film

[MatthewVanitas]

Watched this film recently, and am working on the related book "My Battle of Algiers" by Ted Morgan, cousin of John Negroponte and Algerian War veteran.

Great film! Won lots of awards, strong cinematography, and about a fascinating war that most Americans haven't even heard above. The film covers the latter part of the French-Algerian War in the 1950s-1962, when Algeria became independent after over a century as a French colony.

So far as the gun-geek stuff goes, the film is really heavy on MAT-49 subguns. Apparently, these actually were very common. Looking at the above clips, you can see how both sides might favor volume and compactness over range. Some MAS 49 semi rifles as well, and when the paras arrive they mainly carry M1 Carbines.


CRITICISMS AFTER READING THE BOOK:

1) The film does help nuance the ill acts of both sides, mainly by showing the rebel's deliberate bombing of civilian targets, including a youth dance hall. However, the film doesn't show the atrocities committed by rebels against settlers and collaborators, thought it does show the French indiscriminate bombings and torture.

I would've loved to see at least one scene with the ultras (radical pro-French colonists) interacting with the mainland French. At one point, some ultras went so far as to fire a bazooka at the office window of the military director of Algiers, as punishment for being "soft on terrorism". Some ultras also had a nasty tendency to grab and kill the first Arab they saw after each attack, which the film does show.

2) The film shows the first run of European Quarter bombers as traditional Arab women who disguise themselves as collaborating Westernized Algerians. In the book, it states that the bombers were actually Westernized Berber girls, some blue-eyed and blonde, who could totally pass for European.

Further, some of the later bombers were Europeans leftists with no Arab/Muslim connections. I somewhat wonder if the film deliberately left those out in order to avoid any connection between Algerian nationalism and Communist support.



I realize the film can't cover everything, but the above were the main lackings. The upside and downside of the film is that it is, though pro-Algerian overall, somewhat nuanced. The negative of that is that both sides can kneejerk on this film:

Right Wing: "Lookit them Arabs! Told you they're crazy!"
Left Wing: "Oh, this is _exactly_ like Iraq, we're so terrible!"

Neither interpretation is really pertinent here. This film was, in some Marine units, mandatory viewing before Iraq deployments, but there are as many differences as similarities between the two situations.

Overall, definitely mandatory viewing for any military-history buff. Right up there with "The Winter War". I'm still looking hard for a good film about the Italian-Ethiopian Wars, or the Sepoy Revolt, so please turn me on to those if you have any leads. Take care,




-MV

 

[Mr Kablammo]

MV,
this film was a classic inspiration for the leftist radicals of the 1960s. After the FBI understood the draw of the film they checked it out to.
I would already own a copy but the new are expensive as heck. Maybe Cheapo Disks has a good used copy.

 

[jnojr]

NetFlix has it. I just added it to my queue.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

I'm still looking hard for a good film about the Italian-Ethiopian Wars

Also known as: If an Italian dictator invades an Eastern African country and there is no UN around to see it, does anyone care?


Actually the Second Italo-Abyssinian was a major incident in the Inter-War period (right up there with the Spanish Civil War), but it has been reduced to little more than a footnote in history now.

 

[Durruti]

Excellent movie. One of my favorites. In addition, I'd recommend two books from opposite sides of the war.

First is The Battle of the Casbah by Paul Aussaresses who was a French intelligence officer in charge of torturing Algerian suspects (his characterization, by the way). In it, he explains and justifies his actions. In my own moral judgement, he's an evil man, but he's given us an invaluable insight into these situations from the colonists' perspective. He also raises some important moral questions, which I think he answers correctly (counter-intuitive, I know...basically, I think his moral arguments are sound, but he was working for bad people.).

A second book I'd recommend is A Dying Colonialism by Franz Fanon. Fanon was a French psychiatrist (originally from Martinique) who joined the Algerians. If you can get past the overbearing intellectualism, he does a good job of explaining what colonization did to the Algerians and why they fought.

I'll have to get a hold of a copy of The Winter War. That's definitely something I'd like to learn more about.

 

[ilbob]

First is The Battle of the Casbah by Paul Aussaresses who was a French intelligence officer in charge of torturing Algerian suspects (his characterization, by the way). In it, he explains and justifies his actions. In my own moral judgement, he's an evil man, but he's given us an invaluable insight into these situations from the colonists' perspective. He also raises some important moral questions, which I think he answers correctly (counter-intuitive, I know...basically, I think his moral arguments are sound, but he was working for bad people.).

So it is OK to kill the enemy, just don't torture them?

 

[Durruti]

So it is OK to kill the enemy, just don't torture them?

No, what I meant was that the French were colonists and had no moral right to fight for control of Algeria. They stole it and it wasn't theirs.

No killing for immoral ends and no torturing for immoral ends.

 

[DouglasW]

Thanks for the rec, MV. Just requested it from the local library

 

[default]

I'm still looking hard for a good film about the Italian-Ethiopian Wars

Well, it depends on how strictly you define "good" but Lion of the Desert (1981) has excellent period detail and some great battle scenes, and presents a pretty solid picture of Italian colonialism in Libya and the Arab resistance in the '30s. And if you're a fan of eccentric scenery-chewing troublemakers, well, it's got Oliver Reed as Rodolfo Graziani and Rod Steiger as Mussolini, although Reed stays reasonably well under control. Plus Anthony Quinn and Sir John Gielgud. Anchor Bay has a decent DVD available. I am aware of no other films on the subject.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Thanks for the rec!

More neat details from the book, that I wish they would've included in the movie. The movie does allude to the fact that Ali La Pointe (the protagonist of the movie) was a pimp before becoming a rebel in prison.

What the movie doesn't show is his full-body tattoos, including "TAIS-TOIS", "shut up", written across the back of his pimp-slap hand. Cheerful fellow.

-MV

 

[Kor]

Also consider viewing Lost Command(1966), a rather more populist/action-oriented/Eurocentric take on the Algerian conflict. Anthony Quinn stars as "Lt.Col. Jean Raspeguy," and the source material is The Centurions by Jean Larteguy. It should be readily available at Circuit City, Best Buy or online at www.deepdiscountdvd.com.

 

[mete]

Lion of the Desert came out at the 'wrong time' as even Quinn said ,so it never became much of a film .It is excellent however, and worth seeing.. ....Algeria ? Well the French abandoned it and that lead to another very fine book and film by Forsyth - "The Day of the Jackal " .....It should always be understood that when you have a world wide empire as the french and british had it's very hard to face the reality of losing that empire. But I remember in the 50s and 60s the African countries saying they could run their countries better than the Europeans so the became independant .What have they done with Africa ? Not a thing ,the countries are basket cases with terrible corrupt gov'ts ...Remember how Sweden was criticizing us often about Viet Nam ? Under Idi Amin ,Uganda was a mess .On the main street along with all the embassys there was a building where people were tortured and murdered. No one on the street could not hear the screams and smell of the corpses.Sweden and others said nothing !!

 

[Dienekes]

Have not seen the movie although I would like to.

There is a related and very interesting document titled "Pacification in Algeria" concerning that period by a LTC David Galula of the French Army, available as a Rand study at www.rand.org. Long but very good.

 

[wallysparx]

funny, i was actually planning on coming in here and suggesting "Lion in the Desert" as soon as I got home from work. Yes, it was a bit on the campy-feeling side, but a good movie nonetheless. One interesting take on imperialism was that the Italians rationale for not bringing in any international observers was that their dispute between themselves and the Libyans was one strictly "between Italians" also interesting was the inevitably suicidal tactic of bending one's leg at the knee and tying a rope across to prevent running away from the battlefield.

Winter War was a great one too. Gotta love the Mosin and Suomi action. Another movie that often comes up when it's mentioned is Stalingrad, which I've yet to see.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Algeria was a pretty fascinating test-case, in that it was very unlike many anti-colonial situations.

Instead of having a tiny white minority that had lived there one or two generations, Algeria had a substantial white population with massive infrastructure investment, many of whose families had lived there for 130 years.

The way the colons described it, they honestly felt that they were genuine Algerians, in the same sense that white Americans might consider themselves to be "native Wisconsonites". I'd say that Camus is probably one of the most famous French authors of the XXth C, and he was born-and-bred white Algerian.

When the "who killed who and took whose land" goes back over a century, it starts to get uncomfortably closer to America's native population situation, rather than that of, say, the Brits in 1950s Iraq.

-MV

 

[ilbob]

No, what I meant was that the French were colonists and had no moral right to fight for control of Algeria. They stole it and it wasn't theirs.

Stole it? That assumes someone else owned it first.

The bottom line is that chunk of real estate, like most chunks of real estate, has had many different proprietors over the years. And all of them acquired it the same way - by brute force. The French were just one in a long line of such proprietors.

By that argument, the US should not have ever gained its independence from Britain.

 

[wooderson]

Howso? By 'that argument,' either the colonies should never have been created and westward expansion was a succession of immoral acts across 300 years OR the British had no right to impose their government on 'natives' (the colonists) who didn't want it.

In either case, there's no way you can interpret his statement as a potential justification the British Empire in the Americas.

 

[Mr Kablammo]

An interesting, and in my opinion correct, essay that characterizes the colonialization of the southern Med Ocean shore by the French as an essentially DEFENSIVE war can be found here: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26295

Don't forget the Marine Corps Hymn...

In considering the proposition that violates the common wisdom that the colonization of Algeria was a defensive measure one must reach back into the history of the pre-colonial period. I refer you to the book "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters" by Robert Davis. This book details three centuries of successful slave-raiding by the Southern Meds against the Northern Meds. From about 1500 to 1800 it is estimated that one million Christians were enslaved during that period. It was Christian European economic and military superiority that broke the slave-raiding Moslems of their way of life. Thank you, forgotten heroes! It is exactly the form of law and life that Osama bin Laden, orthodox practioner of his faith, seeks to re-assert.

With regard to Fanon, there is an element of self-hate and guilt that propels the absurdists into willing subjugation to tyrants and killers. This why "Battle of Algiers" was popular with white urban terrorists and the Black Panthers. With regard to the mentality of the willingly victimized, an interesting essay can be found at www.capmag.com here: http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4883

With regards to other aspects of the psychology of the victim and victimizer Lee Harris has produced an essay about the mentality of the Italian Fascists and there compulsion to conquer Etheopia (ETHEOPIA!) to show their superiority: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3459646.html

It will be a long hard slog, gents. Not only to battle in the Casbah but also the town square and the Fussgang and the plaza.

 

[El Tejon]

I would also recommend the book White Gold which focuses on the same slave empire of North Africa.

IIRC, this movie was one of kindly Uncle Saddam's favorites.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Oi, El T: the man might like Jolly Ranchers for all I know, that doesn't mean I'll stop eating them. Saddam loved "Blackhawk Down" too, but it's still a good book/film

In any case, interesting film overall. Here's a good trailer for it on YouTube, and they have some misc clips of it up as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3M2feqJk8


(Neat stuff, YouTube. I'd never actually seen the video for "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo before, so I'm thrilled now)

-MV

 

[El Tejon]

Now, now, I never said you shouldn't watch it because Kindly Uncle Saddam liked it as well.

Heck, I liked it so if you are going to pick a reason NOT to watch it.