Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Updates Influential ‘The Battle of Algiers’

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CHICAGO – Criterion Blu-rays are beautiful enough that when one arrives that’s two discs, you know it’s something special. Very few films have warranted a multi-disc treatment from the most important home video company in history but very few films are as influential or as widely-regarded as “The Battle of Algiers,” the latest work given the upgrade from standard Criterion DVD to Blu-ray.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

Using film as a commentary and critique of what were still-fresh wounds in Europe and North Africa, Gillo Pontecorvo’s film documents the Algerian War of the ’50s and early ’60s. Released in 1966, the stunningly-photographed work focuses on the evolution or a revolution and the colonial powers that stamped it out. The film is widely-regarded as a masterpiece, especially in the U.K. and the rest of Europe. It is an essential landmark in the use of current events for dramatic purpose in film. Going for a newsreel and documentary aesthetic, Pontecorvo influenced filmmakers for decades to come.

The Battle of Algiers was released on Criterion Blu-ray and re-released on Criterion DVD on August 9th, 2011
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

“The Battle of Algiers” was pretty instantly recognized as an important film, probably in no small part due to the cultural revolutions brewing around the world at the time of the film’s release in 1966. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards (losing to “A Man and A Woman”). It has won numerous other international awards, even ranking #6 on Empire Magazine’s “The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.” It is an important film not just for what it says and how it was shot but for the influence it had on not just filmmakers but people around the world.

The Battle of Algiers was released on Criterion Blu-ray and re-released on Criterion DVD on August 9th, 2011 Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

The two-disc Blu-ray is loaded with special features but, most importantly, the decision to separate the features to a second disc has led to a lack of compression on the film itself and it looks absolutely incredible. The special features are remarkable, including interviews with directors influenced by “The Battle of Algiers” including Spike Lee, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone, and more.

Synopsis:
“One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers focuses on the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed. Pontecorvo’s tour de force has astonishing relevance today.”

Special Features:
o “Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship Of Truth”
o “Marxist Poetry: The Making Of The Battle Of Algiers”
o Production gallery
o Theatrical and rerelease trailers
o “Remembering History”
o “Etats D’Armes”
o “The Battle Of Algiers: A Case Study”
o “Gillo Pontecorvo’s Return To Algiers”
o Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, excerpts from Algeria’s National Liberation Front leader Saadi Yacef’s original account of his arrest, excerpts from the film’s screenplay, a reprinted interview with cowriter Franco Solinas, and biographical sketches of key figures in the French-Algerian War by political science scholar Arun Kapil

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com