What a waste of my time!!!

Please don't spend money on this.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film was commissioned by the Algerian government to show both sides of the conflict in the war for independence against the French during the 1950s. The way it is directed in black and white together with the naturalness of the actors and the realism of the violence seems almost a documentary. Of good historical value and with an end with good message.It had its relevance at the time and I consider it a good film, but unfortunately it is dated: although the theme of war is always timeless and parallels can be established with current conflicts, there are already better films within the genre with best script and that appeal more to the casual viewer. I recommend this one only to historians or movie buffs.

EXCELLENT, PROPHETIC MOVIE !!!Released in 1967, this movie provides a clear insight into the roots of Islamic "radicalization" as a reaction against the poverty, exploitation, corruption, and degradation caused by colonialism.Several shocking ideas (for a film from 1956):1. A large group of seven-year-old boys beat a drunk to death to "improve their community"2. French police take vigilante justice against an innocent man's family by exploding his home late one night3. Revenge bombings by Muslim females of an Air France flight and two cafés (not suicide bombings, incidentally)4. French military uses waterboarding (I kid you not) and other tortures to extract information, "false flag" events (World Trade Center, anyone?) to justify circumventing laws, and "suicides" to eliminate "non-cooperative" rebel leaders.5. The United Nations, as usual, is impotent.Combined with any good documentaries about the history of African-Americans and the history of Native Americans, an astute viewer comes to the realization that Europeans are the devils who have brought misery to peaceful people throughout the world.

From the title I expected this to be a war movie, but I did not realize Algiers is a city, and the battle is actually a struggle for Algerians to live in their home country without fear of the French who are suppressing them.I've seen very critically acclaimed classic foreign films before, so I guess I might have had my expectations too high. For example, two of my favorite foreign films are "Bicycle Thieves" and "Rashomon," but those films actually do interesting things with their camera-work. With The Battle of Algiers we just get a lot of standard (boring) camera-work with a lot of static shots to focus on conversations about the action rather than focusing on the action itself.The best aspect of the film is the characters who are a part of the rebellion and their motivations. We are introduced to one of the main characters in a very interesting way - this secret group of rebels does an initiation on Ali by checking to see if he would be loyal enough to shoot a cop, but they don't tell him this. We can see the manipulation this group exercises, though in their eyes it is necessary recruitment, and we should see it as this too since it is the Algerians who are the victim to French occupation of the city of Algiers as well as of the entire nation of Algeria.With the filmmakers choosing to revisit a scene from different view points there is obviously non-linear chronology, but I only understood this at the beginning and towards the end of the film. I was confused how the scene fit into the scenes surrounding it when it was shown for the second time in the film. I will have to rewatch this film some time in the future - after all it is regarded as one of the most important films ever made.I think I enjoyed the conclusion of this film much more than any part which preceded it, and that's because the conclusion is the most inspirational sequence of the entire movie. It is uplifting to see how Algerians rise up again years after the first rebellion group is decapitated (a metaphor you will understand if you watch the film), and this happens without great explanation. The message implied by the film is that this first group of rebels may not have been successful, but the group inspired the people of its nation to stand strong for justice.

The Battle of Algiers is a controversial film about the struggle of Algerian rebels to throw off French occupation. The film depicts the guerrilla tactics of the Algerian insurgency as well as the French counter-insurgency designed to contain and squash the rebellion. Shot in a documentary/newsreel style, the film follows several narrative threads, and takes us inside the command structures on both sides of the conflict. The film ironically points out that the French commander was part of the resistance against the Nazis, and now he's in the role of the occupier, using his knowledge of resistance against those struggling for freedom. Though The Battle of Algiers has a natural back and forth rhythm, showing attacks by one side and then counter attacks by the other, in the end the film's conscience sides with the Algerians struggling for independence and against colonialism. Even though both sides are shown committing acts of violence against civilians, leading some to believe the film is being objective and neutral, the film gives a clear sense of purpose to the Algerians and celebrates their ultimate victory, even though they lose the battle portrayed in the film. As a result The Battle of Algiers was banned in France for 5 years, and the film stands as a powerful depiction of revolutionary struggle against foreign occupation, as well as the lengths colonial powers will go to in order to maintain their empires.