The Battle of Algiers

I thought The Battle of Algiers was a good movie, because it showed both sides of the fights evenly, and the scenes looked like they were real. I knew that this film was viewed in the pentagon a while ago but i learned from the New York Magazine review that this film was also used by the Black Panthers as a training video. The article talks about how the movies distributer originally inserted the disclaimer “Not one foot of newsreel or documentary film has been used.” I thought that Pontecorvo did a good job making this film look realistic or documentary like, the way he was able to choreograph huge crowds in the same shot, and the way he used a hand held camera through out the film. Also from this article I learned that the screen play was originally written in a french prison by Saadi Yacef, who approached three directers after his release one of the pontecorvo. Saadi Yacef became the producer and also appeared in the movie playing a character similar to himself El-hadi Jaffar, the military leader of the FLN. The character of Ali La Pointe was played by an illiterate peasant Pontecorvo found on the steets.