History Film / TheBattleOfAlgiers

Compare ''Film/OutsideTheLaw'', a 2010 French/Algerian film about three Algerian brothers involved in guerilla warfare inside France. Also compare ''Film/IsParisBurning'' about a different uprising (LaResistance in ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarII'') filmed the same year

Compare ''Film/OutsideTheLaw'', a 2010 French/Algerian film about three Algerian brothers involved in guerilla warfare inside France.

* PetTheDog: The French gendarmes are mostly shown as brutes or [[AcceptableTargets faceless victims of the FLN]]. Yet several risk their lives saving an Algerian boy from being beaten to death by enraged settlers after a terrorist bombing at a racetrack.

* InfantImmortality: Averted. When the first bomb is placed in the busy cafe, we see the people inside, including several small children. They all die in the massive blast. Also, [[spoiler:Petit Omar goes down with Ali]].
** The incident that that bombing was a reprisal to was the French-Algerian police setting off a bomb in front of a suspect's house. The bodies of two small children are among the many dead pulled from the wreckage.

* AntiHero: Ali.

** Not to mention the FLN's strict insistence on drug and alcohol prohibition, enforced by the death penalty.
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Completely averted here.

* FreakierThanFiction: In actuality, the war was ''[[UpToEleven even more]]'' brutal than depicted here.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The movie certainly doesn't whitewash the FLN, but some of their more unsavory actions (whether mutilating French corpses or fighting with other Algerian nationalist groups) go unmentioned. In addition they also fail to mention part of the reason French occupation got more brutal upon the end of WWII was because local Algerian rowdies were going on rampage and plundering local French villages and residencies after the Germans left but before the French could stabilize the region. Some of the FLN members participated in these acts for nearly a decade before the revolution started in 1954. Also downplayed is how not just the FLN but the Algerian side as a whole were pretty bigoted Muslims who wanted to impose restrictions on non-Muslims and more liberal Agerians upon gaining independence (and actually attempted to do so in the war within Arab quarters). The most shown is death penalty for drug possession and banning prostitution. In real life pogroms and actual violence occurred in FLN occupied locations simply because the targeted was not a Muslim (or not seen as "devout enough"), including the massacre or expulsion of nearly the entire European population of Algiers and Oran within a few months of independence.
* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gang-raping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children, drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular, nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency, or that French civilians often carried out their own murders against Arab and Berber Algerians independent of the Army.

* KickTheDog: Oh man, where to start...

* NecessarilyEvil: Again, Mathieu, though mileage may vary over the "Evil" part.
** Arguably, the revolutionaries are this as well.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: [[MisaimedFandom While in real life they are still the lighter shade of black than the FLN and other factions]], the movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gang-raping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children, drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular, nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency, or that French civilians often carried out their own murders against Arab and Berber Algerians independent of the Army.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation While in real life they are still the lighter shade of black than the FLN and other factions]], the movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gang-raping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children, drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular, nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency, or that French civilians often carried out their own murders against Arab and Berber Algerians independent of the Army.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: While in real life they are still the lighter shade of black than the FLN and other factions, the movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gang-raping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children, drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular, nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency, or that French civilians often carried out their own murders against Arab and Berber Algerians independent of the Army.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: One of the most thorough explorations of this topic. On a tactical level it's played straight, as Mathieu gains important tactical information from employing torture. The movie's more concerned with its broader impact, generating resentment among the Arab population of Algiers, and its moral implications.

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Ali La Pointe allows the French to blow him up to avoid capture.]]

* InfantImmortality: Averted. When the first bomb is placed in the busy cafe, we see the people inside, including several small children. They all die in the massive blast.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: While in real life they are still the lighter shade of black than the FLN and other factions, the movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gang-raping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children, drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular, nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The movie certainly doesn't whitewash the FLN, but some of their more unsavory actions (whether mutilating French corpses or fighting with other Algerian nationalist groups) go unmentioned. In addition they also fail to mention part of the reason French occupation got more brutal upon the end of WWII was because local Algerian rowdies were going on rampage and plundering local French villages and residencies after the Germans left but before the French could stabilize the region. Some of the FLN members participated in these acts for nearly a decade before the revolution started in 1954. Also downplayed is how not just the FLN but the Algerian side as a whole were pretty bigoted Muslims who wanted to impose restrictions on non-Muslims and more liberal Agerians upon gaining independence (and actually attempted to do so in the war within Arab quarters). The most shown is death penalty for drug possession and banning prostitution. In real life pogroms and actual violence occurred in FLN occupied locations simply because the targeted was not a Muslim (or not seen as "devout enough").
* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: While in real life they are still the lighter shade of black than the FLN and other factions, the movie avoids portraying the oppression of French colonialism for the most part such as how abuse of resources and taxing the local populaces (and even condoning local sex market which increased a demand for sex trafficking) are the primary reasons the whole revolution started in the first place. The movie fail to show some of the unsavory French actions such as slaughtering entire villages of males and the blatant Jim Crowesque levels of racism during the war. In addition, while onscreen torture is shown as pretty horrific, in real life the French did much worse things during interrogation including gangraping suspected women, forcing captured insurgents to torture other Algerians, hours of harming children,drugging stubborn prisoners, and many more things to horrific to post here. In particular nothing is shown of innocent French citizens getting tortured or shot because of accusations of supporting the insurgency.

''The Battle of Algiers'' is a 1966 film by Gillo Pontecorvo, and is a [[RippedFromTheHeadlines dramatization]] of the [[{{UsefulNotes/Algeria}} Algerian War of Independence]]. The story begins with Ali La Pointe, a card sharp in the cramped slums of Algiers, the capital city of French-controlled Algeria. Imprisoned, he joins the [[LaResistance rebel group]] FLN and takes up arms against the colonial French government. After a few skirmishes with French police, reprisal killings spur ever-worse reprisal killings as the native and colonist populations are radicalized against each other. A UN vote for independence comes and goes as a general strike is called. Afterward, a French military expert, Colonel Philippe Mathieu, is brought in to pacify the region, [[TortureAlwaysWorks gain intelligence]], and destroy the FLN leadership.

* PunchClockVillain: Colonel Mathieu. He has to do horrible things and justify them to the press, but he isn't particularly deplorable, having fought against the Nazis and Fascist Italy back in WW2 as part of the Free French military and LaResistance. He even mentions that Algerians are good people and hopes things will remain peaceful after the FLN presence in the city is wiped out. Hell, in his first few lines of dialogue, it's clear that he wishes no ill will against Algerians themselves:

* PunchClockVillain: Colonel Mathieu. He has to do horrible things and justify them to the press, but he isn't particularly deplorable, having fought against the Nazis and Fascist Italy back in WW2 as part of the Free French military and LaResistance. He even mentions that Algerians are good people and hopes things will remain peaceful after the FLN presence in the city is wiped out. In his very first line, it's clear that he wishes no ill will against Algerians themselves:
--> There are over 400,000 Arabs in Algiers. Are they all our enemies? We know they're not. But a small minority hold sway with violence and terror.

* PunchClockVillain: Colonel Mathieu. He has to do horrible things but he isn't particularly deplorable. He even mentions that Algerians are good people and hopes things will remain peaceful after the FLN presence in the city is wiped out.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Three female FLN agents wearing western clothes to avoid attracting attention walk past a French checkpoint that was being surveilled by Mathieu to assess gendarme performance in the aftermath of the bombing. He criticises the gendarme for wasting time harassing an old man, pointing out to several bystanders as the likely FLN agents. At no point does he seem to notice the ''actual'' FLN agents walking past the checkpoint.