The Battle of Algiers La bataille d'Alger
(Reserve)

Originally released as a motion picture in 1966

Based on a true story by Saadi Yacef

Special features: Disc 1: Production gallery; Theatrical trailers. Disc 2: Gillo Pontecorvo : the dictatorship of truth (documentary of the director presented by literary critic Edward Said); Marxist poetry : the making of The battle of Algiers; Five directors (interviews with filmmakers Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film's influence, style, and importance). Disc 3: Remembering history (documentary on the Algerian experience of the battle for independence); "États d'armes" (documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the Algerian rebellion); A case study (program featuring U.S. counterterrorism experts Christopher Isham, Richard A. Clarke, and Michael A. Sheehan); Return to Algiers (documentary in which the filmmaker revisits the country after three decades of independence). Booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, a reprinted interview with cowriter Franco Solinas, and biographical sketches of key figures in the French-Algerian War by political science scholar Arun Kapil

Production designer, Sergio Canevari ; edited by Mario Serandrei and Mario Morra ; director of photography, Marcello Gatti ; music, Ennio Morricone and Gillo Pontecorvo

Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Fusia El Kader, Omar

The film is considered one of the most influential political films in history, by Gillo Pontecorvo. Vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, etc. Shot on the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them.

MPAA rating: Not rated.

DVD, NTSC, region 1, widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio, monoaural

In French and Arabic; with optional English subtitles