Film Review of “The Battle of Algiers”
The Battle of Algiers approaches the conflict in Algeria by addressing both sides involved. On one hand, the audience sees the rebels, their struggles, their actions, good or bad and then the struggles and the actions of the French army to protect what they claim is theirs. The Battle of Algiers does this in a way that both involves, yet distances the viewers from the actual conflict. By including a documentary ambience to the film, the film almost breaks the fourth wall occasionally. The narratives that appear intermittently throughout the film both enhance the sense of seriousness while also removing any connection the audience may have to the plotline. It distances the audience, yet during other scenes in which heated discussions occur, the audience is drawn closer to the story submersing the audience.
The scenes in which the army storms the Casbah are prime examples of when the film pulls the audience closer. The close shots and angles almost put the camera in a first person view forcing the audience to be among the troops in the scene. On another note, these scenes bear a striking resemblance to Schindler’s List in which the German soldiers perform raids on the ghettos. The French army was depicted by Pontecorvo, the director, in such an efficient way that one could argue that Spielberg mimicked this scene. The type of fast paced action draws the audience closer to the film.
Even the soundtrack adds to the fast pace of these scenes, further involving the audience in the action. The steady consistent drumbeats match the efficiency of the troops’ actions in the scene. There is another scene in the film in which the camera focuses on three women as they strip away their Arabic identities and put on French ones to get past the Casbah checkpoints in order to bomb specific locations. This scene also involves the audience because it also has a consistent yet different drumbeat pattern, which adds intensity to the scene that leaves the audience on edge. This intensity, which can be seen in the scenes involving the army as well as this one, add depth to the storyline because of how well placed the music is on top of the nonstop movement of the characters. It becomes easy for the viewer to get in sync with these scenes as opposed to the ones in which the narrator is involved, turning the film into partly a documentary.
Once the narrator becomes involved, the film is instantly transformed into a newsreel addressing the main points of the conflict in Algeria. This is what breaks the connection between the audience and the film and it is what partly disrupts the fourth wall. For example, at the very end of the film the audience is exposed to the mass riots that took place in Algeria, these riots are dubbed over in French explaining the dedication Algerians have towards an independent Algeria. Instead of including this information through dialogue between characters, Pontecorvo decided to introduce it by using a narrator. This narration is what reminds the audience that they are watching a film.
The film includes both a fictional story and a non-fiction narrative which both brings the audience in at times while also distancing the audience at other times. This style could be argued to be effective at giving the audience a greater amount of detail while it could also be argued to be an ineffective way of representing the story. Regardless, it depends on the response of each individual viewer.
