The Algerian government commissioned a dramatic film about that country's revolution which won independence in 1962 after more than 130 years of French rule. Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo co-wrote and shot a bracing 1965 film about revolution, terrorism, and an imperial power's attempt to control same. Muslim activists from the poor casbah neighborhood of Algiers fight colonial authorities, best represented by counterinsurgency expert Colonel Mathieu (Martin, who looks a lot like Alexander Haig). Though the film sympathizes with the Muslims, it's amazingly fair and doesn't make either side look good: the French employ torture, and the insurgents plant bombs in public places using women and children.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus