It is easy to understand why the 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers" has been referenced so often by cultural critics as well as political analysts during the past few years. It is a chilling narrative of the liberation struggle in Algeria, as the nascent independence movement struggled to establish an independence movement. It details a political struggle in a chilling, semi-documentary style that leaves little room for sentimentality despite the fact that it illustrates horrifying acts of violence. This struggle is rooted in more than just political consciousness. It seems to point to something deeper, to some dark element of human psychology that engenders despair as well as fragility. While this movement ultimately achieved its aim, which was full independence in 1962, the film succeeds in showing how the respective sides have been brutalized by this struggle, leaving us exhausted rather than exhilarated.
The film resonates with struggles that continue to make themselves felt in the modern world. The Palestinian situation, the struggles in Libya and Syria, the endless conflict in Afghanistan, the turmoil in the Ivory Coast and yes, lest we somehow try to distance ourselves by alleging that we in the western world have escaped this cycle, the endless conflicts and the heated rhetoric that we see in Congress. It might be objected that we see little of the violence and horrifying killings that are narrated in the film, but our heated political rhetoric has engendered acts of violence, and everything seems to lead to the promise of more protracted conflict, where mediation and compromise seem out of the question. It is an environment of extreme polarization, where leaders stand on principles that lead to the dehumanization and demonization of the other.
The film begins with a scene of torture that is utterly unsettling. A frail, middle-aged Algerian of Arabic ancestry, shirtless and shaking, is being congratulated by a unit of soldiers for his cooperation. The man has been tortured, and he has blood stains on his chest that reveal severe trauma. He has been forced to reveal the whereabouts of a guerrilla leader, and while is uncomfortable with the fact that he has collaborated, he is too shell-shocked to be able to resist. Torture is a procedure that is used by both sides, and there is as always a certain amoral quality to this act that serves to render both sides in this struggle culpable.
Ali La Pointe, and Arabic man who starts out as a street thug and evolves into a violent revolutionary, is a man who awakes disgust in the viewer, even though we understand his motivation. Does that fact that we do so implicate us as well? I fear that it might, and I understand as well the desperate tactics of repression that are used by the French paratroopers. Both sides commit acts of reprehensible violence, and as I saw them, I couldn't help but reflect on the way they are echoed in the current struggle between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Terrrorism always offers a mind-numbing spectacle, one that deadens the senses. It is the despair of dehumanization, where we are all respectively locked into our own private cell, unable to reflect on our shared humanity. There is a type of madness that is evident on all sides, however much it may appear to be logical.
More to come.
Copyrights ORomero 2011
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