The Battle Of Algiers

Urban guerillas take on a powerful occupying army. Policemen are assassinated. Terrorists bomb civilians. Detainees are interrogated and tortured. Filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo's documentary-style account of the Algerian nationalist uprising against the French army during the 1950s is now recognized as the classic depiction of insurrectionist street warfare. (So much so, it was screened at the Pentagon during the fall of 2003 and viewed in the context of Iraq.) Critic Pauline Kael praised its “firebrand's fervor” and “inflammatory passion.”