Technically, Algiers may be raw and elemental, but Pontecorvo addresses with great care the tragic ambiguities that ruled the battle between last-ditch European colonialism and terrorist revolt. The film's impoverished heroes, darting through the bewildering mazes of the city's Arab quarter, are portrayed as freedom-starved and self-sacrificial. But the Italian filmmaker also takes pains to show his ostensible villain, a French army colonel called Mathieu, as an honorable man who oversees his country's doomed mission with grace and bravery. In the end, France cannot solve the puzzle of Arab political will any more than it could prevail at Dien Bien Phu, and four decades later, the film remains loaded with essential lessons in the conduct of foreign policy. If the powers-that-be at the Pentagon and the White House have never seen this extraordinary political drama, they'd do well to screen it soon. As a cautionary tale, it might give them chills.
The Battle of Algiers, in a new print, opens Friday, March 26, at the Mayan Theatre, 110 Broadway. For information and showtimes, call 303-352-1992.
