Blu-ray Disc Features:
- Number of Discs: 2
- Run Time: 2 hours, 1 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Released: August 9, 2011
- Originally Released: 1966
- Label: Criterion
- Note: Disc one:
- High-definition transfer, supervised by director of photography Marcello Gatti, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship Truth, a documentary narrated by literary critic Edward Said
- Morxist poetry: The making of "The Battle of Algiers," a documentary featuring interviews with Pontecorvo, Gatti, and composer Ennio Morricone, among others
- Interviews with Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film's influence, style, and importance
- Production gallery
- Theatrical and rerelease trailers
- Disc two: History and the Film:
- Remembering History a documentary on the Algerian experience of the battle for independence
- "États d'armes," a documentary exerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the Algerian rebellion
- "The Battle of Algiers": A Case Study, a video piece featuring U.S. counterterrorism experts
- Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers, a documentary in which the filmmaker revisits the country after three decades of independece
- Special Edition
- Aspect Ratio: Widescreen - 1.85
- Audio:
- Arabic, French
- Subtitles - English
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Entertainment Reviews:
Sight and Sound - 12/31/2003
"The film itself remains as powerful as ever, both on a formal level and as political drama."
Entertainment Weekly - 01/16/2004
"[The film] casts an eerie shadow over a world rocked by the underground politics of fear and rage."
Los Angeles Times - 01/19/2004
"[W]hat's most impressive about this 1965 epic of revolution is the realization that its compelling imagery and its powerful insights are so continually relevant that this film isn't back, it's never really left us."
Total Film - 01/01/2004
"Its vitality and immediacy are undiminished."
Uncut - 12/01/2003
"A thrilling film, shocking and often unsubtle, it's also an eerily prescient snapshot of 21st-century global politics."
USA Today - 10/12/2004
"[T]he 1965 classic is a revealing look at the mind-set of terrorists that is so relevant to current events that it was screened at the Pentagon."
Ultimate DVD - 06/01/2007
4 stars out of 5 -- "As Pontecorvo looks at the impact of war on all those who live through it, it remains desperately relevant today."
Product Description:
Gillo Pontecorvo's presents a harrowing, documentary-style depiction of the Algerian's people's struggle to liberate themselves from France between 1954 and 1962. The film creates a stunning illusion of realism by combining actual newsreel footage with staged sequences featuring amateur and professional actors playing characters based on real people (including Saadi Yacef, the one-time leader of the FLN in occupied Algiers). With it's depiction of political torture and violence retaining every bit of the impact they had upon the film's original release, THE BATTLE FOR ALGIERS was re-released theatrically in 2003 to great acclaim and reevaluation. Winner of 11 International Film awards.
Plot Keywords:
Action |
Big Battles |
Essential Cinema |
Political |
Recommended |
Theatrical Release |
War
Production Notes:
- "The Battle of Algiers" was the first feature film produced in Algeria by Algerians (although the director and much of the film's crew were Italian).
- Screened at 1966 Venice Film Festival.
- Production companies: Igor Film (Rome) and Casbah Films (Algiers).
- Distribution company: Magna Films.
- Academy Award Nominations: Best Director, Best (Original) Story and Screenplay.
Based on 
