La battaglia di Algeri 1966

Marta Barber, Miami Herald: An extraordinary movie that ruffled many feathers when it first came out. Almost 40 years later, it retains the poignancy it delivered back then. Read more

Bosley Crowther, New York Times: It looks beyond any question to be an original documentary film, put together from newsreel footage, complemented by staged dramatic scenes. Read more

Don Druker, Chicago Reader: Pontecorvo has nearly accomplished the impossible: to make an epic film that convinces the viewer he is watching the real thing. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Few movies have done such an eloquent, evenhanded job of defining the conflict between colonialists and natives determined to free themselves from foreign rule. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The chafing, mutually uncomprehending collision of Western occupiers and Muslim occupied has never been captured with such dispassionate, thrilling clarity. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The 'smell of truth' that Pontecorvo said he was after in this film has never left it, and likely never will. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: It's as fresh and suspenseful as anything before or since. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Both a how-to manual for guerrilla terrorism and a cautionary tale about how to fight it. It's also quite possibly the finest war film ever made. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: You won't soon forget the face of Brahim Haggiag, who plays the revolutionary leader Ali as if he were channeling the misery of colonialism into a solitary stare of accusatory outrage. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: An epic of intimate objectivity. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: A classic of politically engaged filmmaking. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: The most electrifyingly timely movie playing in New York was made in 1965. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What lessons a modern viewer can gain from the film depends on who is watching and what they want to see. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: The director's real achievement is not in making a piece of agitprop but in using these fundamental tools of cinema in such an extraordinarily affecting way. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Gripping and technically dazzling documentary-style drama. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Superb and unrivalled. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Essential viewing. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: It's a dedicated effort with importance as a 'document.' Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: If any movie squeezes you into the shoes of grassroots combatants fighting a monstrous colonialist power for the right to their own neighborhoods, this is it. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The greatness of The Battle of Algiers lies in its ability to embrace moral ambiguity without succumbing to it. Read more