A you-are-there chronicle

The Battle of Algiers

Criterion Collection, $50

Starring Saadi Yacef, Brahim Haggiag

Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s seminal 1965 political drama, which has inspired filmmakers for decades, appears on DVD for the first time in a comprehensive three-disc set. Shot in a gritty, black-and-white documentary style in the locations where the events that inspired it took place, “The Battle of Algiers” is a riveting, you-are-there chronicle of the tumultuous events in Algeria in 1957, a watershed year in the African country’s struggle for independence from France.

As violence escalates in Algiers because of the efforts of a group of terrorists called the FLN, the French police and military resort to torture to discover the freedom fighters’ identities and whereabouts. Though the French ultimately crush the battle for freedom that year, France eventually loses the war in the early 1960s when the Algerian people unite in massive demonstrations for their freedom.

The only “real” actor Pontecorvo uses in the movie is Jean Martin, who plays Col. Mathieu, the no-nonsense French leader sent to Algiers to remove the terrorists by any means necessary. The rest of the cast are amateurs. The charismatic Yacef, who plays the FLN leader Djafar and produced the movie, was the top leader in the FLN and imprisoned by the French in 1957.

“Battle of Algiers,” which was released in the United States in 1967, was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film; Pontecorvo was nominated for a best director Oscar and, with Franco Solinas, for best writing, story and screenplay.

Extras

The first disc includes a new high-definition digital transfer that was supervised by cinematographer Marcello Gratti with restored image and sound, trailers and a poster gallery.

The second disc includes the illuminating documentary “The Making of the Battle of Algiers” featuring new interviews with Pontecorvo, Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, editor Mario Morra, Yacef, Martin and film critic Tullio Kezich. Less inspiring is “The Dictatorship of Truth,” a documentary from the early ‘90s narrated in a somnambulistic tone by the late British journalist Edward Said exploring the relationship between the director’s politics and his filmmaking style. The second disc concludes with “Five Directors,” which features Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone discussing the influence of “Algiers” on their craft.

The third disc puts the film in a historical perspective. “Remember History,” a new documentary on the events of 1957, features interviews with historians Alistair Horne, Hugh Roberts and Benjamin Stora, former FLN members and author and torture victim Henri Alleg.

“Etats d’s Armes” is a lengthy excerpt from Patrick Rotman’s documentary series, “L’Ennemi Intime,” which features interviews with members of the French military during the French-Algerian War. And 1992’s “Return to Algiers” is a rather mundane report on Pontecorvo’s return to the country with his son after three decades.

The most thought-provoking extra is “How to Win the Battle But Lose the War of Ideas,” which examines the contemporary relevance of the film and how it has influenced today’s terrorists. The documentary features candid conversations between Richard A. Clarke, the former national coordinator for security and counterterrorism; Michael A. Sheehan, a former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and Christopher E. Isham, ABC News chief of investigative reports.