MOVIES
The Battle of Algiers (1965)
The Pentagon has seen this movie. So (probably) has al Qaeda. Shouldn’t you?
In 1954, Algerian rebels from the National Liberation Front were in violent revolt against the French, who ruled Algeria as a colony. (Yes, the French were once a colonial power, though it’s easy for Americans to forget that fact in our rush to label fried potato strips “Freedom Fries.”) The FLN began to make serious strikes against the French occupying force, leaving bombs in cafés and gunning down French police. If you can’t see the parallel between Algeria in 1954 and Iraq in 2004, you should probably run for public office.
The film follows Ali, a young hoodlum who turns from petty crime to political terrorism. Young and angry, he sees no “benevolent superpower” in the French occupiers. Now the proud owner of a cause worth dying for, he quickly rises up through the ranks of the FLN, advocating brutal violence against the French and civilians. So a young man without much hope becomes a leader of fanatics. If you can’t see the parallel between Ali and the young Islamic fundamentalists who are al Qaeda’s most dedicated followers, you should probably be running our national counter-terrorism policy.
As the FLN strikes grow more brutal and frequent, the French army sends in paratroop commander Col. Mathieu. Mathieu is a hero of the French people for his membership in the French resistance in World War II. (Yes, there was a strong, noble resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII, though it’s easy for Americans to forget that fact in our rush to label them “surrender monkeys.”)
Col. Mathieu is surprised when the Algerians call him a fascist – after all, he fought the Nazis! He’s as democratic as they come. If you can’t see the parallel between Col. Mathieu and those who say, “How can they call us occupiers? We’re Americans!” then you probably be in charge of message control at the White House.
If you can’t see the parallel between Mathieu saying, “The word ‘torture’ doesn’t appear in our orders. We’ve always spoken of interrogation as the only valid method in a police operation directed against unknown enemies,” and the President claiming the Geneva Convention protocols don’t apply to Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, you might consider a job on talk radio.
If you don’t hear in the President’s words an echo of Mathieu’s “There are 80,000 Arabs in the Kasbah. Are they all against us? We know they’re not. In reality, it’s only a small minority that dominates with terror and violence. This minority is our adversary and we must isolate and destroy it,” then you might look for a career in the Defense Department.
Finally, when Mathieu says, “Should we remain in Algeria? If you answer ‘yes,’ then you must accept all the necessary consequences,” do you hear the same question repeating down through history, this time about our occupation of Iraq? The consequences are these: Civilians and soldiers who fight, torture, and die; terrorists and freedom fighters who die for ideologies and fanaticism; families who weep and vow revenge; martyrs and criminals who inflict death and finally receive it. A country torn apart and a country hated by the world.
The Battle of Algiers is a lesson in history, a study of colonialism and terrorism. It’s a reminder that both the terrorist and the freedom fighter, the occupier and the liberator, do their work with bloody hands. The geography may change, but not the motivations or the methods. People are blowing up in Iraq the same way they blew up in Algiers, claiming the same God-given right to bring death on others. Soldiers are torturing prisoners and using the same appeals to pragmatism to avoid uneasy questions. People are dying for ideals and few seem to recognize that we’ve been here before. And before. And before.
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Written by Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas. Starring Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin.
– ERASMUS SANTIAGO
Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977)
Yes, that Gestapo, from World War II, known for its immaculate uniforms and fanatical anti-Semitism.
There’s a lot I could tell you about this movie – the story of Commandant Conrad von Starker (Marc Loud), who runs a German concentration camp/brothel where Jewish girls are used to satiate soldiers on leave, and Lise Cohen (Daniela Poggi), the grief-stricken, blonde Jew who finds herself in Starker’s clutches. Lise’s already dead inside; she blames herself for the deaths of her entire family. Starker is confounded by Lise’s death wish; it robs him of his power over her.
I could tell you about the scene where Starker’s empress of pain, Alma (played by a delectable Maristella Greco), throws a menstruating prisoner to her Dobermans, who tear the girl apart. Or let your imagination mull over the quote, “There’s nothing better than a pot-roast of unborn Jew!” Or describe the eponymous orgy, where the prisoners are made to fellate wooden sticks, smeared in blood, and raped in a soft-core, late-Seventies erotic style.
But let’s not kid ourselves: This is not a good movie, or even a bad movie worth watching. Written by someone who skimmed the Cliffs Notes for De Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, it tries to rise above schlock and make points about “power equals sex equals fear equals death,” but it’s nothing we haven’t heard from Marilyn Manson lyrics. Really, the fact that this movie exists, as part of the “Nazisploitation” genre, tells you enough about human nature that you can forego actually watching it. Worse than not being good, it’s not even interesting, except to mouth-breathing troglodytes who giggle their way through the dullest 92 minutes committed to film, then rush to the Internet Movie Database to post about what “jaded thrill seekers” they are. Do yourself a favor: instead of this movie, take the $3.99 rental fee, buy a metal coat-hanger, heat it over a gas stove, and flog yourself for an hour and a half. The pain will be exquisite; you’ll understand what De Sade was really talking about; and you’ll thank me in the morning.
Directed by Cesare Canevari. Starring Marc Loud and Daniela Poggi.
– DELONGPRE DANNON |
