The Last Battle

Abstract

Confronted by the stalemate in Iraq and the growing strain in our relationship to the world of Islam, Americans (and counterterrorism experts in the Pentagon) looked for understanding in the classic 1965 film The Battle of Algiers. Made by the Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, with the support of the then-Communist Algerian government, the film showed how ruthless military suppression, including torture by French paratroopers, had won the battle but lost the war for Algeria. Although Pontecorvo believed he was portraying a Marxist revolution, what one sees in his film today is the rise of Arab solidarity and militant Islam.