Throughout the course of history, nations have tried and succeeded in expanding their territories by invading smaller and weaker countries. When this happens there is no surprise that there is resistance that always leads to bloodshed. The French invaded Algeria in hopes of expanding their beliefs and traditions to the Algerians and strengthen their motherland. The Algerians did not like this and built and entire revolution against the French army. A group called the National Liberation Front or the NLF was formed to combat the French and take back the nation.

The Battle of Algiers takes place in 1954 to 1957. It follows the resistance of the leaders of the NLF: Ali la Pointe, Saadi Yacef, Larbi Ben M’hidi, and Jaffar. The four band together to try to stop the French army from taking over the city of Algiers. The leader of the French army, General Jacques Massu, receives intel that they are leading the resistance and goes on a manhunt in search of them. Along the way Ali, Saadi, Larbi and Jaffar draft unique characters to help them with their battle. Everyone in their city is hopeful that the NLF will be victorious against the French army. The French army puts in multiple roadblocks to stop the resistance. After a series of shootings of French soldiers, the army implements body searches for all Muslims and Arabs walking through the city. They all had to carry around identification and must be patted down by soldiers in order to go through the city. The NLF leaders recruit three Muslim women to help them plant bombs in the city where Frenchmen were. The women took off their hijabs, cut their hair, and disguised themselves as French women in order to walk into the city inconspicuously. They planted three bombs, one in a restaurant, one in a club, and one in an airport. After they were detonated the search for the NLF leaders was kicked into full gear. General Massu was determined to find and kill each one of the leaders one at a time. After the leaders were killed the French thought they had won but after two short years the NLF came back and after another two years of fighting the NLF won and drove the French out of Algeria.

The tensions between the Algerians and the French army were obvious and clear to see in The Battle of Algiers. Both parties despised the other thinking that they were the rightful owners and rulers of the city. The French were racist and constantly badgered Arabs when they walked down the street. The Algerians hated having French soldiers around and decided to revolt by killing as many as they could by shooting them. This started the long battle turning the city of Algiers into a battleground. There were many contributing factors as to why the two groups had so much animosity towards each other.

The opening scene of the movie is the perfect example of how the French broke down the indigenous people and forced them to into a lifestyle they did not want. In this scene, an old man tortured to give up any information he had on where the NLF leaders were when he genuinely had no idea. The soldiers had broken his spirit and after they were done torturing him they made him wear a French military uniform. This scene was very symbolic because they did not only strip him of his physical clothes but his true identity. He was no longer a national of Algeria but a national of France.

One of the goals of the French were to get the people of Algiers to claim France as their motherland. The strong spirited and willed people of Algiers refused to do that which made the French upset. In one scene the resisters were being put in jail. As one prisoner was being dragged to his cell he started chatting, “long live Algeria.” This gave the prisoners a brighter morale and soon the whole prison was chatting along with him. Even though the soldiers tried to cover the mouth of the person who started the chant the whole prison was booming with chats from other prisoners. The underlying cause of the issue was that the French wanted the indigenous people to pledge their loyalty to France which the Algerians were not willing to compromise. According to Richard Fogarty, “Revolutionary France was the birthplace of a new concept of national identity that closely linked the idea of citizenship with service to and defense of the state in the military” (Race and War in France, 231). The French army identified very strongly with their background and were threatened by the Algerians when they refused to give in to French nationalism. This resistance caused the two groups to be more aggressive towards each other.

Towards the middle of the movie, a French soldier gets shot by an Algerian boy and the boy runs away. Other soldiers start chasing the boy but cannot find him. The scene cuts to an old man about to eat on the side of the road but he is interrupted by people pointing and yelling at him saying he is the one who shot the soldier. The other soldiers capture the old man and he is the old man in the opening scene. He was completely innocent in the scenario but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This added to the anti-colonial cause because the Algerians saw that people were getting arrested and tortured for no reason. They did not want to live under French rule and wanted to be independent.

One big action that marked the start of the war going into full force was the bomb that the French planted in the mosque. After the bomb went off the NLF became more motivated to stopping the colonization. They had to protect their beliefs and their way of life that the French were threatening. This was the first big attack on the NLF that the French did. According to Richard Fogarty, “French perceptions of Islam over several centuries set the stage for this cultural confrontation, but the presence of several hundred thousand Muslims in the French Army and on French soil during the Great War confronted France with dilemmas similar to those it faces today, though of course these dilemmas differed in certain respects from those posed by the presence of millions of permanent residents and citizens” (171, Race and War in France). The perception of Muslims and Islam being an issue was already embedded into the minds of the French people long before the colonization.

The fight over Algiers was fought for a very long time with a high death toll. The leaders of the NLF were killed in the process but they built a legacy that was stronger than their death. A couple of years after their final fight the NLF regrouped and became stronger. They were then able to defeat the French and take back their nation.

Works Cited

Pontecorvo, G. (Director), Musu, A., & Saadi, Y. (Producers), & Solinas, F., & Pontecorvo, G. (Writers). (n.d.). The Battle of Algiers.

Fogarty, R. S. (2013). Race and war in France: colonial subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.