Gillo Pontecorvo's re-staging of the Algerian struggle for independence tries for a journalistic effect — an historical epic in a newsreel idiom. But this effect really owes less to the grainy black-and-white image than to the selectivity of information, the slanting of same, and the editorializing. The cast — well-chosen faces of frozen intensity — is nonprofessional with one notable exception. The exception is Jean Martin, as the mastermind of the French anti-terrorist clean-up operation, who makes a persuasive case for the use of professionals, through his firm, magisterial command of the screen. (1966) — Duncan Shepherd
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