Assymetric Warfare: The Movie!
A landmark production in 1966: documentary-style sequences mixed with Soviet montage mixed with moments of Hitchcockian suspense. Who’d’a thunk this 1966 flick, ripped right from the headlines, would still feel so vital? I last saw this flick in college and, lemme tell ya, my reaction to it now was much more (what was that word?). . .nuanced.
The movie is riveting. My only minor complaint is that the attempt to seem impartial is just too half-assed. The movie is clearly in favor of the rebels, it almost feels like a weird insult to show the faces of the civilians about to blown up. There is also very little context about life in French-occupied Algeria before the early stages of the Islamist rebellion. It appears that the average citizen might’ve been okay with things (or at least disinclined to the hardcore Islamic law of the rebels) and it is only France’s brutal reaction that sparks general sympathy (sound familiar?)
The French Colonel gives a riveting speech in defense of torture. If Alberto Gonzales was to have just stood up and done the same I’d at least give him points for honesty.
Anyway, a fascinating and depressing movie. One comes away quoting Dr. Smith from Lost in Space: “We’re doomed! Dooooooooomed!”
