Vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle forindependence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates onboth sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs incafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of theinsurgents. Shot on the streets of Algiers in documentary style.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1966. Based on: Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger / Saadi Yacef. Accompanying booklet includes an essay by film scholar PeterMatthews; a reprinted interview with writer Franco Solinas; and briefbiographies on the key figures in the French-Algerian War. Special features: Disc 1: "Gillo Pontecorvo : the dictatorship oftruth," a documentary narrated by literary critic Edward Said; "Marxist poetry: the making of The battle of Algiers," a documentary featuring interviews withPontecorvo, Gatti, and composer Ennio Morricone, among others; interview withSpike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone onthe film's influence, style, and importance; production gallery; theatrical andrerelease trailers. Disc 2: "Remembering history," a documentary on theAlgerian experience of the battle for independence; "États d'armes," adocumentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the useof torture and execution to combat the Algerian rebellion; "The battle ofAlgiers : a case study," a video piece featuring U.S. counterterrorism experts;"Gillo Pontecorvo's return to Algiers," a documentary in which the filmmakerrevisits the country after three decades of independence.

disc 1. The battle of Algiers -- disc 2. History and the film.