Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the now-obscure 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers", which suddenly regained contemporary relevance in 2003, when the Pentagon arranged to screen the film to celebrate the United States' supposed victory in the Iraq War. The paper points out that the film, a joint product of Algerian and Italian filmmakers, had risen to prominence as an astonishingly unbiased account of the Algerian War of Independence. In the documentary tradition of cinema verite, the film unflinchingly depicts the brutal cycle of terrorism and counter-terrorism that ultimately wore down French resolve and resulted in Algerian independence. The paper posits that, in an almost uncanny fashion, the film predicted many of the problems that America would later face in Iraq. The paper concludes that the film not only anticipates the overconfidence of America in its military forces and the psychological impact of terrorism, but it also illustrates some of the shortcomings of counter-terrorism.

From the Paper:

"Here the parallels to the Iraq War are stingingly clear, and here, too, the film makes its first crucial mistake. Though the American press has inexplicably adopted only a veneer of polite outrage, President Bush's administration has extensively expanded of the use of torture as an anti-terrorism measure. As the incidents of Abu Ghraib, regular policies at Guantanamo, and revelations of prisoner rendition have clearly demonstrated, Americans have both officially and unofficially engaged in practices that definitively constitute torture. The problem that the The Battle of Algiers makes is not in demonstrating torture as a reaction to terrorism but in potentially overstating its effectiveness as a method of information-gathering. Torture has increasingly been acknowledged as a poor way to collect accurate information, as terrified subjects will often happily make whatever claims necessary to stop the pain. As the case of Jose Padilla illustrates, confessions resulting from torture are notoriously unreliable and difficult to prosecute."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Atkinson, Michael. "Rocket the Casbah: Louder than a Bomb: A 60's masterpiece of agitprop returns with a newfound relevance." Village Voice, January 7-13, 2004. www.villagevoice.com/film/0101,atkinson,49999,20.html.
• The Internet Movie Database. http://imdb.com/title/tt0058946/
• Kael, Pauline. "A Popular Uprising, as Potent as Ever." San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2004. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/13/DDG7L4V45E1.DTL
• Martinez, Jenny S. "The Real Verdict on Jose Padilla." Washington Post, August 17, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081601771.html

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