Abstract
This essay critically examines The Battle of Algiers’ status as the go-to film about terrorism. Focusing less on the movie’s well-known political legacy, it instead investigates The Battle of Algiers’ impact on and place in the international cinema of terrorism. The essay pinpoints connections between The Battle of Algiers and other terrorist films made before and after the mid-1960s, and sets The Battle of Algiers’ treatment of political violence within the wider history of the relationship between cinema and terrorism. The essay explains what made The Battle of Algiers such a distinctive and important film in the 1960s, and how filmmakers have learned from and misused it in the decades since. The essay concludes with brief thoughts on what The Battle of Algiers’ classic status tells us about the nature and limitations of cinematic terrorism.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Cambridge Critical Concepts: Terrorism and Literature |
| Editors | Peter Harman |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1108498241 |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Sept 2017 |