All language subtitles for The.Battle.of.Algiers.A.Film.Within.History.2017.SUBBED.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG2_English

(distant drumming)

(jaunty, old-fashioned music)

(speaking Spanish
in the distance)

(applause)

(faint helicopter
blades get louder)

(drumming and helicopter blades)

(drumming)

(drumming)

(drumming)

(laughter)

(drumming)

(classical music)

(classical music)

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(drumming and typewriter)

(applause and crowd cheering)

(crowd singing)

(car horn beeping, crowd noises)

(drumming, car horn, crowd)

(drumming, birds singing)

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(footsteps echoing)

(door unlocked, creaks open)

(bell ringing in the distance)

(drumming and singing)

(seagulls in the distance)

(crowd chatter in the distance)

(knocking sound)

(music)

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(drumming, children playing)

(drumming and typewriter)

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(car horn beeping)

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(birdsong)

(music, echoing
voices and drumming)

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(clanging in the distance)

(music)

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(drumming and children playing)

(drumming)

(ticking bomb)

(Spanish song)

(explosion and screaming)

(explosion and screaming)

(ominous music, crowd chatter)

(drumming and engine noise)

(drums)

(crickets chirping)

(shouting and drums)

(drums)

(exciting music)

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(drums)

(soft street noise)

(bell chimes in distance)

(screaming)

(clapping and crowd noise)

(explosion and shouting)

(crowd noise)

(drums and distant applause)

(chanting and clapping)

(chanting)

(Street noise)

This isn't something
that just happened.

I didn't just happen to be here

in Algeria and I'm not here just

because of my own
personal efforts.

I'm here because of the
revolutionaries in

America who made it
possible for me to be here.

And I'm saying that
this is not the

only thing that we plan to do.

I cannot even begin to think
about going into exile.

To quit the fight.

I can only...

become even more
serious than I was

when I was in the United States.

Plan very carefully to make my
way back to the United States,

so that we can strike
at the monster

in it's own lair. To strike

at the heart of the misery that
we've been travelling through.

(music and street noise)

The Algerian people know how we

felt about this
struggle and gave

Eldridge political
asylum and allowed

the Panthers to
set up an embassy

their international
headquarters and any

panthers that came
there, had asylum.

When we went to see 'The Battle
of Algiers', we saw people that

we recognised in terms of... and
field negros, field slaves.

So when you saw what was
going on in the Kasbah,

culturally, in terms of what
people were cheering on,

the words may have
been different but the

language was universal
in terms of opression.

So you meet Ali La Pointe
who when you first meet him

is hustling to survive, he's
playing three card monte.

A game that is played all
throughout New York City.

Right away he gets locked
up, he goes to prison.

And in prison he
gets politicised.

This is the story of Malcolm
X, this is the story

of so many people in the
Black Panther party.

A lot of stuff that we saw
in the film to us was a

foreshadowing of what they would
do to the black community.

So when the police and
the government responded

by turning the Kasbah
or those Arab sections

putting up barbed wire
and checkpoints and

effectively turning them
into concentration camps.

We talked about that happening
in the black community,

we thought that day
would come when

there was barbed
wire, there would be

checkpoints. We wanted
to make sure that...

when that day came people were
organised and that there was

a resistance that was not Panter
led, that was people led.

(drum music)

I had been in the panters
for about 6 months.

Early in the morning my door was
kicked in, to my grandmother's

house, and I was arrested.
I had just turned 16.

And I...

was charged with conspiracy
and weapons possession in a

case that became known as the
New York panther 21 case.

There were two undercover
cops, who had infiltrated the

panther party, who were
gonna be the key witnesses.

And one of the physical
pieces of evidence along with

some guns that were seized from

panther offices and
panther homes,

was the film 'The Battle
of Algiers' that they

said the panthers used
as a training film

to carry out their

our tactics or our
mission or our plans for

guerrilla warfare and
disrupting life in NYC.

(singing)

Demonstrations happen at the
courthouse almost every

day. Fundraisers happen
all over New York City.

Because people were saying

if panthers can't get a
fair trial, none of us can.

And it attracted
more support for the

black panther party,
for the panther 21.

A lot more people
became interested.

And I think people wanted to
read the books that we read and

see the films so people wanted
to see 'The Battle of Algiers'

just to see what the
controversy was about.

In fact even before the
arrest of the panter 21

the film promoters in
New York City had a

poster that I remember
seeing on the subway

of a guy with a
beret, a black guy

and the darkest
biggest sunglasses

you ever wanted to
see and it was a

poster for 'The
Battle of Algiers'

and the caption it was in the
newspaper too and it says

'the black panthers have
seen this film, have you?'

So even the film promoters and
the exhibitors took advantage

of the fact that the panthers
liked and embraced this film

to get people out
to see the film.

(drums)

There were a lot of radicals
known to me in the audience.

Mentally taking notes
'Ah, this is how you

do it, this is what
a real revolution

is. And, this is how
you organize it,

and this is how the
enemy is like'.

There was a sense in this circle

that there was a
looming revolution

or apocalypse…something sharp

a revolut that would come
to climax in some

sort of revolutionary spasm,
some sort of violent spasm, that

whether you liked
it or not, this

was the relentless direction of

history; so it
behooved you to stare

at it, to take it seriously…to

learn its rhythms, to learn its
motives, to learn its sound and

its feeling. There
was a style of

revolutionary
bravado and I would

say delusion, that was at work

where analogies
came very easily.

There was a little naiveté I
think that we had, as to the

fact that revolution means
different things to different

people, in terms of what
they’re fighting for and the

fact that it was very much
connected in Algeria to

suppression of who they
were as Muslims, right? The

Islamic phase of the revolution
to us, third-world people

fighting, of course we all
believed in the same things. And

of course, there was going
to be a socialistic society

where people could be whoever
they want. So, people could

just be atheists, people
could be Christians, they

could be Muslim, they could
be whatever they want. But

there would be this wonderful
kind of thing where there

had been a redistribution of
the wealth, where everyone

could be free, where, uh,
no matter the color of your

skin, no matter your
gender, no matter your sex

orientation, it was cool, there
would be a place for you.

Once one accepts that this
is the story we are in,

then it has already alligned,
it has organised your

mind around a tale of
revolutionary aspirations which,

whatever its merits
in Algeria, was

seriously, gravely
irrelevent and

destructive in the
United States.

We were not in a
revolutionary situation,

there was no
revolutionary populous.

What there were were
fantasies and so

those who were interested
in the American

revolutionary fantasy
like the black

panthers, gravitated
to this film.

And for that project, you
know the Battle of Algiers,

the film, had become a
model, an inspiration, an

illumination, a kind of
totem of the magic of

revolution. I say it was
delusional, because there was

nothing like that in play in
the United States. Trying

to find and trying to
achieve racial justice in

America is a very different
project from

expelling an occupying force
from an occupied territory.

It was taken as a kind of
anthem to sing along with.

(explosions and shouting)

All the decades of deceit and
cruelty have now reached an end.

Saddam Hussein and his sons must
leave Iraq within 48 hours.

Their refusal to do so will
result in military conflict.

Commenced at a time
of our choosing.

In 2003 I was sent
to the Al-Anbar

province, Iraq to
fight insurgents

for the first time.
And I thought

it was really, really hard.

So the challenge of
confronting an insurgency

became the most
pressing problem in my life.

And it was at that point
that I came to know

the film The Battle
of Algiers and began

to understand the war
I’d fought differently,

as a result of seeing that film.

The Pentagon...

was focused on killing enemies,

not on protecting the
Iraqi population.

It did not understand that
the tactics and techniques

it was using were
enflaming the insurgency,

were pouring gasoline on
embers and creating the

very enemy that it was
dedicated to defeating.

There were insurgents
inside the Pentagon trying

to get the Pentagon to
understand that what

it was doing was
counterproductive, that it

needed to fight a very
different kind of war.

And everyone in the Pentagon was

talking about The
Battle of Algiers,

the film, and was
talking about how

badly the war in Iraq was going.

(soft music)

I looked at the film
almost as a documentary

and I saw it very much
as a training film.

As a film that I wished I
had seen sooner, to train

in particular the soldiers
I was sending to Iraq.

But exactly the right
tool to use to educate

graduate students in
counter-insurgency.

So I did not think about camera

angles and actors
and portrayals,

I viewed it directly
as an insight

into insurgency plotting and

planning and in some ways I
got a better understanding

of the insurgencies
I'd fought against in

Iraq and Afghanistan from
seeing at least the film's

depiction of how insurgents
made things happen.

The film does a nice
job of showing

how difficult and how
important intelligence is.

In irregular warfare, in
counter-insurgency, the

hard part is figuring out
which of the literally

millions of human beings,
all dressed the same,

all look the same, which
one is your enemy.

And...

getting that idea
into the head of the

military, the military
that's focused on

killing very difficult
targets to kill...

that know what they should
focus on is figuring out who

your enemy actually is. That's
unbelievably difficult.

Anything that can
help in making that

mental shift is well
worth the effort.

One of the lessons of

counter-insurgency
campaigns for me is

unlike conventional combat where
this side owns this territory

or this side does.

There are ways to balance
political objectives and

you can give each side
more than half a loaf.

You can do that only if you
understand and think deeply

about the motivations of both
sides and this is one of the

benefits of the film that it
does a nice job of portraying

what it is that both side
is trying to accomplish.

It does not portray
obviously, success

in splitting that loaf in two.

(mumbling) It's a fair point,

it doesn’t do as
good of a job of

explaining what
happened inside France

and why the war was
ultimately lost,

I believe in Paris.
Not in Algiers.

(call to prayer)

(kids shouting)