A revolution often occurs when a particular group of people are tired of the oppression from their rulers. It is usually either a country or a particular group of people are fighting to end the regime of either its colonizers or a dictator. The main purpose or aim of a revolution is to alter of change an existing social, economic or political institution. The same can be said about the battle of Algiers. In this battle, the French are said to have won the battle but lost the war in Algiers. The movie by the title The Battle of Algiers clearly demonstrates this concept of winning a battle but losing the war.
The movie is based on rebel uprising in Algeria during the Algerian war of 1954-1962. The uprising was basically against the French government that was ruling the country at the time. The French had taken over Algeria as one of their territory hence the revolution. The Algerians were trying to free themselves from the French rule. They craved for independence and the only way was through a revolution which eventually led to war.
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In the movie we see that for the battle to begin, a resistance army had to be formed with its members sharing one common motivation which was to free Algeria. In the movie, Ali- the main protagonist in the movie- is arrested and taken to prison. In prison he first witnesses an Algerian being executed. He then gets radicalized while in prison and once he gets out he is recruited by an FLN (National Liberation Front) commander and eventually becomes an FLN leader. All this is for the common cause of trying to free Algeria by fighting against the French. In a revolution, there has to be a unifying motivation for the revolution to succeed (Hammitt, 2014).
There has to be a unity of all classes in order to form a movement that will lead to the revolution. In this case we see Ali who is a common thief being recruited into the movement by El-Hadi Jafar who is an FLN command and thought to be of a higher class in the society. We also see the recruitment of women and children into the movement who share the common goal of freeing Algeria. The unifying motivation is thus achieved and the resistance can begin with the task of taking down the French army.
Once the resistance is formed, the battle to free Algeria begins. It starts with the random killing of French officers as well as dealing with collaborators by shaming and frustrating them. This can be seen in the scenes where French officers at the headquarters and on the streets are randomly killed and also those who collaborate with the French are being shamed in public. For example the old man being taunted by kids in the streets and the kids eventually push him down the stairs.
The French naturally will try and protect their power and there rule in Algeria and thus are seen trying to counter the insurgence. They try to counter these moves by bringing in more troops as well as forming check points for the local. The locals are also required to walk with identification at all times. All this was to try and stamp their authority on the locals. These actions do not deter the locals from continuing with the case of freeing Algeria. They device more ways to frustrate the French by using the women to bomb places frequented by the Europeans and thus put more pressure on the French army and its government.
The revolution presents the French with a crisis of trying to maintain control of its protectorate at the same time maintaining its status quo as a colonial super power. Although not shown in the film, the crisis eventually temporarily frustrates the French and one can assume that it cost them a lot to try and win this war ( O'Leary, 2016).
More troops are thus sent to Algiers to fight the revolutionary movement. At the end of the film, we can see that the French army eventually corners the FLN movement. They eventually round up members of the movement as kill its leader Ali thanks to the help of an Algerian informer. This can be seen when the French troop storm the house where Ali and his troops are hiding and make the members surrender. Although Ali together with three others, a woman, a boy and another man, lock themselves in their hideout but the French troops find them and order them to surrender. They refuse to surrender and are eventually blown in their hideout.
This therefore silences the FLN and there is relative calm for about two years. After the two years of calm, demonstrations break out and there is a massive protest against the French. The battle eventually wears down the French and in July 1962, Algeria finally gains its independence from France. The French may have won the battle of silencing the FLN but they eventually lost the war to take control of Algeria and at the end had to give up control and let Algerians be free ( Daulatzai, 2016).
In a revolution there is not only a unifying motivation to form a resistance but also a resistance being formed as a result of massive frustration resulting in an uprising. The demonstrations at the end of the movie show that Algerians saying enough is enough and that they wanted to be free from French rule. This comes from the frustrations they suffered under the French and that they no longer feared to die as long as they gained their independence. We can see this when the French army opened fire at demonstrators but did not stop them from protesting and eventually they gained what they were craving.
When a country is frustrated with the kind of situation that they are in they will eventually try and look for ways to vent their frustrations. The main aim for this is usually to change a particular situation that they are in be it political, social or economic. Sometimes those frustrating them can make it easy on them but most often than not the frustrations lead to more drastic measures such as revolutions in order to gain that change. Therefore for a revolution to occur there has to be a number of factors that cause it. According to DeFronzo, there are five factors that can cause a revolution depending on the situation. These are the presence of mass discontent, dissident elites, unifying motives for revolution, weakening of pre-revolutionary state and a permissive world context.
In the case of Algeria, there was a mass discontent of the people and also the unifying motive for a revolution. The mass eventually grew tired of the French rule and thus united in order to fight them and free themselves from the French. Though they lost the battle, they eventually won the war and were able to gain independence.
References
Daulatzai, S. (2016). Fifty Years of The Battle of Algiers: Past as Prologue . University of Minnesota Press.
Hammitt, K. (2014). French intellectuals and the French Algerian War: Crisis and reinvention . Indiana University.
O'Leary, A. (2016). The Battle of Algiers at Fifty: End of Empire Cinema and the First Banlieue Film. FILM QUART , 70 (2), 17-29.
