96
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonA prototype of news-footage realism, the film makes shrewd use of handheld sloppiness, misjudged focus, overexposure, and you-are-there camera upset; the payoff is the scent of authentic panic.
- 100Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittLike all masterpieces, it speaks to later ages as powerfully and intelligently as to its own.
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAchieves its success through a combination of attitude and technique, uniting, to exceptional effect, a way of viewing the world morally while looking at it physically.
- 100Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumIt's one of the best movies about revolutionary and anticolonial activism ever made, convincing, balanced, passionate, and compulsively watchable as storytelling.
- 91Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanNearly four decades ago, Pontecorvo anatomized the very form of modern terrorist warfare: the hidden cells, the cultish leaders, the brutish cycle of attack and counterattack.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerWhat reveals Pontecorvo as an artist, and not simply a propagandist of genius, is the sorrow he tries to stifle but that comes flooding through anyway--the sense that ALL sides in this conflict have lost their souls, and that all men are carrion.
- 90L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorA classic of politically engaged filmmaking, based on a book by Saadi Yacef, a former FLN leader who also produced the picture and played a version of himself.
- 90Washington PostAnn HornadayWashington PostAnn HornadayThe greatness of The Battle of Algiers lies in its ability to embrace moral ambiguity without succumbing to it.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineWhat makes the movie's power creditable is Pontecorvo's ability to present combatants on both sides as multidimensional, nonheroic human beings, even though it's obvious where the director's own sentiments lie. (Review of original release)