The Struggle Against Oppression in 'The Battle of Algiers' and Frantz Fanon's "On National Culture" Savannah McClendon College

When all that is reported of a political conflict is in dealings of terror -- of violence on each side -- it often becomes difficult to decipher who was right and who was wrong; all we see is red. Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 critically-acclaimed film The Battle of Algiers does well to depict these ethical ambiguities, wherein one side is certainly oppressed (and one the oppressor), but the measures taken to alter this relation seem horrific and morally questionable at best, leaving the viewer unsure of their stance on the would-be ‘heroes’ of the film. While the degree of brutality depicted in the film is not easy to excuse, Frantz Fanon, in his 1961 book The Wretched of The Earth, is able to offer some insight as to the role violence plays in political conflicts rooted in colonialism (such as that between the French and the people of Algiers). By tracing the theme of violence (the inevitability of violence, the escalation of violence and the art of violence) in The Battle of Algiers as well as in Frantz Fanon’s chapter “On National Culture” from The Wretched of The Earth, we can come to a better enlightened understanding of the struggle of colonized peoples against inherently oppressive colonizing forces.

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