Get Out Sunday: The Battle of Algiers at SIFF Cinema

We haven't yet seen The Battle of Algiers -- we weren't alive in the '60s, we weren't working at the Pentagon in '03, and last time we checked the Criterion release out of the library we never got a chance to watch it.

So we're happy to see it turn up on local screens again this Sunday, at the SIFF Cinema. We could point you to a bunch of reviews that mostly tell you it's a great movie (literally so, in Ebert's case), and many of which are happy to point out the lessons we should learn about Iraq after watching this film. But we thought it'd be more interesting to quote Bosley Crowther from his 1967 NY Times review (oh: SPOILERS for history):

Essentially, the theme is one of valor—the valor of people who fight for liberation from economic and political oppression. And this being so, one may sense a relation in what goes on in this picture to what has happened in the Negro ghettos of some of our American cities more recently. The fact that the climax of the drama is actually negative, with the rebellion wiped out and its leaders destroyed, has immediate pertinence, too. But eventual victory for the Algerians — and therefore symbolic hope for all who struggle for freedom— is acknowledged in a sketchy epilogue.

The Battle of Algiers was great before Iraq, and we expect it'll be great after we've left -- however long from now that may be.

The Battle of Algiers plays Sunday Jan. 27 at SIFF Cinema. Showtimes: 2, 4:30, and 7.