“Because of its perfect fusion of form and content, this is one of the most strikingly successful subversive films ever made. Its revolutionary fervour - though subtly muted by a compassionate humanism that embraces both camps - is pure and passionate. Without Pontecorvo's control over his plastic material, however, it would have remained ineffectual. Incredibly, this huge ‘documentary' of the Algerian struggle against the French - street battles, bombings, riots, mass strikes, assassinations - was entirely staged, and made to resemble authentic newsreel shots by the use of high-contrast, high-grain film stock, hand-held cameras, and intentional jump-cuts. The cruelty of torture, the arrogance of the fascist French paratroopers, the escalating terrorism and mutual reprisals...mount to a masterful final sequence of poetic symbolism: the Algerian masses, leaderless after the destruction of the National Liberation Front, once again surge into the streets in a spontaneous, powerful demonstration.... Their confrontation with the French military is classic in concept and execution and reminiscent of early Soviet cinema: the steady, drum-like chants for independence of the swaying possessed mass, the young women with flags, the soldiers slowly retreating, the music reaching towards a crescendo but symbolically ending before the final beat.” --Amos Vogel