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Battle of Algiers Conflict Analysis | Sample Expert Paper
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Introduction: Understanding Conflict Through Cinema
Conflict resolution has emerged to be a field whose theory and practice are pacing real-world events. It is of significance to understand the phenomenon of conflict to be able to establish the means of bringing the conflict under control and to bring out insights and concepts capable of bearing on actual conflicts. Hereby, conflict resolution relates to theories and approaches that can be useful in enhancing understanding of conflict and the practice of reducing violence and enhancing political processes to harmonize interests. This paper seeks to analyze the film, The Battle of Algiers, from a perspective of the theory of conflict and theory of identity. Films provide valuable illustrations of conflicts and conflict resolution making them useful in understanding conflicts.
Film Overview: Summary of The Battle of Algiers
The film, The Battle of Algiers, that Gillo Pontecorvo directed, mirrors the struggles experienced by Algeria for the nation to gain independence. The film’s setting is in the streets of Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, which was then a French colony. In their push for independence, the locals are fighting against the occupying French forces.
The movie begins with the French paratroopers’ torturing an old local man to get information. In particular, the occupying forces establish the hideouts of the freedom fighters will significant attention being on Ali Pointe. The main part of the movie involves the flashback by Ali Pointe, who assumes the role of the leader of the locals’ insurgency. Hereby, the film takes the audience back to his times three years before where he appears as a criminal with a past tarnished by claims of theft and drugs. Afterward, Ali joins the militants to strengthen them in fighting the French. The first flashback ends and the present commence with Ali Pointe and other National Liberation Front (FLN) leaders being beheaded. These prompts the FLN to strike back and lead a national revolution as the rebellion grows.
Afterward, the movie directs its focus to Algeria gaining independence in 1962. The movie exhibits the struggles that prevailed and the determination that the French had to finish the war. It as well touches the transformation of the insurgency to the mighty revolution (Pontecorvo, 1966). Several theories related to conflict resolution can be deduced from the film.
Theory of Intergroup Conflict in the Battle of Algiers
Social Class Divisions and Group Disparities
The conflict between group interests causes intergroup conflicts. In the film, there are numerous instances where opposing sides are keen on assuming power through. For instance, the main theme of the film involves the conflict between colonialists and the locals, which leads to an endless struggle for dominance. On their part, the FLN militants employ terrorist tactics to push their perceived oppressors while the French are keen on suppressing any resistance to their dominance.
At the center of the conflict are different groups living in contrasting setting, which sets in place the platform for conflicts. On their part, the Arab natives suffer torture and humiliation in the hands of their colonizers. However, even though such are unclear, several aspects demonstrate the class conflict in the film. For instance, the Arabs and the French live in different places. The Arabs live in poor conditions while, on the other hand, the French predominantly live in the city, which is not only modern but also having varied desirable amenities (Pontecorvo, 1966). This intergroup disparity played a role in fuelling the revolution that ends up transforming the country.
Differential treatment of groups fuels the rift between them. Most of the local people in the film are involved in manual work for the Europeans, while the Europeans enjoy live in the city. This brings out the aura of locals’ humiliation and inhuman treatment as Arabs work in the farms owned by the Europeans where they do hard labor with brutal rules and conditions. Whereas, the Europeans take high positions in the civil service affairs and the municipal councils (Pontecorvo, 1966). They are grouped into the domineering classes, and they have a strong middle class.
Language, Labels, and the Psychology of Dehumanization
In a conflict, the attitudes that opposing sides have about each other play a part in worsening the conflict. On their part, the French have a negative attitude towards the Arabs, as they perceive them as primitive and barbaric. They try to deter the population that rebel against the French and are keen to exhibit that they are more civilized.
The names they use to refer to the Arabs exhibits the ruthlessness that French had. For example, they refer to Arabs as “dirty Arabs” or even “rats.” The extent they dehumanize the Arabs is evident in their categorization as “tapeworms” as Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu motivates his troops as they tackle the FLN. He posits that the best approach to killing a tapeworm would be through decapitation, which implied that the appropriate way would be to kill FLN leader. Hereby, he uses of the word “tapeworm” to allude to the torturous and radicalization process. The French in the prison had done this when Ali witnessed the beheading of the FLN activists (Pontecorvo, 1966). As the battle was ending, the decapitations failed to put off the rebellious movement.
Theory of Identity in the Battle of Algiers: Culture, Clothing, and Resistance
Conflicts based on identity exceed disputes over resources and interests. In the film, identity is a central aspect evident through various characters. Differences in the identities of the parties involved in the conflict played a role in promoting it. Of interest among the parties is to have their identity domineer over the other or prompt the others feel weaker. For instance, local women in Algiers fail to appreciate their real identity. There are those women who stopped cutting off their hair, as they were keen on appearing as Europeans. They went to an extent of putting on braids with the colors of the Europeans’ hairs to alter their identity (Pontecorvo, 1966). As part of the conflict, ideologies prompted by the conflicting parties tend to be significant bases of the conflict.
However, it is in the conflict zones that identity plays out more evidently. The differences in the cultures, shared history, beliefs and basic values between the occupying French and the locals worsen the conflict because the pertinent issues are ambiguous. Based on such differences, the locals and the occupying French assigned themselves identities to their adversaries and themselves, contributing to the development of the notion that the fight was between “us” against “them.”
In the conflict, the French assumed a particular identity that conflict with the very survival and basic needs of the identity of the locals (Pontecorvo, 1966). This prompts bad blood between them. In the end, the identity characterization pans out in the conflict. The best example of the extent to which the aspect of identity arises in the conflict is a scene where various NLF women take away their veils and wear like Europeans to appear like Europeans. Such would enable them manage to penetrate the territory of their French enemies where they would plant bombs.
Conclusion: Applying Conflict and Identity Theory to Real-World Resolution
The aspects of intergroup conflict and identity are evident in the film, The Battle of Algiers, and they assume central roles in developing the film. The mixture of such objective differences tends to make the conflict more systematic and more damaging. In any such conflict resolution effort, it becomes necessary to give attention on such details if any success were attainable in resolving such an impasse. They tend to be fundamental and underlying reasons behind the behaviors and attitudes of the conflicting sides.
Works Cited
Pontecorvo, G. (Director). (1966). La bataille d’Alger: The Battle of Algiers [Film].
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