I'm watching "Battle of Algiers" right now. Great, award-winning documentary-style war drama from 1967, which sympathetically portrays the uprising against the French in the late 1950s. Plenty of bombings, and plenty of stuff which will make plenty of light bulbs suddenly light up the minds of intellectual dimwits who are otherwise clueless about history.

Really, it's almost too good:

A film commissioned by the Algerian government that shows the Algerian revolution from both sides. The French foreign legion has left Vietnam in defeat and has something to prove. The Algerians are seeking independence. The two clash. The torture used by the French is contrasted with the Algerian's use of bombs in soda shops. A look at war as a nasty thing that harms and sullies everyone who participates in it.

No, the showing of this film that's never been on TCM before is absolutely not intended to influence anyone's mind about anything going on in the world today. Rather than being introduced by Robert Osbourne alone, the film was introduced by Danny DeVito, who really almost goes out of his way to say nothing about anything except the film's technique, and how good the director is.

No need to mention Iraq, Vietnam, Bush. (Or what's the name of the new guy in France? You know, the one who's made France US-friendly again?)

Modest boy Danny. (Doesn't even remember the drunken "numb nuts" Bush remark....)

And nothing even about... Sarkozy! (I knew I'd remember his name!) His existence must disturb the hell out of those who are wedded to the idea that has Bush made our European allies hate us. (The New York Times has tried to warn us that he's a right wing bigot....) Probably a great time to start "reminding" American "intellectuals" about France's past problems.

Anyway, "Battle of Algiers" is an excellent film, and I enjoyed watching it. I also loved Lion of the Desert despite its bias. It just bothers me a bit to contemplate that there are historically unaware people who've never thought much about French colonialism in Algeria, and who will suddenly have "insights" into the Iraq War simply because this floats across their tube on Saturday night, and I certainly hope this film was not intended to influence their thinking.

"Just like a documentary," said Danny in the afterword.

So true to contemporary life that it almost felt like drunken live blogging!

MORE: Among other things, "Battle of Algiers" reminded me that they don't make leftie films like they used to. And as Robert James Bidinotto explains, today's anti-war films are box office flops. (Via Glenn Reynolds.)