Caught this tonight its last night seemingly in theaters here...Simply put the film doesn't quite work the way it should. After a seemingly sure footed beginning, the film falls off a cliff offering scene after scene repeating the same thing as characters plot whom to kill and how to kill them in order to advance their agenda. The characters end up as one dimensional stick figures after a handful of scenes in the beginning establishing their take on the Algerian fight for independence, and after a while the film takes on a seemingly more and more outlandish (and at times almost comedic) Ma Barker and her outlaw sons like feel to it...("oh those boys of mine!") as the mother seems to be completely fine with the increasingly violent activities her sons quickly become consumed with. That's not to say the film doesn't have some beautifully filmed sequences tho-- the one at the end definitely packs a punch, but its not enough to save the whole film.
Film didn't start out without interest---as its starting, you witness the difficulties facing the three grown sons of this woman in Algeria--the film is book marked by two real and spectacular bloody events from Algeria's fight for independence used here as the turning points for the three son's awakening to social injustice. After the bloody events of the beginning the film follows the three sons as they're all in different places...one's in jail and experiences a political awakening as a radical Algerian who dreams of taking the fight for freedom back to the streets once he's out, one's in the army and having some problems with the killing that he's doing becoming more and more desensitized, and one moves with his mother to try and start a new life in France and dreams of making money and eventually opening up his own nightclub...eventually the son in jail and the one in the army rejoin their family...and that's where the film's story really kicks into gear as the radical son and the army son join (and really kick-start) the FLA (freedom & liberation of Algeria) organization which from my viewing of the film and nothing else seems to consist of scene after scene of the radical son deciding whom to kill next in the name of his cause. The recruiting of the other two brothers and sticking together as a family to the cause seems to be important at first to the radical brother but quickly breaks with that idea once its established that the son who just wants to make some money has no interest in taking up arms against his new country--least he jeopardize any moneymaking attempts (he got a gig as a boxing promoter--grooming this young up and coming boxer for fame and fortune which figures into the plot later on when it comes about that the now terrorist organization will kill him should he fight in the name of France and not for his true Algerian homeland as he should) Film tries to build some tension from the contrasting beliefs of the two brothers (the third one--the army one after some initial hesitation seems to take to the killing in the name of freedom just fine and thus a once promising character conflict gets pushed to the back burner.) and indeed the fact that the film isn't a complete misfire is attributed to the suspense generated by putting the two brothers in this conflict with one another. One of the most memorable scenes has the radical brother telling the army brother that the time has come to kill their brother in the name of their cause, to which the army brother firmly puts his foot down...a fact that the radical will be thankful for after events unravel in the last half hour of the film. Indeed the climatic sequences where the two of them end up being bound together by their circumstances are not only well staged but so filled with the dramatic tension that was completely lacking in the rest of the film that you wonder why the director didn't cut to the chase with these two brothers sooner leading to what is undeniably a beautifully staged and fully realized all out riot in a train station, but its almost too little too late in terms of interest in the storyline.
The idea of an Algerian Once Upon A Time In America (immigrant brothers starting up their own various criminal enterprises coming into conflict with one another) is a good one. I very much liked the way the director tried to create this whole saga around these still potent real world historical events, but i wish the characters (and the film itself) had more to offer then simply boiling down to brotherly love vs personal political beliefs. The film just doesn't sustain your interest in its plot line for its entire running time...lets just say it could've taken a lesson or two from MESSRINE---that film might of been twice as long, but it held your interest twice as much thru its runtime at the very least.
Film didn't start out without interest---as its starting, you witness the difficulties facing the three grown sons of this woman in Algeria--the film is book marked by two real and spectacular bloody events from Algeria's fight for independence used here as the turning points for the three son's awakening to social injustice. After the bloody events of the beginning the film follows the three sons as they're all in different places...one's in jail and experiences a political awakening as a radical Algerian who dreams of taking the fight for freedom back to the streets once he's out, one's in the army and having some problems with the killing that he's doing becoming more and more desensitized, and one moves with his mother to try and start a new life in France and dreams of making money and eventually opening up his own nightclub...eventually the son in jail and the one in the army rejoin their family...and that's where the film's story really kicks into gear as the radical son and the army son join (and really kick-start) the FLA (freedom & liberation of Algeria) organization which from my viewing of the film and nothing else seems to consist of scene after scene of the radical son deciding whom to kill next in the name of his cause. The recruiting of the other two brothers and sticking together as a family to the cause seems to be important at first to the radical brother but quickly breaks with that idea once its established that the son who just wants to make some money has no interest in taking up arms against his new country--least he jeopardize any moneymaking attempts (he got a gig as a boxing promoter--grooming this young up and coming boxer for fame and fortune which figures into the plot later on when it comes about that the now terrorist organization will kill him should he fight in the name of France and not for his true Algerian homeland as he should) Film tries to build some tension from the contrasting beliefs of the two brothers (the third one--the army one after some initial hesitation seems to take to the killing in the name of freedom just fine and thus a once promising character conflict gets pushed to the back burner.) and indeed the fact that the film isn't a complete misfire is attributed to the suspense generated by putting the two brothers in this conflict with one another. One of the most memorable scenes has the radical brother telling the army brother that the time has come to kill their brother in the name of their cause, to which the army brother firmly puts his foot down...a fact that the radical will be thankful for after events unravel in the last half hour of the film. Indeed the climatic sequences where the two of them end up being bound together by their circumstances are not only well staged but so filled with the dramatic tension that was completely lacking in the rest of the film that you wonder why the director didn't cut to the chase with these two brothers sooner leading to what is undeniably a beautifully staged and fully realized all out riot in a train station, but its almost too little too late in terms of interest in the storyline.
The idea of an Algerian Once Upon A Time In America (immigrant brothers starting up their own various criminal enterprises coming into conflict with one another) is a good one. I very much liked the way the director tried to create this whole saga around these still potent real world historical events, but i wish the characters (and the film itself) had more to offer then simply boiling down to brotherly love vs personal political beliefs. The film just doesn't sustain your interest in its plot line for its entire running time...lets just say it could've taken a lesson or two from MESSRINE---that film might of been twice as long, but it held your interest twice as much thru its runtime at the very least.