It's a great title, isn't it? You could forgive practically anything that followed it, but, thankfully, you won't need to: this is a damn fine film. Obviously, it's a polemic, and if you've seen Michael Moore getting worked up before, you'll understand that this film will be very polemical indeed, but, given its subject matter, it'd be more surprising if no one got worked up at all. The film examines George W's first administration, from the election he didn't really win, to the September 11 attacks (watch for the classroom footage), to the war in Iraq, and asks, at every turn: why is America standing for this? Moore looks critically at the Bush family's relationship with Saudi royalty and the bin Laden family, at the oil interests and the cronyism that drove Bush's response to the September 11 attacks, and at the erosion of rights that followed. The result is deeply sobering.

This is not to say that the film is a collection of dry political facts (come on, this is Michael Moore). It's entertaining and riveting, and whether you agree with it or not, it will, doubtless, fire you up.

A powerful political drama, The Battle of Algiers depicts the Algerian struggle for independence in the late 1950s. Director Gillo Pontecorvo uses a quasi-documentary style to take us right into the middle of the violent struggle between the city's Arab opulation and the ruling French. We follow Ali La Ponte (Haggiag), a small-time criminal who joins a militant group and begins to rally support for an assault on the French. Violence erupts, and Colonel Matthieu (a chilling - but human - Martin) is sent in to restore order.

The realism of the film makes for an incredibly intense experience. Pontecorvo shot the film on location in the streets of Algiers just three years after independence was achieved, and used mostly untrained actors. The director doesn't shy away from showing both the French torture of captured Algerians, and the consequences of the Algerian guerrilla tactics for the civilian population. One particularly harrowing sequence follows three female guerrillas as they plant bombs in busy city caf((eacute))s. Ennio Morricone's pulsating, drum-beat score only adds to the film's intensity. The Battle of Algiers raises questions about the effectiveness of violence as a means to defeat terrorism, giving this 1965 film renewed relevance today. (Perhaps surprisingly, the movie was screened at the Pentagon in 2003.)