10 Awesome War Movies About Obscure Conflicts
9. Lost Command
Where The Battle of Algiers tells the story of the Algerian Revolution from the perspective of the nationalist rebels, Lost Command is based on a novel, Jean Lartéguy's The Centurions, which tells the story from the point of view of the French paratroopers. Unsurprisingly, the film’s sympathies are very different.
The movie isn't much cop, and it's really only interesting in comparison to The Battle of Algiers. After all, the Algerian Revolution is that rarest of wars where we can actually see films that tell the story from both sides.
As you may expect, Lost Command does things very differently. Where The Battle of Algiers is a grittily realist black and white movie, Lost Command is a glossy Hollywood production. Where The Battle of Algiers stars former revolutionaries, Lost Command stars former paratroopers. Where The Battle of Algiers focuses on terrorism and torture, Lost Command ends with a grand set-piece shoot-out.
Strangely enough, The Battle of Algiers is the most interesting thing about Lost Command - the comparison between the two films shows how flexible and changeable the understanding of history can be depending on the viewpoint from which it's told.