Outside the Law (2010)

It is tough to show both sides of the same medallion, but the movie tries to do just that. It's true that there is a predictability to it, but the characters portrayed by really good french actors give it their best and the movie is worth watching. It is of course handled as mixture drama/thriller to attract a bigger audience, but that does not have to be a bad thing.I personally liked the Grey area kind of handling/treatment the story received, but I can see why some felt it wasn't rooting for one side or didn't engage the viewer with more involvement in the story. But the characters all act naturally and upon their instinct(s). Of course some things are convenient and to get more information on the background you might need to do further research (and/or look at the deleted scenes of the movie), but that is true of many "historical" (or "based on") movies!

Well I neither have the expert historical perspective or the expertise on films of other reviewers, but I'm just an ordinary person who went to see this movie. I loved it because it really shows how people can get sucked into resistance, even if they're very ordinary and not particularly brave, because the other option of not doing anything is so awful. I thought the acting was very convincing and I learnt a lot about that time in Algeria. I spend a lot of time in the south of France so I think this helped me to understand the history of some of the people I know.Goodness me this site wants me to write 10 lines. No wonder everyone else's reviews are so long. I watched it a long time ago when it first came out and so I don't have a clear memory of details, just the overall impression, and I wanted to share that.

I have to admit before seeing this movie i knew nothing about the Algerian struggle for independence from France. It's a subject that is quite topical considering the troubles we have seen in North Africa in recent times.This film plays out like a historical gangster movie and considering it's length i really enjoyed it. There is loads of action and it is beautifully shot. There is some fantastic acting and really enjoy watching Jamel Debbouze who was great in Days of Glory.It's not a surprise that i really likes this as I'm a big fan of foreign cinema and combined with a historical theme , i was always going to like it.

The second movie of Rachid Bouchareb after "The days of glory", it is like a sequel but not, it focuses on the Algerian struggle to have the independence from France after the WWII, and especially the struggle by the Algerians living in France.The film making is better then the last one - The days of glory - , with a beautiful music and cinematography, a great performance of the actors which are the same from The days of glory, and amazingly they played the same characters in the two movies: Saïd, Messaoud, Abdelkader. In "The days of glory" they were just friends of the battlefield, in "Outside the Law" they were brothers. In my opinion the use of the same characters by Rachid Bouchareb was very intelligent, it marks the fact that in every one of the Algerian people during the struggle there was Saïd, Messaoud or Abdelkader, those characters are a kind of a factorial of many stories in the struggle of the Algerian people.Despite the little poor story that did not reflect precisely all the aspects of the struggle by the Algerians living in France, the movie was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Foreign Language Film (83rd academy awards).It is a nice movie; it shows a historical reality unknown by many persons.--http://theearthdiary.blogspot.com/