actors. It was not over-dramatic. It was low key. It showed the impact of colonialism on daily lives. These techniques had an important influence on my filmmaking… I saw the film when it came out in 1966. It was one of a number of films that influenced me." On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 99% based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 9.06/10; the site's consensus reads: "A powerful, documentary-like examination of the response to an occupying force, The Battle of Algiers hasn't aged a bit since its release in 1966." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In 2007, the film was ranked at No. 5 by The Guardians readers' poll on its list of "40 greatest foreign films of all time". Not all reception was positive. In France, Cahiers du cinéma devoted a special feature to the film consisting of five articles by critics, philosophers, and film scholars. Their collective negative assessment of the film was cast in such strong terms that "it undermined, on moral grounds, the legitimacy of any critic or analyst who did not condemn the film, let alone anyone who dared consider it worthy of filmic attention." Banned in France Given national divisions over the Algerian War, the film generated considerable political controversy in France and was banned there for five years, with the official government ban of one year succeeded by the decision of private theater owners to not screen the film for another four. People continued to argue about the grounds of the war and colonialism, and argued anew over how these were portrayed in the film. This film was the first available to Metropole French that directly confronted French imperialism. The director received death threats from persons on the far right sympathetic to the French military view. Pontecorvo stated "The Algerians put no obstacles in our way because they knew that I'd be making a more or less objective film about the subject. The French authorities, who were very sensitive on the Algerian issue, banned the film for three months." Due to repeated threats of violence from fascist groups, the government banned screenings of the film for four years, although Pontecorvo believed he had made a politically neutral film. The Battle of Algiers and guerrilla movements The release