Carey, Sarah Jane2016-10-132016-10-132016-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/20269169 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Philosophy and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2016.In recent years, the Algerian War, long a taboo topic in France, has begun to receive attention in public discourse and mainstream media, including several recent films. In my work, I analyze five contemporary French films' portrayals of the war, asking what these films say about the ways in which violent, oppressive colonial relations harm both the colonizer and the colonized. I engage with the theories of Albert Memmi, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, and argue that these films simultaneously illustrate and complicate these philosophers' theories·or the colonizer as a perpetrator of violence. I argue that these films' graphic portrayals of the degrading effects of violence on colonizers and colonized alike challenge Frantz Fanon's theory of the essential, cathartic, and redeeming role of violence in revolutions. My research contributes uniquely to the growing body of scholarship on the Algerian War, by addressing these films philosophically and revealing how the war continues to inform French identity. My research comes at a pivotal moment as France becomes increasingly involved in the growing conflicts in the Middle East and Northern Africa and is reminded of its colonial history. Finally. my research helps shed light on the effects of systematic oppression and violence on people in the world at large.en-USCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USAlgerian WarDecolonial philosophyAlgerian WarWar filmsColonialismViolenceFrench AlgeriaFrench cinemaThesis / Dissertation