In the Battle of Algiers, the scene that stood out the most to me was the sequence where the three women masquerade as French women and set explosives in the European section of Algiers. This section, as the article “The Third Worldist Film” points out, illustrates many aspects of both the French rule and the resistance to that rule. The fact that the camera follows these three women complicates their actions as the viewer sees them. We see them changing themselves to look European and can feel their fear as they pretend to casually cross the checkpoint. This sequence also shows that the revolution was a new kind of warfare, one where the French didn’t know who their enemy was. The French have a schema of what a terrorist — or freedom fighter, depending on your view — looks like and the FLN effectively manipulates that to accomplish their ends.
The film is powerful in the way it shows both sides of the bombing scene. The camera not only focuses in on the women, but also shows the victims including a small boy eating an ice cream cone. The innocence of the victims in clearly emphasized and yet the viewer can understand the women’s motives and even feel they are justified after the bombings of the Algerians in their homes. The movie provides no simple answer. Clearly it sympathizes with the FLN, but it doesn’t demonize all the French to do so. The French can be cruel and harsh at the checkpoints (and not to mention blatantly sexist), but the film doesn’t give the viewer the luxury of a white knight to cheer for against a dragon. Instead, it shows the humanity of everyone involved. That’s why the bombing scene with the women is such an important moment — it complicates what is right and what is wrong and helps the viewer understand the violence necessary for freedom.
Third World Literature 
I think you make a very good point. Even though the film was shown from the perspective of the Algerian revolutionists and made them who the viewer empathizes with, there were scenes where the audience saw the humanity in the French as well. That was portrayed through Colonel Mathieu. He was a main force in quelling the FLN and the man who ordered the killing of Ali La Pointe, yet I still wouldn’t categorize him as evil. In fact, when it became known Ben M’Hidi was dead, Colonel Mathieu actually said that it was a privilege to have known him.