The release of The Battle of Algiers coincided with the decolonization period and national liberation wars, as well as a rising tide of left-wing radicalism in Western nations in which a large minority showed interest in armed struggle. Beginning in the late 1960s, The Battle of Algiers gained a reputation for inspiring political violence; in particular the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism in the film were supposedly copied by the Black Panthers and the Provisional Irish Republican Army. (and later in Irak?)

The film produced considerable political controversy in France and was banned there for five years. Scenes of torture were cut from the original American and British releases as they were seen as incendiary toward the French.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_algiers