Review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Jason J — 12 Jun 2010

A bleak and fascinating animated documentary about a massacre that took place in the first Israeli-Lebanon war during 1982 in which Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered by Christian Philangrists with Israeli soldiers doing nothing to intervene. The director Ari Folman was a soldier in the Israeli army during the time and cannot remember a thing about the massacre so he heads off to interview various people that were in his army unit. The memories that had been locked away begin to resurface once more as the dreadful events of what really happened come back to haunt him with a vengeance.

A very powerful thought provoking anti-war movie with many distressing and shocking images on show highlighting with a switch right at the climax to real-life graphic footage of grieving women and dead bodies lying on the streets. The animation is excellent and the soundtrack even better. I guess this movie was Ari Folman's way of showing guilt that he did nothing to prevent innocent people being murdered at the time. I found it a unique and compelling movie about war and regret. Highly recommended.