Review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Ld P — 06 Aug 2009

Waltz with Bashir. Certainly of the best if not the best film of 2008. Because it was animated I shied away from this film last year (I spent time in south Texas and Dallas most of the year.) Did I want to see a depressing animated film>? It is not that.

Director Ari Folman himself calls it an animated documentary. He based it on live interviews. The film follows his attempt to regain his memories of the war through therapy as well as conversations with old friends and other Israelis that were present in Beirut around the time of the Sabra and Shatila massacre massacre.

( he was 19 at the time) Very Very interesting film making. It touches a lot of issues we tend to skip over about wars--how they are harmful to everyone. The film is about his own damage (amnesia) but it also some what of an indictment of Israeli soldiers and politics at the time.

The whole thing is/)and was in real life) a nightmarish hell. The entire conception leads to an unforgettable feat of film making. WOW. The 1982 massacre was well documented why did not anyone stop it.

( in his mind during this/his therapeutic look at his memories and horrors he wish he /or others could have stopped it) the truth he is looking for is not the facts but on who witnessed them, and why.

(his army friends onlookers etc) It is clear here that Israel has guilt in this sad affair. the committed genocide here just as clearly as the German's committed it upon the Jews. Ty Burr Ny Times calls this "unprecedented genre: the animated repressed-memory atrocity-mystery documentary" It clearly moves into a new level of film making.

Hats off to Folman. Five stars really the best film of 2008.