Review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Ryan P — 01 Mar 2012

Wow. I was in a class. It was right after my midterm, a course about Middle Eastern societies. This movie was shown right after. Most people left. I was going to as well, but decided to see what it was all about. Maybe 10-15 minutes or something. But then, that 10 minutes turned into 30 and then 40 and then I stayed the entire film. In my class, the 20 or 30 of us who were there, we all felt emotionally drained but VERY happy we stayed.

This is an incredible film on so many levels. It's fiction, it's documentary, it's animated...it's such a unique take on what could've been a generic story. Waltz with Bashir is about a former Israeli soldier who can't seem to stop having this dream, which relates to his service in the Lebanon War in the 1980s. Soon, he's going all across Israel talking to people about it, his former comrades, psychologists and reporters, and piecing together the story he's totally forgotten...or blocked out.

A gripping tale of the scars of war and the real toll it takes after buildings are rebuilt, wounds are healed and the dead are forgotten. 30 years later, and these people can't shake the memories away. This isn't a political film, which I found refreshing and appropriate; it's not there to send some message. It's a human drama. The lunacy of war is looked at from a "on the ground" level. Beautiful film, ugly history. And the ending...if you don't feel anything, you're not human.