Review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Jonathan B — 19 Mar 2011

Quite extraordinary. A documentary based on the experiences of the Israeli director, Ari Folman as he struggles to rebuild memories that he has lost of his time serving in the armed forces during a very bleak chapter of Lebanese history in the 1980s.

The movie is made up of flashbacks and interviews that have been animated with a technique that lends them a surreal and dream-like quality that is highly original and very effective. It is like looking at layer upon layer of moving oil paintings and is as beautiful to look at as it is moving and upsetting to experience.

The fact that terrible atrocities are committed in the animated form lends them a starkness and poignancy that is unbelievably moving. The style manages to maintain a degree of sensitivity that would have been lost had this been live action.

What unfolds, is a fascinating and pared back view of the horrors and mindlessness of war as a middle aged man looks back on things he experienced as a teenager and was ill equipped to comprehend. We get a sense of a whole generation of men who have been damaged by horrific experiences in which they were complicit and are now struggling to come to terms with.

It is told without blame or sensationalism and is a personal story against which the larger political histories are played out. As a commentary on the futility and inhumanity of war, this is a superb movie that is quite unlike any other I have ever seen.