Review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Manny C — 12 Jan 2011
It's a potent, provocative and highly profound testament to the horrors of war--and it's a cartoon. Yes it is. I'm talking of course about Israeli director Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir, a hallucinatory and brilliant piece of work that doubles as a fiercely fresh documentary and a breakthrough in animation.
You don't need to know diddily squat about assassinated Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel to be swept in this film's magnetic pull. It's that sobering and powerful.
Folman, a veteran of the Israeli army who served during the 1982 Israeli-Lebanese war, no longer remembers anything of his involvement in the invasion of Beirut. He has especially blocked out the massacre of Palestinian civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Even though the atrocities were committed by the Christian Palangist militia, an act of revenge for Gemayel's slaying, the Israeli army stood by as men, women and children were slaughtered. Some in the army even sent up flares so that helpless victims could be found easier.
Folman, as himself, cut off ties to the army and the men he served with, and the film is his pained attempt to remember and make some kind of sense by interviewing those who haven't forgotten. In Folman's words: 'animation functions on the border between reality and the subconscious', and so he decided to take a graphic-novel approach by bringing the horrific memories of those interviewed to haunting life.
From the first scene alone--a soldier's recurring nightmare in which barking dogs he was forced to kill attack him---the film takes hold of you. Hell, it goes for the jugular. Other images cut just a deep, leaving your mind and nerves bruised. There's the shot of naked men emerging from water, putting on uniforms or a crazed soldier dancing with his rifle as he shoots at unseen snipers. Then, a final glimpse of reality that's more stomach-churning that anything in ten Saw movies.
Waktz With Bashir is in a class all its own, and burns into the memory like a torch. See it.
This review of Waltz with Bashir (2008) was written by Manny C on 12 Jan 2011.
Waltz with Bashir has generally received very positive reviews.
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