(2008)
A Movie Review
By
Jonathan Moya
4 Out of 5 Stars or A-<=
strong>
The
Plot: (from IMDB.com<=
/b>)
One night at a bar, a=
n old
friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased=
by
26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclu=
de
that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon
War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing
anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides=
to
meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to
discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper =
and
deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.
The
Review:
Sometimes the greatest soul pain is in the amnes=
ia
of life. The momentR=
17;s
one ought to remember but cannot. In Waltz with Bashir, =
an
animated documentary about the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the Sab=
ra
Shatila massacre, Ari Folman tries to recover that experience from the ennu=
i of
war, genocide, the holocaust and the Jewish consciousness. Folman was a 19-year-old Israeli s=
oldier
stationed close to the Sabra-Shatila refugee camps at the time of the
massacres. Now forty-fi=
ve,
Folman can only remember the leave times.&=
nbsp;
He seeks out others in his platoon to see if they have the same
memories. Waltz with Bashir b=
ecomes
their animated nightmare, testimony and witness.
The memories that come back are like a pack of
twenty-six snarling marauding dogs baying under a window-- the ritual night=
mare
that has haunted Boaz Buskila for thirty years. Twenty-six was the number of dogs =
he
shot during the war. Boaz giv=
es his
testimony but not his face. T=
he
animated Boaz is a composite done by an actor in the original reference vid=
eos.
The same for Carmi Cna’an, the longtime friend =
of
Folman with genius potential =
but
who turned his back on all of it after the war to embrace Buddhism and a Du=
tch
exile. Their encounter in Bas=
hir is
cold and detached, made tolerable by the reefer they share.
The other five who share their faces and voices,
recall the events with a narrative and emotional detachment that makes them
characters, witnesses and bystanders to their own story-- something terrible
that happened to someone else. The
reality is there- as much of it as they can absorb before the body heals the
mind with the balm of forgetfulness and memory and time bends existence into
the eternal fiction-fact compromise. Only Roni Dayag has a trauma free
normality, a future without the war shadows and ghosts. Detached from his squadron he surv=
ived
by spending the night sitting still behind a rock and slipping into a calm =
sea
that drifts him back to his comrades the next day. Dayag found peace in the
surrender to that calm flow while the others fight the tide of guilt and
conscience. They rise out of =
the
sea’s baptism, fully armed but naked, fearful and weary, thrust into =
the
golden exploding city melting before their eyes. Folman revisits that scene two more
times just as the violence and war shifts to more savagery (the invasion) a=
nd
massacre (Sabra-Shatila) making it a prophecy that points to the entryway o=
f Sheol. The squadron drift into a stasis a=
nd
nothingness that allows the Sabra-Shatila evil by the Christian Phalangists=
. In a memorable scene, Israeli flar=
es light
the way to the camps. In their head and souls, The Holocaust lives just a s=
mall
conscience step away from genocide.
The two who try to do the right thing are
circumscribed, their futures dismembered. Dror Harazi, Folman’s =
tank
squadron commander who aspired to be a general, did everything he could to
alert his superiors to the situation at the Shatila camp, only to earn a
premature and disgraceful discharge from the army. His testimony is a last cry =
to
expose the truth. Ron Ben-Yeshai, an Israeli war correspondent of twenty ye=
ars
and at least six campaigns, called Minister of Defense Arik Sharon about the
massacres. Sharon did nothing=
to
stop them. The next twenty years for Yeshai we=
re
without promotion. Shar=
on
made sure of that.
The need to forget horror provides horror its
opportunity. Waltz with Bashir
shows the results of that genetic holocaust which has existed ever since Ca=
in
murdered Abel. It gets an A-.=
The Credits: (From Allmovie.com)
Ari Folman&nb=
sp; - Director / Producer / Screenwriter /
Cinematographer Serge Lalou&=
nbsp;
- Producer Gerhard Meix=
ner
- Producer Yael Nahlieli<=
/a>
- Producer Roman Paul&nb=
sp; - Producer Max Richter&=
nbsp;
- Composer (Music Sco=
re) Nili Feller&=
nbsp;
- Editor<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'> David Polonsk=
y
- Art Director /
Illustrator =
Thierry Garre=
l
- Co-producer<=
/em> Pierrette
Ominetti - Co-producer Aviv Aldema&=
nbsp;
- Sound/Sound Designe=
r Bri=
dgit
Folman Film Gang - Animator Tal Gadon =
; - Chief Animator Yoni Goodman
- Animation Director<=
/span> Roiy Nitzan&=
nbsp;
- Visual Effects
Supervisor
With: Ari Folman - [Voice] Ori Sivan - [Voice] Roni Dayag - [Voice] Shmuel Frenke=
l - [Voice] Ron Ben Yisah=
i - [Voice] Dror Harazi<=
/span> - [Voice] Boaz Rein
Buskila
- [Voice] Carmi Cna'an=
- [Voice] Yehezkel La=
zarov - [Voice]
Copyright
2009 by Jonathan Moya