Waltz With Bashir

When Joe and I started this blog I never really thought about the kind of movies I'd be reviewing. Of course I considered doing silly, scathing reviews of movies like Transformers. Summer blockbusters, the easy stuff, the kind of movies that don't make you think or change your view of the world around you. I never considered serious movies and how I would go about beginning to understand them (after transformers I have to learn how to use my brain again because I shut it off for that flick.) Waltz With Bashir is the first serious drama I've seen all summer.

Waltz With Bashir is the Story of the 1982 Isreali invasion of Lebanon and the directors experience there. After called to a bar by a wartime buddy of his, Ari Folman (the director) finds that he can't remember anything about his experience fighting in Lebanon. His friend relates to him how for about two years, almost ever night, he has the same dream. Twenty-six vicious dogs gather outside his apartment window and tell him to come outside or they will start killing people. Ari asks how he knows that there are twenty-six dogs. Why not thirty? His friends tells him that during the war his squad went to different towns at night looking for known Palestinian terrorists. When they came upon a new town the dogs would start barking and alert the town of the soldiers presence. His commander ordered him to shoot the dogs. He tells Ari that he remembers every dog he shot, the sounds and faces they made when they died, all twenty-six of them.

Ari is shaken by his friends account and the same night he has his own nightmare. He wakes up in an ocean with three other soldiers. They walk towards the shore (see above picture), get dressed, take their guns and head for a city being lit up by flares. Searching for its meaning he visits old army friends, acquaintances and interviews them to try to piece together his past. As he talks to more people, his dreams pull together into some semblance of an actual memory.

Waltz With Bashir brings back memories of the Pianist and other holocaust movies. Most of the movie is presented in a stunning animation that feels just right for this type of film. As Ari's whirlpool of memories begins to slow down and show what actually happened, the film reverts to real footage of the aftermath of committed atrocities. You'll have to see it for yourself to see what I'm talking about. When I turned off the movie I was surprised to find that it had only played for about an hour and twenty minutes. About three hours of considering my existence and a night full of haunted dreams await me. Waltz With Bashir makes me happy that I live in such a safe country away from ethnic hatred and genocide. But it angers me because it showed me that we do not do enough to protect the world and the rights of each individual person.

Waltz With Bashir's documentary style and unique animation makes it a haunting reminder of the effects war has on a people group, and unique individuals. Waltz With Bashir already nabbed the 2008 oscar for best foreign language drama and is a beautifully rendered memior of Ari's time in Lebanon.

(note to kiddos, the movie is rated R for a reason, disturbing images of war, genocide and a graphic sex scene, rent with caution)

Grade= A-

Christopher O'Connell