Matthew ShallueSee Waltz With Bashir, but should you believe it?
Two extraordinary animated films in two weeks. September has been a good month...
Waltz With Bashir, however, is no kids' film. It deals with the lead-up to and horrific events surrounding a massacre of civilians in the 1982 Lebanon war. But this is no Schindler's List, where the audience comes in knowing at least somewhat to expect. It is a journey into the psyche of war, as much as it is an examination of what happened. One of the things that makes this film so compelling is that is told from the unique perspective of a man who was there, but cannot remember.
Director Ari Folman brings many other elements to the film that set it apart. For instance, while one could classify it as documentary, it is told in a familiar flashback narrative form, playing with our sense of what is real and what is constructed. Folman starts his journey after a former comrade tells him about a recurring dream involving precisely 26 dogs that come for him, intending to kill. Folman realises that he cannot remember the war, and begins to track down other former fellow soldiers so that they might help him jog his memory.
Before we get to that, we are treated to a quick overview of how memory, imagination and reality interact from a psychologist friend of Folman's. This inability to trust our own memories, especially in traumatic situations, is explored majestically by Folman and his team of gifted animators.
The animation itself is first-class, searing some extraordinary images into the viewers' minds, most notably the two above. The decision to go with animation frees up the filmmakers to insert whimsy, beauty and poetry into what is truly a horrific story. The ending, when it comes, is devastating.
There are, in the middle, parts where the film drags, due as much to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the details of the conflict as anything else. But these moments are short-lived and quickly forgotten.
See Waltz With Bashir. There is simply nothing like it out there.
A haunting image from Waltz With Bashir
Waltz With Bashir, however, is no kids' film. It deals with the lead-up to and horrific events surrounding a massacre of civilians in the 1982 Lebanon war. But this is no Schindler's List, where the audience comes in knowing at least somewhat to expect. It is a journey into the psyche of war, as much as it is an examination of what happened. One of the things that makes this film so compelling is that is told from the unique perspective of a man who was there, but cannot remember.
images courtesy google.com
Director Ari Folman brings many other elements to the film that set it apart. For instance, while one could classify it as documentary, it is told in a familiar flashback narrative form, playing with our sense of what is real and what is constructed. Folman starts his journey after a former comrade tells him about a recurring dream involving precisely 26 dogs that come for him, intending to kill. Folman realises that he cannot remember the war, and begins to track down other former fellow soldiers so that they might help him jog his memory.
Before we get to that, we are treated to a quick overview of how memory, imagination and reality interact from a psychologist friend of Folman's. This inability to trust our own memories, especially in traumatic situations, is explored majestically by Folman and his team of gifted animators.
The animation itself is first-class, searing some extraordinary images into the viewers' minds, most notably the two above. The decision to go with animation frees up the filmmakers to insert whimsy, beauty and poetry into what is truly a horrific story. The ending, when it comes, is devastating.
There are, in the middle, parts where the film drags, due as much to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the details of the conflict as anything else. But these moments are short-lived and quickly forgotten.
See Waltz With Bashir. There is simply nothing like it out there.
Screen Fanatic