Waltz with Bashir – a review
September 21st 2008 22:45
Ari Folman’s Walt with Bashir is a melancholy, stark portrayal of hidden human nightmares. It’s not a usual war tale where the two opposing sides are delineated and clearly defined, rather all the characters are involved in some way and who was right or wrong is not the focal point. The main focus is the spiralling, raw non-discriminatory effects of war that can exist for a long time after the physical feuding has ended.
This is writer and director’s Ari Folman graphic journey of deciphering his recurring but formless recollections of his involvement in the 1982 Israeli Army invasion of Beirut.
Instantly, we are thrown headlong into a nightmarish scene, a ferocious, snarling dog with piercing yellow eyes bounds towards us, soon followed by a pack of twenty-six other angry beasts. For a few minutes, we are part of this nightmare with the golden-hued, ominous sky and the pounding background music adding to the feeling of imminent danger.
This is Folman’s friend’s vivid dream that torments him regularly. His friend is astounded that Folman doesn’t remember any details of the war. Together they ascertain the distressing dream is somehow linked to their shared past, twenty-five years ago.
Folman is haunted by this loss of memory and decides to speak to old friends hoping to decipher his past and answer his questions. His conversations are honestly intimate, rather than journalistic. Folman is scared that his research will reveal memories he does not want to know. His friend Ori Sivan tells him, 'A human mechanism prevents us from entering dark places', 'memory takes us where we need to go.' Gradually, Folman’s abstract visions and brief memory glimpses begin to free the blocked traumatic events.
Folman decided to create the film in an animated format as some friends didn’t want their true identities shown, instead, they agreed instead to be drawn. This was a clever, creative decision. It allowed Folman to add depth to scenes that non-animated scenes would have trouble conveying such as depictions of lost memories, dreams, subconscious thoughts, war, drugs, and lost love. A memorable scene is a hallucination where a large, naked, beautiful and voluptuous woman with long hair flowing, climbs onboard a vessel to rescue a petrified soldier violently vomiting over the side of the boat. Additionally, this filming device allows the audience a certain amount of distance from the war atrocities because of its animated form. This of course may be a negative of the approach, to me I appreciated it.
This is a viscerally, frank depiction of someone so traumatised by events in their life that their mind is closed as protection. We ponder the role of the unconscious, is it better to leave those memories untouched or should they be unleashed? Without preaching, we learn that war effects are non-discriminatory, it is not simply about who wins.
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Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Have you read "Maus" by Art Spiegelman? One of the best - but really emotionally devastating...
Comment by David O'Connell
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I want to see this too, and I also love sophisticated animation aimed at a mature audience.
I have only one reservation, I dislike propaganda films, even those that tell part of a truth, but do so in a way that dilutes, or in some way absolves, the perpetrators of the State organized violence. This criticism applies equally to both sides of the Israeli made wall.
I wish it had wider release, might have to wait till it is at the local shop.
cheers
fog
P.S. Watched an Israeli doco the other night on SBS, about the soldiers doing 'R and R' in India, after their required service. A number of them not wanting to return home to Israel. It was fairly frank actually, and very revealing. They were a mixture of the partying types, to the highly disturbed (some drug addicted to the point of psychosis), to the seemingly sociopathic and psychopathic personality types, some of whom displayed an arrogant attitude and bigoted opinion of others of different cultures, not all unexpected, after the indoctrination they suffer in the army, which was also referenced to.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Great review of a film i really want to see. The animation alone entices, but the story too sounds important.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I'm glad you liked my review, thank-you.
I would definitely recommend seeing it if you have a chance.
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
It sounds like you would like this film if you see it. I read a negative review where the writer said the animation did not portray enough emotion or detail for it to be effective. I didn't find this at all, rather it allowed abstract ideas to be creatively and graphically expressed.
I haven't read that book you mentioned, it's incredible that it took the author fourteen years to complete it. I would imagine it was a painful process in parts.
Thanks for your comments,
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
The animation is definitely unique. It is quietly poignant, allowing the viewer to absorb its messages.
I like your description: The animation seems so unique and startling, it looks like an hypnotic dream of a film.
I agree, it did feel like that.
Thanks for commenting,
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Hope you're well. I know what you mean about films with their own political agenda, but I didn't feel it with this one. It didn't focus on who was right or wrong, the good the bad or those sorts of details, rather it was focused on the individual and how the mind can close down to protect a person.
Being individualised made it more interesting to me as there are so many films out there where war is shown simply as killing without the after-effects. I wish I had seen that doco you mentioned as I would like to know more about the war as my knowledge is only very general.
This film certainly set me thinking...
Thanks for your comments, Fogger.
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Thank-you for your comments. I think you would be impressed with this one and as you said the message is important. It reminds us that there is more to war than simply winning. And the film did this without preaching...
Good to see you,
Tracy
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate
The animation looks great, and it looks like it told the story well.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Sorry about that delayed response, I got caught up in life stuff. Hope you're well.
The animation is extremely well-done and is mesmerising. It's definitely a film to see if you get the chance.
Thanks for coming over,
Tracy
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I honestly have never seen anything like this. The best thing that happened to the filmmaker was not been given permission to shoot, the animation makes it all so much more surreal. And the climax is one of the most harrowing sequences I can recall.. When I say I cried, i don't mean I had few tears in my eyes. I really cried. You could just feel that the entire theatre was holding its breathe, just totally held captive by what was happening on screen. I don't know how Folman did it but I really think this is a masterpiece, and that's really not a word I throw around too often.
Comment by Mars Tokyo