In my home office, I used to have M.C. Escher’s ‘Hand with Reflecting Sphere’ hanging on the wall. What I liked about it was the way it played with perspective, shining a light on the general elastic nature of reality.
I thought about this concept a bit after seeing ‘Waltz with Bashir,’ Ari Folman’s disturbing, evocative and brilliant animated documentary on the 1982 Lebanon War.
Capturing the various senses of war in vivid terms, ‘Bashir’ is one part nightmare, another part hallucination.
Or, as A.O. Scott puts it in his excellent review in The New York Times (‘Inside a Veteran’s Nightmare’), it “…is a memoir, a history lesson, a combat picture, a piece of investigative journalism and an altogether amazing film.”
Part of what makes the film so special is that the director is a central character in his own movie; so the story is intensely personal and real.
Following a conversation with a friend who is haunted by a recurring nightmare related to his own experiences as a member of the Israeli Defense Forces in 1982, Folman realizes that he cannot recall any of his own experiences (as a 19 year old, Folman was a member of the IDF units that went into Lebanon).
This realization leads Folman on a journey that (re) captures his personal truth in a manner that is unflinching, and beautifully rendered, without editorial or justification.
The fulcrum in the story, and where the nightmares and horrors unfortunately become unmistakably real is the notorious occasion in September, 1982 when Christian Phalangists, ostensibly driven to avenge the death of Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon’s newly elected president (who had been assassinated a few days before), entered the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut (whose entry points were controlled by the IDF) and massacred as many as 3,000 civilians.
I won't say more than that, as the movie is best experienced with the beginner's mind, the less details, the better.
If ‘Apocalypse Now’ moved you, as it did me, then 'Waltz with Bashir' is a film that you just have to see, as it is a cinematic kindred spirit, albeit a completely original animal in its own right.
Other movies have captured the horror of war, the sense of abandonment, the automaton-like adherence to duty as a cog in the war machine and the grizzly state where life (seemingly) has no meaning.
But few films truly enrich AND complicate our understanding of real-world events, and do so with the courage to NOT attempt to resolve awful riddles for which there are no easy answers.
Be forewarned, though. The ending is very powerful, a body blow that brought tears to my eyes.
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