Waltz With Bashir
So I finally watched this film. It was amazing. A truly beautiful film. It hits me in a really personal way. My father was stationed in Southern Lebanon in '78, four years before the war. This was at a time before Israel officially had relations with Lebanon, and so the unit's presence there was something of a secret. My uncle actually fought in the war. I've heard both of them tell stories of their experiences many times. I also sat down to watch this film with them and their reaction was powerful.
My uncle remembers the Sabra and Shatila as one of the great shames in Israeli history. My father didn't have any direct connection to the war. He was already living in Canada at the time. Still, they were both similarly struck by the way it captured the experience of being a soldier in Israel, and probably any soldier in any war zone.
One thing that a lot of people don't understand about Israel is that as a culture they are one with their military. Nearly every single Israeli has served in the military. Moreso than going to high school or any other common experience, serving in the military is a shared experience. Sit any Israelis above the age of 20 next to each other and they will automatically have something in common to discuss and to bond them. It's ingrained. It's a necessary part of the Israeli identity, but as such a big part of the Israeli identity is steeped in violence.
You add this to the idea talked about in the film, that every Jew in Israel is also steeped in the horrors of the Holocaust, and you have a recipe for a culture that has a difficult time dealing with the violence that surrounds them and that they take part in.
The moment that really stuck out for me was one that has been described to me by my parents and my uncle before. When my mom once told me the story of the Yom Kippur War ('73) and the Six Day War ('76) she told me about how the country effectively shut down. The war was going on within the country and the fear that at any time you could be killed was real. People stayed at home on enforced rooms or in bunkers. By the time of the Lebanon War and ever since the fighting had been moved to outside or along the borders. The population had also become relatively desensitized and life simply carried on, even during wartime. This is true even today. With that in mind I was really struck by the scene where Folman describes exactly that idea when he returns home and goes to a club, with all the people there completely unfazed by the horrors taking place not far North of them.
In my eyes Waltz With Bashir isn't really about the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. That's an event that is clearly at the heart of the film, but it isn't what it's about. The film is instead about what it is to be a kid, barely cognizant of the realities of the World, thrown into the horrors of violent conflict. It captures the horror, but even more amazingly, it captures the bewilderment. When these people witness the massacre at the end they do understand what's going on, but they are so confused in their hearts by it that they are essentially left to look on in horror. Ambiguity in Waltz With Bashir is not in the political aspects, but in the reflection of how people, young people in particular, are left to deal with war. It's dark and it's emotional and it's beautiful to watch, even though it's also horrific. And in that Waltz With Bashir finds a point of view on war that I don't think I've seen represented more effectively in film before.