"Waltz with Bashir"

Set in present day Israel (and partly Holland), the animated film follows the main character, a former Israeli soldier during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1983, as he tries to understand the bad dreams that, more than 25 years after he served, have only recently started to haunt him.

This narrative trick (of shifting from present day conversations with fellow Israeli soldiers and past memories of the war) I assume is a metaphor of why (I presume) some Israelis only now are trying to understand the massacre of Palestinians (that happened during the war).

First, it should be strongly noted, this movie is brutal. The brutality, however, I think is enlightening. With two wars the US is presently fighting, this animated film provides what daily news reports can't: about the helplessness of terror that a 19 year old soldier must feel; about the randomly brutality of spraying an area wildly with bullets, just to feel safe; about the random happenings during bombings and shootings and snipers that, ultimately, determine who lives and dies. Mostly -- in my opinion -- the brutality of the film is from the injustice.

In 1983, Israel was removed 38 years from the liberation of the European death camps (and, yes, I know Israel was officially recognized by the UN in 1947). This film, however, portrays how Israel cooperated with a massacre that could have taken place in one of those death camps. This juxtaposition was a type of brutality that, several days after watching the film, still enrages as much as it does perplex. Why has Israel become so brutal? Why is no country, seemingly, immune from committing such horrors?

Also, a note about the animation. I like animated films. Of all genres, it's my favorite. This film was unlike any other animated one I've seen. It had splendid moments. That is, when it took fully advantage of the animated genre. During a battle scene, for instance, the soldiers, sky, and background were lit in a pale green -- and which I think would be impossible in a non-animated film. Unfortunately, the film makers seemed not to be aware of the limitations of the animation. The slower scenes, primarily the ones in Holland, in which two characters just talk, are awkward. The animation is jerky. The characters move stiffly. The backgrounds look unconvincing. Often, the film reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Finally, the reason I strongly recommend this film is of how the horrors are presented. The narrative technique of discovering has, seemingly, freed the film makers from judgment. The result is an exploration of memory. In doing so, the war is presented as a series of images of a 19 year old soldier: of naive wonder, extreme fear, horsing around with your friends, and doing something that you know that you just have to do.

The result is a film that strongly condemns, not only Israel's barbarity during the war, but all types of barbarism: of forgetting and not remembering, of war, ethnic hatred, and the barbaric types of justice that -- most likely -- occur during war.