Waltz with Bashir: DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review (2009)

Movie, DVD, Blu-ray Review
Waltz with Bashir
Ari Folman’s Academy Award-nominated “Waltz with Bashir” is about the ramifications of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre that took the lives of hundreds of unarmed men, women and children during the Lebanon war.

As such, it takes a medium best known for pleasing tots and uses it to inform its story and characters in ways that real life couldn’t.
This isn’t new (Richard Linklater’s “Waking Life” did it, as did others) but the way it’s handled here is something of a contradiction--a beautiful-looking film about an ugly, unthinkable event. If Folman had chosen to tell his story via live action, it goes without saying that the film’s mix of horror and bloodshed would be anything but beautiful, but it is here. And what are we to make of that? In this case, one shouldn’t assume any disrespect on Folman’s part--the dark color palette he chooses to use alone is enough to suggest shame.
Folman based his script on his own experiences as an Israeli soldier in the Lebanon war, and what he has created is a film geared specifically toward adults that carves into the subconscious and explores what doesn’t want to be remembered or revealed. For Folman, it was this: He and his fellow soldiers knowingly allowed Christian Phalangists to enter a Palestinian refugee camp and go on a killing spree.

For counsel, he goes to his friends, including Folman, who now must confront his own lack of memories surrounding the war. Bizarre dreams start to strike and with them, the pull for answers and the need to face the darkness he himself has buried. This is key: Even if he didn’t fire one bullet himself, by standing silent so that massacre could happen, how much blood does he have on his hands?
It’s a question for the ages, and it’s just one of the reasons why “Waltz with Bashir” is so relevant to the here and now.
Grade: A
View the trailer here:
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