Waltz With Bashir

I used to work with preschool aged children diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. One of my co-workers ended up becoming a pretty close friend of mine. In between wiping boogers off of our arms that the kids tried to give as a gift, or help them figure out what their task was, he and I would talk about life, religion, and films.

One such film he recommended that caught my eye via the golden globes was “Waltz With Bashir.” “Waltz With Bashir” is an animated documentary. The filmmaker Ari Folman made it by interviewing his subjects in his own search to understand strange dreams he was having revolving around a massacre during a Lebanese/Israeli war. Folman was an Israeli soldier. As he talks to these individuals, he gets closer to the realities of the war. It all culminates into a final sequence so devastatingly powerful, you simply have to see it to experience it.

Folman then took all of the interviews, spliced them together into a script, had the individuals read their lines in the studio with a bit of acting, animated it all, and gave us “Waltz With Bashir.” If it sounds ambitious, that’s because it is. No one has ever made a film like it before.

Interestingly, I think that this film (as Roger Ebert says) couldn’t have been made any other way. He is examining dreams, memory, and history through his own recollection. Animation allows him to project the surrealism inherent in these individual topics. It leaves room for the abstract, which dreams often contain. There are scenes of beautifully simple orchestral music which enhance these sometimes frightening, violent, and erotic images. At times, the aural and visual come together in a sublime, trance like way that transports you into a different world.

The animation emits a particular style, but this is a rare case where the style isn’t there for the sake of style itself. If I see one more movie titled artistically like Juno, I am going to puke. The style of the art and the images on screen enhance the visual narrative. Without the style in which the story is told, this would be a lesser film.

Interestingly, Folman stated in an interview that he loathes the American idea of war film where men depict a certain brotherhood that makes the fighting almost seem cool. Even though we see them fighting in horrific conditions, you might still say you could live through it if Tom Hanks was your commanding officer, or if Private Joker was in your company. Here, none of the soldiers appear like brothers. You don’t want to be them. There isn’t a tough guy, a comedian, and a brainy guy. There are a bunch of guys who look and feel a certain numbness. Folman states that this was his experience, and I thought it was a refreshing take on who a soldier is.

I had one minor problem with the movie. This is a low budget film, and the animation suffers for it. In a Pixar age, it is that much more present. Some of the movements are very wooden and simplistic. I found this flaw easy to forgive because the style is so great, but it can be noticeable if you’re expecting something with the financial clout of Disney or Dreamworks.

Some have faulted the movie as a documentary for being unable to explain the history of the conflict. It does not "document" a period of history. I was admittedly hard pressed to understand the context of the film due to my general lack of knowledge about the conflict presented on screen. This lack of context takes away from some of the impact of the narrative because it is assumed that we as the viewer know what is going on. However, I saw this more as an individual’s conflict within a narrative. If this is a documentary about a man’s involvement in war, we don’t necessarily need all of the details of the war – we want the experience of the man. Thus, the film is less about the war and more about how man copes with his involvement in it.

The film should also be praised for its careful examination of healing. Folman is being quite open with himself to the viewers, as he clearly suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The film’s flashbacks cement this diagnosis. However, Folman utilizes art as a healer in the film, as he says that by confronting his past and making this film, art helped him to heal. It is really a beautiful testimony and helps to fill a redemptive void in the film.

“Waltz With Bashir” is definitely not for the faint of heart. There are scenes of explicit violence and sex, but this is a film where I think the majority of it has a justifiable purpose. I don’t think Folman needed to go to the lengths he did to animate what one character views on a TV screen, but it is nicely contrasted with some of the other animated nudity in the film. Plus, I am aware that if I complain about graphic nudity in a film with graphic violence while saying nothing of the violence, I am simply putting a hypocrisy target on my chest.

See the film. If it gets hard to follow, stay with it for the knock out of the ending. It will leave you stunned and amazed at what happened. This is a movie which completely deserved its Golden Globe for best foreign film and is one you must go out of your way to see.