This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every other week.
PLOT: An animated documentary in which an Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 Lebanon War in an attempt to reconstruct his own memories regarding the conflict.
MEMORABLE MOMENT (contains SPOILERS to both this film and BlacKkKlansman): Waltz With Bashir is based on actual events but the majority of the film is filled with hallucinatory animation. However, the dream-like visuals are swept away during the movie’s final moments when the filmmakers reveal actual archival footage of the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila Masacre in which mutilated bodies litter the ruble. The images are far more sickening than anything we have seen up to this point because we no longer have the veil of animation to protect us from the results of war.
This conclusion reminded me of the final moments of BlacKkKlansman, a film that at first appears to have an upbeat ending until an epilogue displaying news footage of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, the car attack in which Heather Hayer was murdered, and Donald Trump defending those responsible for the riots and attacks. The movie ends with the audience witnessing an actual murder onscreen.
Both movies are narrative films inspired by true events but during their final moments the animation and actors are taken away and the audience is left with the stark brutality of real life.
IDEAL AUDIENCE: I first heard the term “animated documentary” a few years ago during a film class. At first the concept seemed contradictory, but I soon realized that it’s a highly effective, if underrepresented, medium. Most of the examples I have encountered (including Waltz With Bashir) involve taking audio recordings of real life conversations or interviews and “reenacting” the events using animated images. Traditionally, most documentaries set out to tell the events exactly as they happened but animated documentaries have the potential of also displaying the individual’s emotions and mental state.
There is an excellent animated documentary short called Ryan which portrays an interview with the famous animator Ryan Larkin. In real life Larkin had become addicted to alcohol and cocaine and had spent several years living homeless on the streets of Montreal. The film contains audio from an interview with Larkin but the animator (as well as the other addicts around him) are displayed as people who have literally fallen apart. The backs of their skulls are missing and their skin melts off their bodies. The film displays a physical representation of Larkin’s mental and emotional state.
In the case of Waltz With Bashir, much of the audio came from actual conversations but the animation is surreal and dream-like, displaying the soldiers’ points of view during the war. The majority of the film contains a disquieting juxtaposition between “real life” interviews and the Daliesque nightmarescape. There are haunting moments from a fever dream as well as sickeningly bloody slapstick. All the while we hear the voices of men (often) calmly describing their time in the war.
Fans of the cult film Waking Life should definitely check this movie out. While the “plots” are vastly different (Waking Life doesn’t really have a plot), both films are works of surreal animation that incorporate philosophy, psychology and even history.
“Realistic yet dreamlike” is one of the best ways to describe Waltz With Bashir. This is a movie for people who want to experience a slice of brutal history (The Lebanon War) but told in an otherworldly way. While these hallucinatory visuals may not be a completely grounded portrayal of the real life events, they open the viewers to what was taking place in the minds and souls of the soldiers who experienced the conflict.
DIRECTOR: Ari Folman
WRITER: Ari Folman
STARING: Ari Folman
