Waltz With Bashir

WALTZ WITH BASHIR is a visually striking, deeply personal film that did nothing for me.

The film, which makes brilliant use of animation to shift between times and places, follows the journey of a man who doesn’t recollect much about his time in the Israeli Army during the 1983 Lebanon War. As he interviews old friends and colleagues and fleshes out his memories, we see what he sees and experience his revelations.

I think the film didn’t work for me because I happen to have a sound knowledge of this particular conflict, having studied it in graduate school. Its revelations revealed nothing to me; I’d already plumbed its dark secrets. Even its devastating closing montage only revisited material I’d seen before.

But I think this film could be quite effective for the viewer who is unfamiliar with its subject matter. Filmmaker Ari Folman poured his heart into the production, and it shows. I respect WALTZ WITH BASHIR, even if it didn’t speak to me.