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At first glance, many may find Waltz with Bashir to be this year’s Persepolis. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s true that both films are animated examinations of Middle Eastern politics of the 80’s and how they apply to the world today – but that’s where the likenesses end. Neither the content nor the style of either film lends itself to comparison. For one thing Persepolis, last year’s beautiful animated film about a young girl growing up in Iran, was a stylish coming of age film adapted from a series of graphic novels. This is a documentary.
Easily one of the most intriguing and surreal animated efforts in recent memory, this is an autobiographical film about filmmaker Ari Folman, an Israeli artist who served in the military during the first Lebanon war. After a strange late night encounter with an old friend, Ari discovers a rather disturbing fact: he doesn’t remember a single thing about the war, which he had simply written off as not having thought about it for years. He knows he served. And he knows he was somewhere near an infamous atrocity that became a point of contention of that war and its legacy. But unable to conjure more than a fragment of a memory, a single haunting image that doesn’t seem to make any sense, he sets out to talk to old war buddies and psychiatrists in hopes of unraveling his own hidden past. Unfortunately for Ari, the stories he hears do not paint a particularly pretty picture.
The best parallels to this film are the Vietnam War films of the late 80’s/early 90’s in which filmmakers some 25 years later began trying to wrestle with complicated emotions of that era. Here, 25 years after his service, Ari is telling the story of what occurred via firsthand accounts and his own returning memories. But what elevates this beyond the usual rigmarole of the youth-at-war tale is the fact that he seems to want to present a decidedly unvarnished, unpatriotic view of the bloody affair. He begins to draw parallels to his service with that of Nazi’s serving in WWII and things get decidedly more difficult. This film is in no way an exoneration of Israel nor is it either a condemnation or a defense of Lebanon. It is an attempt to lay out just how thorny a situation it was – and still is.
And the entire thing is animated, save for a series of images and footage at the tail end of the film.
Beautiful, bizarre and exceptionally haunting, Waltz with Bashir is a fascinating journey through the history of a region unfamiliar to most Americans as well as a deep look at memory, the psyche and why we repress the things we do. What at first seems like a self aggrandizing film made by a filmmaker simply looking for something to talk about, it slowly becomes a very revelatory film about a past this man simply did not want to acknowledge. And as the film evolves to its stirring climax in which Ari begins to put together exactly what his place in history is, the film achieves a state of being almost too human as it becomes conflicted about what that place means. Ari seems to try to rationalize away what he is responsible for while simultaneously shining a light upon the horrors that occurred.
And if the film has any flaw it is that it ends on a conflicted note, unsure itself what position to take on the matter. Not that a good film needs to take a side or defend a point to achieve something – but the film, much like Ari, seems a little confused when all is said and done. It’s as if he is asking the audience to simultaneously judge him and exonerate him of any guilt. But it is also within that conflict the truth can really come out. Ari is talking about something very complicated, a wound that Israel would prefer didn’t exist, a scar it tries to hide. And he wants to reopen that wound in hopes of getting it to heal properly. At least in his mind.
More than just another horrors-of-war movie, Waltz with Bashir is a touching, often fucked up look at rarely discussed war and the pain of fishing out the past in hopes of bettering the future. While the art is nowhere near as stylish as Persepolis, nor does it come close to the technical perfection of this year’s CG animated films like Wall-E or Kung Fu Panda, it is no less affecting. It is a remarkable curiosity for both animation fans and those who enjoy complex and very personal filmmaking endeavors. I’ve never seen a film quite like it before, nor do I think I am likely to again. It is its own special creature and one to be enjoyed by the more discerning connoisseurs of arthouse film. Recommended for those with interest in animation, the Middle East or films dealing with the complexity of memory.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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