Animated 'Waltz With Bashir' conveys horrors of Israeli war

John Serba | By John Serba |
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on March 13, 2009 at 12:38 AM, updated March 13, 2009 at 6:50 AM
Images of violence are portrayed through animation in "Waltz With Bashir."

There is a reason "Waltz With Bashir" is animated.

The film is Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman's attempt to piece together his time as a 19-year-old Israeli soldier fighting in the war against Lebanon in 1982. He can remember none of it, except a bizarre image of himself and a few infantrymen bathing in the Mediterranean Sea during the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. To jog his memory, he interviews members of his platoon and officials involved in the invasion.

Folman finds it strange such a key experience would seem nearly deleted from his consciousness. He talks to a psychologist, who explains how some people disassociate from traumatic experiences by viewing them dispassionately, like watching a movie.

Folman's detached point-of-view is illustrated in the film by pasting inventive, comic book animation over real-audio interviews. He and his fellow veterans often describe their recollections of the war -- and subsequent recurring dreams -- as "hallucinations," and the animation reflects it. The film keeps its point of view apolitical and on the ground, key to depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which often can be too large and ancient to grasp.

For one man's nightmare about dogs, the film depicts their eyes as the same fiery shade of orange as the sky above, and it's a frightening sight. Boaz tells Folman how, during a mission, he was assigned to shoot guard dogs, because his superiors knew he wouldn't -- couldn't -- shoot a person. He remembers each of the dogs he killed, which now regularly haunt him. He counted them. There were 26. Twenty-six sets of fiery eyes.

3 1/2 OUT OF 4 STARS

"Waltz with Bashir"

Rated: R for some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity, a scene of graphic sexual content

Voice cast: Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ari Folman, Dror Harazi

Director: Ari Folman

Run time: 90 minutes

Frankel's story is perhaps the strangest. Folman recalls how this campmate reeked of patchouli. He doused himself with it so his friends could always locate him during the chaos of battle. Once, pinned in a ditch and surrounded by gunfire Frankel ran brazenly into open ground, spraying bullets, and somehow lived to tell the story. One could theorize the patchouli formed an invisible shield around him; he wears it to this day.

The film -- primarily in Hebrew with English subtitles -- consists of such vividly colored vignettes, often bizarre, surreal and filled with horrors. If they seem like a disjointed hodgepodge, keep in mind that memory often is not linear or logical, that the intent of Folman's film is personal, to look inward and break through his mental block. "Waltz" comes into focus during its final moment, when Folman has become reconnected with the terrible truths of war.

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