Animation has long been a realm claimed for children, but "Waltz with Bashir" proves that animation is not just for kids. With a stylized look similar to "A Scanner Darkly," the Israeli film uses animation for its bizarre (if imaginative) purposes - to experience the power of the brain's memories of the 1982 Lebanon War as they can be remembered (or misremembered). The film's colors tend toward minimalist hues, but the nauseating yellow color of war is unmistakable. "Waltz with Bashir" may well be the first time an animated film rivals the powerful anti-war sentiments of the greats, such as "Paths of Glory" or "Platoon."
The film begins with a pack of voracious dogs tearing down a sidewalk among civilians. They stop at the edge of a building, eyes wild and teeth bared, while Boaz stands in a window far away at the top. Suddenly, Boaz is telling the story of this horrifying nightmare to his long-time friend, the film's director, Ali Folman, because he thinks it stems from subconscious guilt at shooting Palestinian guard dogs in the Lebanon War. After this late-night meeting, Ali has a dream of himself and two others rising naked out of the water off of the coast of Beirut and entering the city during the Sabra and Shatila massacre. When he realizes that he has lost nearly all of his memories of the war from some 25 years prior, Ali consults his filmmaking partner and friend, Ori, the film's source of psychological reason. Ori explains that sometimes people create false memories, so Ali becomes determined to find everyone with whom he remembers fighting in the war in order to put together the missing pieces of his experience and to ultimately determine the meaning of his memory.
Would this film have worked with real footage? It does use some at the end for emotional effect, but the animation certainly contributes to the memory-like aspect of the film and seems to tone down a bit of the harrowing bite of war's reality. What is even clearer is the fear of the main characters as young adults fighting in the war. "Waltz with Bashir" implies that not only does war find its victims sometimes in the innocent civilians, but it finds it especially in the soldiers.
The sustaining images of the real footage at the end of the film are intended to tear at viewers' heartstrings, and call me coldhearted, but I think the animation actually numbed me too much. Furthermore, the animation is also full of ironies (especially in the music) that resentfully view the war, so although the film resonantly depicts the victimization and mental trauma of its protagonist, as a viewer, I feel disconnected. This, therefore, might be a film for those that can sympathize.
"Waltz with Bashir" is playing at The Belcourt Theatre. It is also a nominee for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
