Movie Review: Waltz with Bashir

Waltz with Bashir (2008) 

Directed by Ari Folman 

Written by Ari Folman

Starring Ari Folman 

Release Date June 5th, 2008

Published March 19th, 2009

Isn't it wonderful to know that with all of the sameness at the movies these days there are still filmmakers out there experimenting with the form and telling personal stories while doing it. Certainly, I appreciate a movie like I Love You Man for giving me characters that I like and a seemingly endless supply of laughs. The virtues of that film are not forgotten or discounted.

My point is this, it's just nice to know that not every movie adheres to formula and not every filmmaker simply reiterates and underlines what has come before him. In the world there are filmmakers like Ari Folman who push aside the typical and the expected and deliver something wholly unique. But, Folman doesn't stop. After deciding and executing his unique form, he also takes care to deliver a deeply personal and effecting story.

Waltz With Bashir recounts, in a pseudo-documentary form, Folman's experience during the 1981 was between Israel and Lebanon. I say pseudo-documentary because rather than simply sitting down his old war buddies in front of a camera and interviewing them about their experiences and interspersing in between interviews some found footage from soldiers or news broadcasts, Folman animates the whole thing in the dreamike fashion reminiscent of Richard Linklater's seminal effort Waking Life.

The film begins with the recounting of a dream. Folman is in a bar with a friend, Boaz, who recounts his nightly nightmare. He is in his apartment and outside his window 26 angry dogs charge through the streets in search of him. Why 26? Because during the invasion of Beirut it was Boaz's duty to shoot dogs before they could wake and alert their owners of the impending arrival of Israeli soldiers. Boaz remembers the looks on the dogs faces and the exact number of dogs he killed.

Boaz is curious if his filmmaker friend can help him somehow get past this memory. Boaz's memory ignites Folman's long dormant memories and one prominent thought about floating off the coast of some Lebanese city. He and two other soldiers are swimming in the nude and looking up at the high rise hotels as bright flares suddenly light the sky and they slowly emerge from the water, dress and take to the streets.

Folman wants to remember more of what happens and the journey takes him and several old friends on a unique and stirring journey into the past and into the nature of war and death.

Waltz With Bashir is one of the most striking and memorable filmgoing experiences I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Such a remarkable piece of work that afterward I just sort of sat and pondered it for awhile. I will carry this movie with me for a very long time. The final images transcend from animation to real life and the effect is heart rending and sad and strangely cathartic as if Folman were fully recovering his memory and we with him now can carry these real images in full flower.

Had I seen Waltz With Bashir last year it would have contested Rachel Getting Married for the best movie of 2008. A stunning work of heart and genius like few films I have ever seen, Waltz With Bashir is playing at the Nova 6 in Moline for at least a week and you must, MUST see it.