Nov. 11, 2009
BECK AT THE MOVIES: 'Waltz with Bashir': Chased by Dogs
By Jeff Beck
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Memory can be a very tricky thing. We like to remember all the good times we had while avoiding most of the bad times. However, those bad times are a part of us; sometimes a very strong part. These memories make us learn from our mistakes, define who we are, and what we are to become, but what if that memory from your past is not really a memory at all?
"Waltz with Bashir" tells the story of Ari Folman. Folman meets with an old friend who tells him a recurring dream he has about being chased by 26 dogs and explains that he knows he is having this dream because of his part in the Lebanon War, where he was forced to shoot dogs...26 to be exact. This meeting sparks several memories and flashbacks in Ari. One of these flashbacks is of him in a city where a terrible massacre occurred during the same war. This leads him to question himself as to whether he took part in this massacre.
This film is actually a documentary, told with interviews with Ari's friends from the war and others. Also included are reenactments of what the interviewees are discussing. However, this is no ordinary documentary. Ari Folman made the strange decision to make almost the entire film animated. It may seem like a very odd decision to tell such a serious story in this way, but there are a couple of possible reasons why he could have chosen to do it this way.
The first reason involves his first interview with a friend of his who was living in Holland at the time. Ari, a known filmmaker, asked his friend Carmi if he could sketch him and his son playing together in the snow. Carmi answer is "It's fine as long as your draw, but don't film." This could have sparked the idea in his head to make the film using animation, but the second reason goes deeper than that.
Returning to the idea of memory, it is also something that can degrade over time. Something that happened so long ago can appear disorienting, fuzzy, like it never happened, or even cartoonish. We are following Ari on his journey as he searches for the truth. He is in constant doubt of what he remembers. Did he take part in this massacre or not? As long as he is in doubt, we see everything in an animated fashion. We are not truly sure what we are seeing because Ari is not sure what he's remembering.
As Ari interviews these people, pieces of the puzzle are filled in. He starts to recall where he was during certain parts of the war, such as when he arrives in Beirut and wanders around an airport just prior to being held up by a sniper. Here are two more examples of him trying to rewrite his own memory to make it a better one. As he walks around the airport terminal, he sees all the shops selling their various items. When he first arrived at the airport, he saw all the large airplanes around him from TWA and British Airways, but when he looks out the window from the inside, he notices that the planes are all burned-out shells and that the shops had been looted long ago. His memory is beginning to catch up with him.
While being held down by the sniper, a soldier makes a daring attempt to cross a street while firing he gun randomly. Ari recalls the man appearing to waltz across the street in front of a large picture of Bashir Gemayel, the elected president of Lebanon. That is the last thing he remembers of that situation. Not getting the sniper. Not people dying, but a man dancing across the street with his gun.
The moment that Ari finally reaches the truth, the whole movie changes. We are no longer watching animated reenactments of what happened, but instead, we are watching real footage of what happened after the massacre occurred. The piles of dead bodies suddenly become real. The grief of the family members left alive is heartbreaking. This sudden jump into reality coincides perfectly with Ari remembering what really happened and what was once a distant memory becomes startlingly real, not only for him, but for us as well.
This sudden change to real footage is only for the last two minutes of the film, but what is there left to say? Sometimes the old saying that "a picture is worth 1,000 words" is true, but in this case, it would be “1,000 words is worth a picture.” Up to that point, Ari's memory of fragmented pictures hadn't been sufficient to realize the truth. So with interviews of his friends, he used words to construct new pictures, ones that he won't soon forget. 3/4 stars
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BECK AT THE MOVIES: 'Waltz with Bashir': Chased by Dogs
By Jeff Beck
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Memory can be a very tricky thing. We like to remember all the good times we had while avoiding most of the bad times. However, those bad times are a part of us; sometimes a very strong part. These memories make us learn from our mistakes, define who we are, and what we are to become, but what if that memory from your past is not really a memory at all?
"Waltz with Bashir" tells the story of Ari Folman. Folman meets with an old friend who tells him a recurring dream he has about being chased by 26 dogs and explains that he knows he is having this dream because of his part in the Lebanon War, where he was forced to shoot dogs...26 to be exact. This meeting sparks several memories and flashbacks in Ari. One of these flashbacks is of him in a city where a terrible massacre occurred during the same war. This leads him to question himself as to whether he took part in this massacre.
This film is actually a documentary, told with interviews with Ari's friends from the war and others. Also included are reenactments of what the interviewees are discussing. However, this is no ordinary documentary. Ari Folman made the strange decision to make almost the entire film animated. It may seem like a very odd decision to tell such a serious story in this way, but there are a couple of possible reasons why he could have chosen to do it this way.
The first reason involves his first interview with a friend of his who was living in Holland at the time. Ari, a known filmmaker, asked his friend Carmi if he could sketch him and his son playing together in the snow. Carmi answer is "It's fine as long as your draw, but don't film." This could have sparked the idea in his head to make the film using animation, but the second reason goes deeper than that.
Returning to the idea of memory, it is also something that can degrade over time. Something that happened so long ago can appear disorienting, fuzzy, like it never happened, or even cartoonish. We are following Ari on his journey as he searches for the truth. He is in constant doubt of what he remembers. Did he take part in this massacre or not? As long as he is in doubt, we see everything in an animated fashion. We are not truly sure what we are seeing because Ari is not sure what he's remembering.
As Ari interviews these people, pieces of the puzzle are filled in. He starts to recall where he was during certain parts of the war, such as when he arrives in Beirut and wanders around an airport just prior to being held up by a sniper. Here are two more examples of him trying to rewrite his own memory to make it a better one. As he walks around the airport terminal, he sees all the shops selling their various items. When he first arrived at the airport, he saw all the large airplanes around him from TWA and British Airways, but when he looks out the window from the inside, he notices that the planes are all burned-out shells and that the shops had been looted long ago. His memory is beginning to catch up with him.
While being held down by the sniper, a soldier makes a daring attempt to cross a street while firing he gun randomly. Ari recalls the man appearing to waltz across the street in front of a large picture of Bashir Gemayel, the elected president of Lebanon. That is the last thing he remembers of that situation. Not getting the sniper. Not people dying, but a man dancing across the street with his gun.
The moment that Ari finally reaches the truth, the whole movie changes. We are no longer watching animated reenactments of what happened, but instead, we are watching real footage of what happened after the massacre occurred. The piles of dead bodies suddenly become real. The grief of the family members left alive is heartbreaking. This sudden jump into reality coincides perfectly with Ari remembering what really happened and what was once a distant memory becomes startlingly real, not only for him, but for us as well.
This sudden change to real footage is only for the last two minutes of the film, but what is there left to say? Sometimes the old saying that "a picture is worth 1,000 words" is true, but in this case, it would be “1,000 words is worth a picture.” Up to that point, Ari's memory of fragmented pictures hadn't been sufficient to realize the truth. So with interviews of his friends, he used words to construct new pictures, ones that he won't soon forget. 3/4 stars
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