Waltz With Bashir: A Beautiful Lecture

Let's See Dr. Manhattan Solve This Problem

Seeing this after the Oscars and Golden Globes left me questioning how both organizations nominate animated movies.  I understand why "Waltz..." was nominated for best foreign movie, but even in that category it seemed a bit out of place.

From the get go, "Waltz..." grabs you with quite the visceral opening. The animation is what makes your eyes stay glued to the amount of detail throughout the film.  From the shadows, reflections to cloud cover and climate change, all these things are kind of 'gimmies' in most animated movies. In "Waltz..." the attention to detail is pushed to the forefront; not in an obnoxious way, but as an attempt for you the viewer see the importance of movement.

Not to give much away, "Waltz with Bashir" acts as an animated 'redocument' of a man named "Ari" who just so happens to be the director of the film.  Ari is suffering from a cryptic nightmare which forces him to revisit his Israeli friends from the first Lebanon War.  What is interesting, is  that the flashbacks that occur within the movie are forcing you the viewer to piece together quite the tragic puzzle. With each nightmare, there is a different flashback to a different moment within the war [sometimes in chronological order...sometimes not].

The grandest moment in "Waltz..." is...well...the 'waltzing moment'.  This moment was executed so brilliantly it makes me want to grab my 'non-movie' going friends and plant them in a seat just for that three minutes of poetry.  There are no words, just music and a man with a gun and countless enemies.  Much like classical overtures and waltzing, the movie has a flow it has moments of intense action. There is action to the point where it feels "Saving Private Ryan"-ish which illicit some pretty cringe-worthy moments.

If there is a black eye against "Waltz..." [it is a small one] it would be how far Ari goes in depth with the interviews with ex-Israeli fighters in the war which slows the movie down to a point where it feels like you are watching a presentation in a university setting. It is hard to say if the movie is preachy.  Ari gives such a detailed account of his life in this war; a war that I and I am sure many are not well informed about.  The 'lecture' feeling comes after such well illustrated action sequences that the movie feels like an amazing, but lop-sided story being told to you as a child. There are cliff hangers within the flashbacks and you are gracefully pulled back to present day with several, meaningful diatribes.

The movie should be used in comparative and international studies classes.  This is not a knock, but since this movie is a kind of...well...'one of a kind', we can only hope that "Waltz..." finds an audience that will appreciate the value and honesty you do not find in many films; let alone animated features.  It is really strange to see this movie after the 'awards hype' has died down, because I [somewhat] feel bad pointing out the few flaws in "Waltz With Bashir".  The end of the movie is a culmination of what Ari has animated; what he remembers, but it also splices in actual footage of the aftermath.  The images are ghastly, unforgettable and definitely worth seeing.

I give Waltz With Bashir...

Because I Don't Know How They Are Made, But They Sure Are Cool