In honor of "Waltz with Bashir" winning the Golden Globe last night and in hope of it winning the coming Oscar, I wanted to dedicate a few words for this singular movie experience (check the movie's official site here).
The first thing that captures your attention is the somewhat unusual choice of medium - animation. Once connected mostly with children related content, animation, in movies and literature, has changed to appeal to wider and more mature audiences. Or maybe it was the audience that has changed, becoming more accustomed and receptive to other forms of expression.
Either way, whatever the reason, the medium has a very profound impact on the viewer in this instance. This is also a part of another unique feature of the film - its candid and unequivocal approach with the subject matter. It's not just a war movie; it focuses on the human side of it. In a scenario where the grotesque, hellish and bizarre are the norm, the ordinary man, torn from his everyday life, has his sanity questioned. But the questioning doesn't stop, even when the battle is officially over; the aftermath, years later, is just as important. The protagonist's battle certainly hasn't ended: it is his struggle to recall the lost memories of the period while facing the present plaguing nightmares that direct the movie's plot and heading. It is a course that would eventually wound up on itself, taking the movie goer with it.
There are so many questions being raised throughout, both explicit and implicit. Morality, man's place and relation in society, obedience, the necessity of violence and the futility of it all, are just the beginning. Are there any good answers? I don't know. But "Waltz with Bashir" is a hell of a way of raising those questions to mind and heart.
"Waltz with Bashir" trailer
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