What Is It?
The 2008 Israeli adult animated war documentary drama movie Waltz With Bashir (ואלס עם באשיר | Vals Im Bashir).
What Is It About?
This is how Metacritic describes this animated movie:
One night at a bar, an old friend tells director, Ari, about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs.
Every night, the same number of beasts.
The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties.
Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore, about that period of his life.
Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world.
He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself.
As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.
[Sony Classics]
Starring:Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag
Director: Ari Folman
Genre(s): Biography, Drama, War, Animation
Rating: R
Runtime: 90 minRating: R (Dist. Images of Atrocities|Brief Nudity|Graphic Sexual Violence|Strong Violence)
Genre: Documentary, Animation
Original Language: Hebrew
Director: Ari Folman
Producer: Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul
Writer: Ari Folman
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 2008 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 16, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.3M
Runtime: 1h 30m
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Télévision Suisse-Romande (TSR), Arte France, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), Razor Film Produktion GmbH, SBS, Les Films d’ici, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Israel Film Fund
Here is how Wikipedia describes this animated movie:
Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew: ואלס עם באשיר, translit. Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli adult animated war docudrama film written, produced, and directed by Ari Folman.
It depicts Folman’s search for lost memories of his experience as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War.[4]
The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or.
Subsequently, it received wide acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with particular praise given to its themes, animation, direction, story, Max Richter’s score and editing, and grossed over $11 million at the global box office.
It won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[5] the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film, the César Award for Best Foreign Film, and the International Documentary Association Award for Best Feature Documentary, and was nominated for many more, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[6] the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
Bashir and the stop-motion $9.99, both released in 2008, were the first Israeli feature-length animated films released theatrically since Joseph the Dreamer in 1962.
My Thoughts
I saw Waltz With Bashir back in maybe 2009 at The Studio 6 Hotel in Lafayette when I was trying to make a return to college.
I attended the L Technical College for a few days before I had to quit because I failed to find a job during that time.
This was one of several movies that I saw during the two weeks that I was in the city of L: staying at motels & hotels looking for jobs & an apartment, signing up for college, attending two or three days of college, et cetera.
This was one of the movies that I watched at The S6 Hotel on a nice large flat screen TV while maybe drinking a Sangria Señorial soda.
Furthermore, this movie had a unique animation style, feeling, atmosphere, story telling approach, et cetera to it that was sometimes surreal & emotional.
I have possibly not seen anything like it since.
I do not remember much of this movie, but I do remember it connecting with me on a surreal & emotional level.
With a standout scene involving a combat scene of a male soldier firing his automatic weapon up high while spinning in circles.
The end,
- John Jr
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