Film Review - Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Figure 1. Waltz with Bashir (2008)

'Waltz with Bashir' (2008) is a war documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. Within the documentary Ari Folman interviews people's experiences as well as his own throughout the 1982 Lebanon War. Folman claims he witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre although he has no memory of it he gets in contact with old friends and those who were there with him in attempts to remember it.

Figure 2.

Throughout the Film we see descriptions of Folman's and other Peer's descriptions of what happened throughout the war and these are depicted through animated sequences Bradshaw comments "Vivid and horrifying events leading up to the massacres are disinterred by the movie's quasi-fictional "reconstructive" procedure, somewhere between oral history and psychoanalysis. The film uses hyperreal rotoscope-animation techniques" (Bradshaw, 2008) meaning that the quite graphic experiences that are described are censored through the materials used for animation, relating to a more dream like situation of certain people's descriptions of their feeling's and thoughts of the experience, helping the viewer to visually understand the situation.

Figure 3. Dog sequence

The process of the animation is through 2D Flash Animation, hand drawn animation and a mix of 3D technologies, this helped the documentary achieve this graphic novel look and it's smooth animation makes it look almost lively, Freeland goes on to say "The opening sequence - those hunting dogs - establishes a visual grammar, more graphic novel than kids' cartoon, that is sustained throughout. The figures do not move as they do in the Pixar movies that have raised a generation of children. Instead, they are still, "cut-outs" in which one limb might move while the rest remains static. The effect should be flat, but the low-tech style somehow conveys an emotional depth that catches you by surprise. The characters appear in two dimensions, yet are intensely human." (Freedland, 2008) Freedland describes the animation style as something that grabs your attention instantly and it's tone isn't aiming to be friendly but to make a point of depicting on screen people's experiences after the war. 

Figure 4. Tv news sequence

Sometime after, Foleman recovers his participation in the Massacre and his animated dream transitions into real life archival footage of the incident, which is a real tug at the arm to viewers, letting them know that this incident actually happened and the animation used was a facade of those talking, of real and actual experiences. Bradshaw goes on to comment "there is a bold shift from animation to TV news footage. I am not sure quite what to make of this shift, and have an uncomfortable feeling that it is an aesthetic error, and a tacit concession that the animation techniques used until that moment are lacking in seriousness: once the tragedy is directly broached, they must be abandoned." (Bradshaw,2008) He describes that in that moment the techniques the documentary used wouldn't be able to hold up the amount of seriousness the actually TV footage holds, and at some point those techniques must be abandoned to convey a certain emotion over an aesthetic. 

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, P (2008) - Waltz With Bashir - Online At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/21/waltz-with-bashir-folman [accessed: 26/02/19]

Freedland, J (2008) - Lest We forget - Online At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman [Accessed: 26/02/19]

Illustrations:

Figure 1. Waltz With Bashir (2008) - Ari Folman - [Movie Poster]

Figure 2. Waltz With Bashir (2008) - Ari Folman - [Movie Still]

Figure 3. Waltz With Bashir (2008) - Ari Folman - [Movie Still]

Figure 4. Waltz With Bashir (2008) - Ari Folman - [Movie Still]