Waltz with Bashir is an animated movie produced in Israel in the year 2008. It is a depiction of a Folman who is out in search for his lost memories based on his exposure as Israeli soldier in the Lebanon War. This research paper’s aim is to give an overview of the movie, its features, and link it possession for it to be categorized as a documentary film. The movie Waltz with Bashir is based on a journey of Ari, who is a veteran in the Israeli Army, with an aim of trying to recollect the experiences he had in the Lebanon War. He starts by visiting a number of former comrades in the army which have recounted own based stories. This pushes the man closer towards some particularly devastating realizations.
With the help of psychiatrist, he is able to recall all the stories based on escape, surreal humor, inhumanity, and violence of which he thought to have been forgotten. This film uses reality movies that are in combination of unique animations and techniques that enable in the achievement of such a mesmerizing, as well as groundbreaking effect. The genre of the movie has a number of critical features to analyze. This film is an Israeli animated.
It is also beneficial to note that it is a Hebrew with the combination of English subtitles, which is a characteristic that makes it difficult to sell such movies in the western countries. This is a winning decision made by the distribution company since it is crucial to the audience for the movie perception in respect to their viewing experience. This film seeks to ask some questions about Israel on the massacres committed in Lebanon. This is a kind of fictionalized feature in the suggestion that Israel has actually forgotten the enormous amnesia.
Like the movie, the objection that pain takes precedence over the oppressed lot. This brings in the feelings of fascination as well as electrification to the authors memory (Folman and Polonsky 2008). These feelings are triggered to by the question how the Israel Defense Forces for which he served then, managed to get involved in the precedence of over mass murder. In his suggestion, it is clear the horror resulting from the massacres has been absorbed and presented in the minds of the Israeli. Although this has happened, the Israeli can concede guilt without a direct culpability bringing in a unique potent and painful picture. In the film, there are vivid, disinterred horrifying events which led to the massacre.
It uses the live action footage, which resolves some reality between two or three dimensions. It is clear that those involved in the massacres keep on being haunted by the images of the event. One man complained of being plagued by recurrence of a dream showing him being chased by the savage dogs. In his explanation about the dream, he puts it abundantly clear that it relates to the war, which he did not give a second thought at any time, but instead it has returned as a mysterious plague. After the narration of the story, Folman could neither understand anything nor remember any of those events.
It is evident that colleague has no signs of suffering from amnesia or the edged sort of holes in the memory. Because of this realization, Folman embarks to search for the old comrades with a hope that their old memories will reignite his own ones. The film directs memory acts as a dream and more so – a reverie. This supported by the aspect of seeing a group of teenagers emerging from the sea in Beirut like the torpid evolutionary amphibious creatures. He is told of the ferocious anecdotes that are exceptionally full of blood and terror putting his dream into the perfect perspective.
He can barely remember of being one of the marine troop transports. One of his fantasies was: Folman had been on a giant naked woman who helped him escape when his colleagues have been killed. Other moments include, for example, the attack by a Palestinian boy, almost killed in an ambus where he managed to escape from a mare swim. The question is on how this reality happened.
There is a point in the movie, where Folman’s confusion brings in evidence to the war fog, or the fog is created with an aim of not facing the war-guilt. In one way or the other, this fog portrays some kind of individual dissociation in the line with new events, disorientation aspects, and lack of focus and availability of a feeling that whatever he saw in TV had nothing to do with him. This implies that history was taking place behind his back or overhead. Finally, placing Folman at the scene of the crime is brought in the bold animation to the footage aspect.
This seems like a kind of aesthetic error or a concession tactic, or may be the director used it as a form of the loss of nerve. After a detailed analysis, it becomes understandable that this film is a documentary. This evidence is based on the film itself. It is necessary to know what an ordinary documentary comprises. The latter is a film that tries to document reality.
The images in these kinds of movies are carefully selected as well as being arranged. This is done in most cases through editing after filming it. People in these movies are not typical actors but are because of the inscription. These movies also rely on voice narrations as a way of describing everything is taking place within the movie footage. It is abundantly clear in other movies the images are applied to pass the message without a commentary. Finally, a documentary movie contains and involves the use of interviews with people.
The main aim for such a movie is to try to add content or information. What Makes Waltz with Bashir a Documentary?The answer to this question includes the following. It is clear that a documentary key focus is on the reality. This film, as discussed in the summary above, depicts characters, which were involved in killings. It tries to pass a message of a real life situation.
The reality with this movie is that it refers to the massacre killings actually happened in Lebanon. The director of the film himself was among the Israeli soldiers. He embarks on a journey with an aim of getting the truth about the issue. This is triggered to by the doubt if what happened was a dream or reality. The other crucial factor is the movie features actors portraying soldiers. This is done in real or fiction.
These soldiers are used in the recreation of certain events and battles. In Waltz with Bashir such a quality is evident where Folman remembers of his fantasies over a fat naked woman who helped him escape. This resulted in all her other colleagues being murdered. Folman also manages to escape an ambush by swimming across the river. The creators of the film also apply features like the newsreel footage of actual fighting. There is commentary from experts as well as war veterans who were in the battleground.
Folman is seen in the movie interview some of friends who he remembers being with them in Beirut (Folman and Goodman 2009). Moreover, the old comrades who are perceived to have clear information about the battle are mentioned in the animation, too. All these methods are aimed at helping Folman remember what undoubtedly happened in Beirut. The film has an indicated feature of newsreel footage where there is actual fighting. This characteristic of documenting reality in Waltz with Bashir clearly and typically separates the nature of this movie from narrative summer blockbusters as well as other popular movies.
Another exceptionally bright feature about this film is on the nature and category that it falls in the documentaries. This is the cinema of truth since the acts of no mercy on the innocent people are shown in the film. The picture is used as a mind-triggering factor especially to Israeli. The movie uses a format of Ken Burns where there is a narration off written documents relating to the historical period. This can be traced through the use of images with the purpose of bringing the past to come live to the audience.
Waltz with Bashir and Popularity of Documentaries The documentary film genre gained a lot of popularity and became fashionable, especially in the 21st century, although not popular like the action and adventure films. These movies have acquired a lot of fame due to the way they feature political as well as controversial agendas. The analyzed film features a controversial agenda exactly. The controversy contained in this movie is because through the invasion of a weak country by powerful one too many people were killed innocently (Morag 2012).
The animation has gained so much popularity since the change that has occurred in the character of many viewers who has turned to watching movies with a serious message. The message contained in this film has a lot of weight and is controversial. These movies are also far cheaper to produce compared to the complicated projects and have extensive significant effects posing low or no risk to the producers. Films of this kind, notably Waltz with Bashir, do extremely well in the public TV networks.
The movie has an animated feature making it popular to even small kids who like watching animated movies. Therefore, passing this serious message about the Beirut massacre is accessible to all people in Israeli. The film is aimed at highlighting the exploitation of people and manipulation by power and need for money to involve them in human behaviors. In this case, the first group to analyze is the one of soldiers which Folman was in. They were driven by the need for money even though the nature of their job was in conducting the massacre where the innocent people were killed.
The other group is the entire leadership of Israeli: despite they knew the country they were to invade was far more powerful, they went on and authorized its attack. They lacked value for the human lives and put their self-interest above all. The strong and superpowers are also to blame: they had all to make sure that such killings and attacks did not take place. They, as a result, relaxed and allowed such events happen. All these issues are ones the film tries to pass to the Israeli.
Thus, the pointed forms of movies, which are linked to past days, were the documentaries. They featured qualities, for example, a boat leaving a shore where they were referred to as actuality films. The other forms of documentaries were the propaganda, which depicted certain persons as heroes over a group of people. These movies are cheap to make and produce.
The cost linked to these movies is much lower compared to that of producing other forms of movies. The other triggering factor to the popularity of these movies is the use of the internet, which is a distribution tool. Conclusion In conclusion, based on oneself opinion, the real importance of this film is broad and has a universal exploration of the reason their atrocities are being committed. The focus is on why normal human beings are used in committing heinous actions. For example, the Israeli soldier stood firm as their Christian allies in Lebanon committed such a dirty work irrespective of the fact they were good people.
In the process of taking this theme, further Folman has a depiction based on an intensely personal and introspective manner in respect to women and men of a tender age when they are blindly drawn into these grisly wars. This is on both military and political perspective. Obviously, they are encouraged to compromise their own coming up moral codes through being obedient to orders as well giving a lot of support to their comrades. Many governments in the world towards their own people are committing this crime. Therefore, this is the context of being a broader society and being in the position to grapple.
