Waltz with Bashir

I would have to see this film a second time to render a firm judgment. Nonetheless I am recommending it, though you may find yourself, as I did, drifting and dozing momentarily in the course of it. This may have something to do with the dream-like spell the animated documentary weaves. The conflict between Israel and Palestine is one over which I maintain a calculated ignorance, so the events of the 1982 war in Lebanon were not lodged in my memory, which would have made this film more coherent and engaging to me. But I loved the animation, found it potent even when it repeated or when I lost the thread. The film starts with a dream sequence of wild dogs running through a city, which the dreamer recounts to the film’s director, Ari Folman (or his animated avatar), leading Folman to try to recover his own suppressed memories of the experience as a 19-year-old soldier. He does this by going to interview fellow vets, also animated, and then illustrating their memories. My point of comparison would be Generation Kill, for its first person view of the chaos and horror of war. (2008, dvd, n.) *7 (or better)* (MC-91)