"Like Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir) Samuel Maoz served in the Israeli armed forces in the 80s, and has now made a visceral, confrontational film about his experience.
"His film is as much concerned with the spiritual devastation of young Israeli soldiers as it is with the violence wrought upon the invaded. A technical tour de force set over 24 hours entirely within the confines of a tank, this is a grimy, anti-heroic picture of four typical young men scared shitless. Their view of the world is perilously restricted, glimpsed through the telescopic viewfinder and crosshairs of the gunner’s sights, which move laboriously with the tank’s heavy hydraulic turret.
"Widely dubbed the Das Boot of tank warfare, this powerful, indicting film was awarded the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival." (New Zealand International Film Festival 2010)
It wasn’t so long ago that Waltz with Bashir surfaced and was hailed one of the most original war movies of recent times. Now following in its footsteps is another Israeli film with a unique take on the horrors of armed combat. Israel has always had the political history and environment to provide source material of this ilk, but it’s the filmmaking chops on display that have seen it become the undisputed global leader in anti-war films.
The bulk of Lebanon is set within the sweaty confines of an armoured tank, lending the events a gritty, claustrophobic mood. Only the vehicle’s gun sight allows the soldiers to view the world outside, always through the spectre of the cross hairs. This is a technique that could easily have gone horribly wrong and played like a cheesy first-person shooter game. Instead, this perspective picks out the fear of local civilians and destruction wrought by the war with genuine pathos.
These aesthetic choices embellish resolutely anti-war thematic material. Soldiers are more likely to freeze up than act heroic and even the ones that resemble more conventional war-film characters are portrayed as a touch insane. There are plenty of heart stopping moments as the tank and plot rumble towards a likely death in a circular narrative that underlines the futility and waste of the situation.
Given the current global climate, this is an important film – a personal, powerful anti-war statement.
By Andreas Heinemann, Flicks.co.nz
Just read Andrea's review ... or better just watch the film ... but be warned if your idea of a good film is Love Birds or Burlesque I doubt you'll appreciate.
Maoz was 20 years old when he served as an Israeli tank gunner during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Like World War II vet Fuller, he has the ability to fuse the immediacy and authenticity of his wartime experience with images bold enough to bear the weight of their metaphors.
With luck The Hurt Locker's recent awards haul should draw audiences to this equally intense and actually more brilliant depiction of war. It marks the arrival of a sensational new talent behind the camera and is a debut that deserves to be seen.
It's cinema from the heart, without doubt, but follows in some very well-worn war-movie footprints.
The emotional traumas of young Israeli soldiers drafted into the war with Lebanon in the 1980s are recounted through the eyes of a tank crew in this wrenching concentration of raw emotion directed by Samuel Maoz.
Lebanon is meticulous, nearly clinical in its attention to what happens in war -- specifically what happened in the first days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 -- but it is also a palpably and intensely personal film.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 18th Nov 2010.
Release date: November 18th 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
