I just finished watching Waltz With Bashir and it really shook me up. In it I felt the rage of Full Metal Jacket but much more intensely.
FMJ was projected primarily through the eyes of a passive observer. We saw the result of horror but not the cause except for the execution of a wounded prisoner in the last scene.
In WWB murder is in the very first scene, viewed through the eyes of the murderers. The murderers were children with 2 years of mandatory play fighting thrown suddenly into a war by the decision of a few mad elders from their tribe. The victims a family of no significance, their history to the murderers lost in a memory too painful to bare.
Trapped in a bliss of social norms like so many examples in history the main character finally wakes from a living nightmare 20 years later. He begins his painful quest to recall those memories from combat, but he can't do it alone, on his own all he finds are repeating nightmares.
So he begins to reach out to other people who were there at the time. He travels back and forth in time through his combat days through a series of interviews of past participants. They give more names, some add to the his story and some are dead ends. But slowly the full horror of those days and his participation in them is painted in stark relief.
The film is a look at Israel's 1980's war in Lebanon and their direct involvement in the genocide of Palestinians during that time. The children of the survivors of death camps of WWII helping to make death camps for a different cultural group. Safe in the knowledge they had no choice, they were forced to do it. Of course like most barbarous acts most participants are basically zombies by the time they are asked to help.. All are involved to the extent of their actions and active inactions but it's the ones who seem "together" who happily volunteer to "give cover fire" that are scariest for me.
I found it so very hard to watch having seen Downfall a few days earlier.
We see history play out almost reel for reel when painted in the light of WWII. The deniers, the "had too's" the "I thought it was someone else", the "who cares", and the "they're animals for slaughter", all expressed through interview and memories of distant voices.
There is no redemption in the movie. No one is saved, no one is forgiven, no attempt at any amends. Instead we are given a deeply profound insight into the true horror of war without a filter to protect us.
But of course seen only through the eyes of survivors, the victims leave us with an empty sadness but no foot print in our collective memories. Not a single victim's name is even remembered, in fact not one scene ever tries to look at the victims for more than a passing glance, they weren't human so the brain won't focus to remember, they're just victims, easy to forget. Completely normal behavior for an overwhelmed child, psych 101.
The people of Germany waited until almost all the perpetrators of war crimes died before any apology was given to the victims. We are never allowed to hear the lessons of the perpetrators of war, the discussion is always closed until death. They don't even tell us why. History tells us what the leaders said but not what was in the mind of the people who carried out the instructions. Did they feel good about it? Would they do it again? If they knew today what they know now, would they have done things differently? Did they even give it a second thought?
No wonder massacres will happen again and again. We have no way to figure out how to stop them, our parents are too ashamed to say anything and stay mute instead of giving us guidance like we hope for them to do.
Waltz With Bashir is a potent and painful journey. Don't watch it alone and make sure to talk about it after. Talk therapy immediately after a traumatic event is very important.
10/10
FMJ was projected primarily through the eyes of a passive observer. We saw the result of horror but not the cause except for the execution of a wounded prisoner in the last scene.
In WWB murder is in the very first scene, viewed through the eyes of the murderers. The murderers were children with 2 years of mandatory play fighting thrown suddenly into a war by the decision of a few mad elders from their tribe. The victims a family of no significance, their history to the murderers lost in a memory too painful to bare.
Trapped in a bliss of social norms like so many examples in history the main character finally wakes from a living nightmare 20 years later. He begins his painful quest to recall those memories from combat, but he can't do it alone, on his own all he finds are repeating nightmares.
So he begins to reach out to other people who were there at the time. He travels back and forth in time through his combat days through a series of interviews of past participants. They give more names, some add to the his story and some are dead ends. But slowly the full horror of those days and his participation in them is painted in stark relief.
The film is a look at Israel's 1980's war in Lebanon and their direct involvement in the genocide of Palestinians during that time. The children of the survivors of death camps of WWII helping to make death camps for a different cultural group. Safe in the knowledge they had no choice, they were forced to do it. Of course like most barbarous acts most participants are basically zombies by the time they are asked to help.. All are involved to the extent of their actions and active inactions but it's the ones who seem "together" who happily volunteer to "give cover fire" that are scariest for me.
I found it so very hard to watch having seen Downfall a few days earlier.
We see history play out almost reel for reel when painted in the light of WWII. The deniers, the "had too's" the "I thought it was someone else", the "who cares", and the "they're animals for slaughter", all expressed through interview and memories of distant voices.
There is no redemption in the movie. No one is saved, no one is forgiven, no attempt at any amends. Instead we are given a deeply profound insight into the true horror of war without a filter to protect us.
But of course seen only through the eyes of survivors, the victims leave us with an empty sadness but no foot print in our collective memories. Not a single victim's name is even remembered, in fact not one scene ever tries to look at the victims for more than a passing glance, they weren't human so the brain won't focus to remember, they're just victims, easy to forget. Completely normal behavior for an overwhelmed child, psych 101.
The people of Germany waited until almost all the perpetrators of war crimes died before any apology was given to the victims. We are never allowed to hear the lessons of the perpetrators of war, the discussion is always closed until death. They don't even tell us why. History tells us what the leaders said but not what was in the mind of the people who carried out the instructions. Did they feel good about it? Would they do it again? If they knew today what they know now, would they have done things differently? Did they even give it a second thought?
No wonder massacres will happen again and again. We have no way to figure out how to stop them, our parents are too ashamed to say anything and stay mute instead of giving us guidance like we hope for them to do.
Waltz With Bashir is a potent and painful journey. Don't watch it alone and make sure to talk about it after. Talk therapy immediately after a traumatic event is very important.
10/10
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