Lebanon [Blu-ray]

Dec 20, 2010 09:38:06

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Israeli-born director and writer Samuel Maoz brings his own experience as a bewildered young soldier in the war in Lebanon in 1982 front and center in his unforgettable drama Lebanon. Maoz's visceral, deeply personal view of war is limited to the inside of a single tank, sent by Israel as part of the offensive against Lebanon. The entire view of the battle and the war experience is seen through the eyes of four young soldiers--superbly acted by Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, and Michael Moshonov--who are confined to the tank's tiny interior. Their vision of war is limited to what they can see through the tank's small periscope--which means that at times, their "battlefield" might be a yard of chickens, or a group of young children playing with laundry flapping in the background, or, suddenly and randomly, an ambush of Lebanese soldiers. The tension is palpable in Lebanon, and its intensity, and raw honesty, help it deliver an extremely personal view of war in its chaotic brutality. Lebanon is reminiscent of superior war films like The Story of G.I. Joe or Ran--but with the intimacy and persistent anxiety of films that also take place in small, confined places, like Apollo 13 or Das Boot. Yet Maoz and his brilliant cast deliver the deep ambivalence of war and human combat in a human, relatable way. And the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East make the messages and "sides" of the battles of Lebanon as fresh for modern viewers as for those who recall this particular war. Maoz's great skill is to take a subject as vast as war and scale it down to the most human--and therefore the most affecting--level possible. The tragedy, and gallows humor, of war are so effectively captured, that for the viewer it's almost like holding up a mirror to the human race--and mourning what is seen there. --A.T. Hurley