Column:

'Waltz with Bashir' uses animation to tell a war story

Genre-bending documentary takes its place in war-movie history.

By Patrick Daugherty

Published March 5, 2009

The 2000s have been somewhat of a banner time for movies dealing with the madness of war.

From the excellent Iraq War documentaries "No End in Sight" and "Taxi to the Dark Side," to big budget Hollywood fare like "The Reader" and "Hotel Rwanda," the world's filmmakers have been in ruminative moods and anxious to solve the age-old question of why humankind just can't stop fighting.

But never before have they attempted to do so through an animated documentary.

A genre usually reserved for interviews with animators or re-enactments of the Revolutionary War shown in ninth grade classrooms, animated documentary would hardly seem to be the ideal way for Israeli writer/director Ari Folman to explore the 1982 Lebanon War and the mysterious role he played in it.

After seeing "Waltz With Bashir," though, it's clear -- it's the only way.

More bizarre than any studio film could ever be, and more cinematic than any normal documentary could ever be, "Bashir" dazzles from its first scene, where a ruthless pack of dogs barrel through an unknown city before finally stopping at the base of a high rise apartment where they howl for the blood of one of Forman's confidants.

Of course, just to screw with our already blown minds, it's revealed to be a dream sequence.

But the dream is not there just to toy with our perception of Folman's "documentary," but to also establish the film's other weighty subject -- the human memory and its tendency to play tricks on us.

Troubled by his friends' vision, Folman has a dreamlike flashback of his own that leads to an astounding revelation -- he has no memories of the war he fought in.

Following the advice of a therapist friend and fellow war veteran, he embarks on a series of interviews with people believed to have fought with him in attempt to rebuild his fractured mind and ultimately come to grips with not only his time at war, but his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre he did nothing to stop.

By stretching two separate genres as far they can go, not only does Folman break new ground in filmmaking, he eventually gets back what he's lost and creates an indelible personal take of what war can do the to the human psyche.

The animation also achieves a level of hyper-reality that at times seems more human than human, creating one of the most striking visual statements in recent history.

All of it combines to create an impossibly singular experience, and a dauntingly heady one at that. "Bashir" is not only is prettier than any other movie out there right now, but infinitely more thought provoking as well.

Through his self-discovery, Folman has all at once created an essential war movie, an essential documentary and an essential animated feature. Most importantly, he's created an essential piece of art.