Such a fierce and shocking picture, which is the opening scene of the movie Waltz with Bashir. The man standing by the apartment window is Boaz. He had been called up to the army, but was naturally timid (or kind) and dared not shoot to kill, so his superiors ordered him to kill dogs. Whenever the troops enter the village to hunt down the enemy, Boaz is responsible for shooting the guard dog at the entrance of the village, so as not to bark the grass and startle the snake.
More than 20 years later, Boaz has changed from a young soldier to a middle-aged man, but the death of the twenty-six dogs he killed is still vivid in his mind and still haunts him in his dreams. He told his friend, Ari Folman, the director of the film, of the nightmare, and Folman gradually remembered that he had also participated in that war, and participated in the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982, where a large number of Palestinian civilians were killed.
Bashir in the title Waltz with Bashir is the Falangist leader Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated as soon as he was elected president of Lebanon. The Falangists took their anger at the Palestinians and went to the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps to carry out massacres, while Israeli troops were stationed outside the camps.
Due to the trauma of the war, and witnessing innocents being killed, Folman's psychological self-protection mechanism suppresses the memory of the war as if it never happened. Boaz's dream is like a key, unlocking memories locked deep in his heart. Folman began to search for old comrades and piece together his own war experience.
The strong contrast between light and shadow, the characters and scenery painted with rough brushstrokes, and the dull tones of the picture give people a gloomy and depressing atmosphere. One of the scenes depicts the protagonist and two comrades waking up in the water, naked, but holding a rifle, with a military registration card around their necks, standing up from the water, and wading ashore step by step, the picture has only two colors - orange and black . Black is night, and orange is the bleak glow of flares. After they landed, they slowly put on their military uniforms and walked on the streets of Beirut, when a group of Palestinian women rushed towards them. This scene is repeated three times in the film.
It turned out that in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, Folman was the soldier in charge of firing flares on the perimeter, lighting up the Lebanese Falangist militias who were killing people in the camp. Although he did not participate in the killing, in his heart, he was an accomplice, and his hands were covered in blood, no different from a murderer who killed civilians with his own hands. The pain was so great that he couldn't bear it, so he buried the memory block.
Although the film is expressed in animation form, it is actually a documentary. The film presents real events. One of the interviewees was tank soldier Ronny. One day, the tank he was riding in was attacked, and all his comrades were killed. He jumped into the sea to escape, only to escape, but he also felt guilty because he survived, and never dared to face the family of his fallen comrades.
The Israeli soldiers in the film are both war victims and perpetrators. They were killed and innocent people were killed. For example, Folman's friend Carmi recalled that his troops landed in a city whose name he forgot. Sweeping fire, beating the car into a beehive, it turned out that a family of civilians was inside the car.
There are several scenes in the film that depict the absurdity of war. In one scene, the protagonist directs the armored personnel carrier to transport the casualty soldiers to the airport. The armored personnel carrier gallops on the dark road, and the soldiers on the vehicle continue to shoot in all directions along the way.
Folman's subordinates asked him, "What should we do? Why didn't you tell us what to do?"
Folman replied, "Shoot."
"Who?"
"How do I know. Just shoot."
"Prayer meeting . Wouldn't it be better?"
"Okay, pray and shoot."
After the movie came out, Folman heard many people tell him that their main memory of the war was marching at night, shooting into the deserted fields. The common memory of every generation who has experienced the war is that they do not know where they are going.
There is also a scene of Defense Minister Arik Sharon, idly eating breakfast on a farm in casual clothes, sending his subordinates and a large number of civilians to death as soon as he orders the invasion of Beirut by phone. No wonder director Folman said that wars are never honorable, they are mostly the boring ideas of self-righteous stupid leaders who send people to death for unnecessary reasons.
This is a heart-pounding movie after watching it. After watching it, go to the chapter called Terrorists in Robert Fisk's Pity the Nation for a better understanding of the entire history of the Holocaust. In-depth understanding.
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