Lebanon (15.)
Directed by Samuel Maoz.
Starring Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Michael Moshonov, Zohar Strauss, Ashraf Barhom. 93 mins.
Lebanon: it’s all the fun of a submarine movie, but in a tank. There's the claustrophobic tension of being lost in enemy territory, but without of the leg room. It may not have the cat and mouse tension anxiety of a Das Boot (there’s no hiding place for a tank) but when the rickety rackety old tank shudders into action the horrendous rattling and deafening roar of the engine generate an almost unbearable intensity.
It's 1982 and an Israeli tank is rolling into Lebanon, crewed by four nervous youngsters sent to check out a town that's just been bombed by their airforce. The four youngsters are anxious about what awaits them there in enemy territory, while the audience is anxious about how they are going to pull off a full 90-minute film set entirely inside a tank.
Actually, it all works quite easily. Though the four crew members never leave, various people pop in, mostly their commanding officer to shout at them. The connection with events outside is maintained by the view from the crosshairs of the gun sights, so maybe half the movie is external action seen from within.
Possibly inadvertently, Maoz has hit upon a clever metaphor for the vicarious thrills provided by the modern way of experiencing war as entertainment through films or game playing. The tank crew are in the very heart of the battle, yet they are also once removed from it all. Like the audience, they never really grasp or feel what is going on outside. Whenever someone we have seen previously only through the viewfinder drops in through the turret it is a bit disconcerting, like they are breaking the fourth wall.
Not that the young soldiers are totally detached from the experience. Normally in such film, the well-ordered discipline in the ranks slowly disintegrates as the tension builds. These four though start the film with their nerves shredded, cranked up on sleep deprivation and with their bloodshot eyes almost bulging out of their heads. Even before the enemy is engaged they are falling apart.
The title is all-encompassing but the approach is to isolate a tiny slither of the conflict for examination. Moaz's script is based on raw autobiographical experience. The approach is innovative but the insights are standard: war is ugly and confusing; young kids' innocence is ripped savagely from them. It's a narrow, limited view, but still compelling.
Directed by Samuel Maoz.
Starring Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Michael Moshonov, Zohar Strauss, Ashraf Barhom. 93 mins.
Lebanon: it’s all the fun of a submarine movie, but in a tank. There's the claustrophobic tension of being lost in enemy territory, but without of the leg room. It may not have the cat and mouse tension anxiety of a Das Boot (there’s no hiding place for a tank) but when the rickety rackety old tank shudders into action the horrendous rattling and deafening roar of the engine generate an almost unbearable intensity.
It's 1982 and an Israeli tank is rolling into Lebanon, crewed by four nervous youngsters sent to check out a town that's just been bombed by their airforce. The four youngsters are anxious about what awaits them there in enemy territory, while the audience is anxious about how they are going to pull off a full 90-minute film set entirely inside a tank.
Actually, it all works quite easily. Though the four crew members never leave, various people pop in, mostly their commanding officer to shout at them. The connection with events outside is maintained by the view from the crosshairs of the gun sights, so maybe half the movie is external action seen from within.
Possibly inadvertently, Maoz has hit upon a clever metaphor for the vicarious thrills provided by the modern way of experiencing war as entertainment through films or game playing. The tank crew are in the very heart of the battle, yet they are also once removed from it all. Like the audience, they never really grasp or feel what is going on outside. Whenever someone we have seen previously only through the viewfinder drops in through the turret it is a bit disconcerting, like they are breaking the fourth wall.
Not that the young soldiers are totally detached from the experience. Normally in such film, the well-ordered discipline in the ranks slowly disintegrates as the tension builds. These four though start the film with their nerves shredded, cranked up on sleep deprivation and with their bloodshot eyes almost bulging out of their heads. Even before the enemy is engaged they are falling apart.
The title is all-encompassing but the approach is to isolate a tiny slither of the conflict for examination. Moaz's script is based on raw autobiographical experience. The approach is innovative but the insights are standard: war is ugly and confusing; young kids' innocence is ripped savagely from them. It's a narrow, limited view, but still compelling.
