Waltz with Bashir

I thought this film was incredible. I was such a drastic change to what we had been watching all semester and even though it was animated, I think it was more powerful than had it not been. Most documentaries are somewhat flat, even Michael Moore the instigator, has his limits to his films. I think the fact this one was animated gave it such a different and more dynamic feel. The film definitely had some surrealism in it, but I think this was the best thing for the movie because it is difficult to portray dreams and emotions with tangible objects of typical film. By animating it, we could see how the characters' dreams were influencing how they responded to such a terrible tragedy. At the end, the director showed actual footage from the massacre and I found extremely difficult to watch emotionally. I think if the entire film had been done that way, I would not have lasted very long before getting too emotionally overwhelmed. Showing actual footage solidified the reality of this terrible event. I think it portrayed both sides very well. Of course we respond more toward the Lebanese because of what they suffered through, but the filmmaker (unlike most others) shows there are always two sides and there may not be a clear line defining them. There is so pity shown for the Israelis as well, not nearly as much, but they were still horribly effected by it also. I think this film shows another way of how to bring a non-traditional text or media into the classroom to help more people benefit by it. One knows when they are in the presence of a great, cerebral film because those few minutes of silence afterward are the class trying to process the amount and type of information that was presented and more importantly, they are giving it time to resonate within themselves.