Animation Theory 1 - 2

In our second Animation Theory class we watched an Israeli film called 'Waltz with Bashir'.
The film deals with the repressed memories of an ex-infantry soldier (Ari Folman, the director and one of the producers) during the Lebanon War, and the events of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
The art mimics the heavily inked style of comic books. This, combined with the fact that is rotoscope animation - unusual for a documentary - echoes one of the ideas of the film; that dissociative viewing is like looking at the world through a camera. The events are not genuine, not real. This, to me, really helps to illustrate the concept of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to those who do not have it. The film is an animation, an illustration that mimics the style of comic books, because it is an ideal metaphor for the events during cases of dissociative viewing and PTSD.

At the end of the film where Ari becomes fully aware of the events of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, it suddenly shifts to live action documentary footage of the massacre. This contrast with the original rotoscoped footage shows that Ari has recovered his memories and has been confronted with the brutal horror that he experienced and essentially partook in, though unwilling and without intention.

We were asked if we thought that the events of the film helped Ari or made his life a little better or easier. I don't think it did. At the beginning, when Ari is talking to his psychologist friend he muses the the possibility of him finding out things about himself that he will not want to know. In my opinion, this seems like patent foreshadowing of the consequences of uncovering his memories - they are clearly things he does not want to know. It is also quite clear that the actions of the Israeli army are considered by the film to equate the Nazi behaviour, whom of which imprisoned Ari's parents in Auschwitz during the second world war (NY Times, Questions for Ari Folmon, January 6th 2009), showing that Ari's actions are especially undesirable. This shows me that the film clearly intends for the remembering of the memories to be an unpleasant experience, definitely not positive in any way.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I think it was especially well put together and clearly a lot of artistic thought had gone into it, creating a multi-layered film with a clear message. Though I know little about the events of the Lebanon War (it having occurred quite a while before I was born) and therefore the accuracy of the film, I can safely say that regardless of your stance on the subject that, in Waltz with Bashir, no punches were pulled.