Recap: A tank crew is on the frontline in the 1982 war in Lebanon. Almost instantly they end up in hostilities and from that point almost everything goes bad. Confronted with the horrors of war the crew quickly loses their moral and start bickering. Confined from the outside world by their armor, their (and ours) only point of view is the tank viewfinder. As the crew continues to lose moral, things turn worse both inside and outside the tank. Outside they find themselves out of reach of their own army in hostile territory, and inside, after taking damage to the tank, they lose all training and organization among themselves. Will they survive?
Comments: A movie that has gotten a lot of praise and good reviews. I can't see why. There is no real coherent story, no real understanding of what is happening in the bigger picture, but that's not really the point anyway. The point, if I might guess, is to show that everyone is a victim in a war, both (and this might sound bad, but bear with me) those who get shot at, and those who shoots at them. In Lebanon we get to see the latter's point of view.
The point is to show a crew under extreme pressure and finally cracking under it. But as the movie is rather short and the director is too impatient to get to his point, there is no real time to build any pressure to speak of. So when the crew is instantly breaking down mentally, without much pressure, instead of showing the horror of war, it just gets annoying. At best the crew seem poorly trained, at worst I won't say. I can't sympathize with the, or the movie.
Unfortunately there are some annoying details as well. One is the water inside the tank. They must ration water, but the tank is almost flooding at the same time. Also, am I really to believe that the grenade that heavily mutilated the driver left all his chickens undamaged? And their tank seem easier to get into than checking into an hotel , and that is in a supposed war.
Unfortunately, the final verdict is that I just don't buy it. The ambition is commendable, the idea is good. But ideas are not enough.
Rating: Four damaged tanks out of ten.
Comments: A movie that has gotten a lot of praise and good reviews. I can't see why. There is no real coherent story, no real understanding of what is happening in the bigger picture, but that's not really the point anyway. The point, if I might guess, is to show that everyone is a victim in a war, both (and this might sound bad, but bear with me) those who get shot at, and those who shoots at them. In Lebanon we get to see the latter's point of view.
The point is to show a crew under extreme pressure and finally cracking under it. But as the movie is rather short and the director is too impatient to get to his point, there is no real time to build any pressure to speak of. So when the crew is instantly breaking down mentally, without much pressure, instead of showing the horror of war, it just gets annoying. At best the crew seem poorly trained, at worst I won't say. I can't sympathize with the, or the movie.
Unfortunately there are some annoying details as well. One is the water inside the tank. They must ration water, but the tank is almost flooding at the same time. Also, am I really to believe that the grenade that heavily mutilated the driver left all his chickens undamaged? And their tank seem easier to get into than checking into an hotel , and that is in a supposed war.
Unfortunately, the final verdict is that I just don't buy it. The ambition is commendable, the idea is good. But ideas are not enough.
Rating: Four damaged tanks out of ten.