Lebanon
Melbourne International Film Festival, 02/08/2010
Status: Behind by 16 films
After The Messenger, my MIFF-buddy Nick and I wondered if we had reached war-movie saturation point and would ever again see another movie of this type that would effect us the way it intended. My, aren’t we cynical?
I had thought Lebanon would be the one - set on the first day of the 1982 war in Lebanon it follows the four young men (hardly even soldiers) who crew a tank. The film stays inside the tank for its duration, watching the outside action through the tank’s sights. It sounded like an interesting approach - and it was - but it didn’t quite come off for me. The action outside felt removed as we saw only bits and pieces of it and once you knew that the tank could survive a direct hit from a shoulder launched rocket, the element of danger was greatly diminished.
There was still the fact that we were inside the tank to add some Das Boot-style claustrophobia. Tanks, however, are really quite roomy. Either that or the camera used a really wide lens. There were some moments when the heat and the stench and the awfulness was communicated very clearly, but these were only moments. I found Lebanon an interesting exercise, I just don't think I had the full horrors-of-war-experience they intended.
