Waltz with Bashir
There are so many movies out right now…and good ones. That hasn't happened in quite a long time. What is interesting is how many movies are coming out that are about the Holocaust. Why now? Is it the second generation of children of parents or grandparents that were in the Holocaust and they are interested in making these films so we don't forget or because growing up with a survivor made such an impact on their life?
Last night Fred and I went to see Waltz with Bashir. Although it isn't directly about the Holocaust, it is a movie by a Jewish film maker who had parents that survived Auschwitz. He, himself, was a soldier in the Lebanon war. The movie is about that experience. How he had forgotten what his involvement was and how 20 years later those memories are beginning to crop up.
The film is brilliant. All done in animation until the very end. The animation is intense and more like avatars that have come to life. Although the characters speak in Hebrew, the sub-titles in English go very quick so the movie flows fast. As the soldier digs through his past, revelations of the war are opened to the audience. A nasty piece of Israel's history where it appears the Government turned a blind eye to a massacre. This film is supposedly very controversial in Israel.
A very powerful anti-war film. As we are watching the perils unfold daily in the Gaza strip, you have to ask yourself, why and what for? For land? As Ari Folman, the film maker said today in the New York Times magazine, "talk, don't shoot. talk".
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Comments (Archived):
All the characters speak in Hebrew. Israeli is not a language.
Thanks…just changed. Duh.
And it just won the Golden Globe for best foreign film!
So worth going to see.
State of Israel is not interested in talk. Their only interest in genocide of Palestinians. Arrogantly, Ehud Barak didn’t deny these allegations.Israel creation was a historical mistake. A system based closely to apartheid and institiionlized discrimination with added genocide every few years.You should ask yourself, why Israel is the most hated country in the world? this rogue criminal state has violated more international law THAN ALL UN MEMBERS COMBINED.Hadn’t it not been for the US, the would have been more than 150 UN resolutions condemning the state of Israel.
The state of Israel was a historical mistake?Let’s consider what Israel has been able to produce over its brief history so far.1. The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.2. Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.3. The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel.4. The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.5. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.6. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.7. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.8. According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.9. Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.10. Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.11. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.12. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin — 109 per 10,000 people — as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.13. In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the second largest number of startup companies after the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).14. With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration hi-tech companies in the world — apart from the Silicon Valley, US.15. Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.16. After the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.17. Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.18. On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.19. Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce hold university degrees — ranking it third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland — and 12% hold advanced degrees.20. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.21. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.22. When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times.23. When the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day — and saved three victims from the rubble.24. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship — and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 — in the world.25. Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.26. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”27. Israel has the world’s second highest per capita rate of publishing new books.28. Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.29. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.30. In the field of medicine, Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.31. An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in US hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatmentmistakes.32. Israel’s Givun Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.33. Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart’s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.34. Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the US, over 70 in Japan, and fewer than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.35. A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the ClearLight device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct — all without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.36. An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant (in southern California’s Mojave desert).
Mr Tom B — Why use a post about a wonderful work of art as a platform for hate and disinformation? Does it help to write 4 paragraphs full of “facts” that are all false?So far there is only one side that publicly calls for destruction and termination of a people and its state. There is one side the ignores the international laws; attacks civilians with NO CAUSE (except for its ideology); uses civilians as human shelters (instead of building shelters to protect them).I wonder what would have happened to the poor Muslim filmmaker that would have done a similar movie about the Hamas. Or Iran. In fact, we can ask Mr. Salman Rushdie.
FredI suggest you broaden your horizon by getting your news somewhere other than CNN.Can you point out the false points, as you claim, in the post I wrote? or are you just one of those reflexive supporter of Israel no matter how genocidal this illegal regime becomes?Read books by scholars in this subject as opposed to getting your news from AIPAC financed outfits, will ya?Shalom
Tom,Let’s be clear here. It is Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Iran that are the ones advocating the annihilation of Israel. This news is not only sourced from CNN it’s been widely reported and heralded on Arab and Muslim news channels around the world.Notwithstanding your personally held views or any conspiracy theories that you may believe, Israel’s interest and intent in Gaza is not the genocide of Palestinians. Rather, Israel is at war with and is bent on the destruction of Hamas, a self-declared terrorist organization. You may argue that Hamas was democratically elected. But, so was Hitler.More broadly, Israel, like the United States, Europe and most governments around the world, is at war with radical Islamic terrorist organizations that are willing to fly planes into buildings, launch unprovoked rockets into civilian territory and blow themselves up anywhere (London, Madrid, Bali, Jerusalem) in the name of Allah. Whether the battleground is Gaza, Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan, the enemy of Israel, the United States and the free world is the same as is the objective.Unfortunately, achieving this objective is not without its complications and tactical risks. The civilian deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza are not “collateral damage”, they are real human atrocities. No one can consider the loss of innocent human life in any other way. I seriously doubt that any rational Israeli citizen takes pleasure or succor in the death of innocent Palestinians.We live in complicated times. However, one thing is crystal clear. The greatest threat to human existence is not the armed forces of Israel or the United States. Rather, it is the ideologically driven terror being bred by radical Islamic groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. Make no mistake. These terrorist organizations are intent on the annihilation of the basic principles of democracy, freedom, progress and peace. This is not a regional or political clash; it is a clash of ideologies and civilizations. It is a clash that we cannot afford to lose.
Please stop feeding yourself GOP’s lines of BS re Israel.Read Haaretz instead. Speaking of Haaretz, they reported today that Israel has banned Arab parties from running in upcoming elections:http://haaretz.com/hasen/sp…Ladies and gentleman this is what President Carter said in his book: Israel is a full blown apartheid state.The question is how to deal with an aparthied state? Naomi Klein in her wonderful article in the Nation magazine advocated a great tactical move.Boycot, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel.Boycott 729 NOW!
you wrote: “As we are watching the perils unfold daily in the Gaza strip, you have to ask yourself, why and what for? For land?”For land??? what land?Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip totally and fully a few years back… only to get thousands of rockets in return! So what land are you talking about Gal? I mean, I have no problem with anti-war movies; they are great, bring them on (I am actually planning on watching this one with my wife this weekend). But please know the root cause of this war – at least the Gaza war- before you are talking about anti-war stuff. Hundreds of rockets Gal – 200 missiles during the period between Christmas and the day Israel launched this just war. Please Gal, please watch this 15 seconds clip– http://sderot.aish.com/Sder… – this is what life has been like and why Israel is fighting.Thanks and all the best to you.Daniel
I really loved the juxtaposition of the animated memories versus the climatic reality of the final scene. Encourage everyone to see it and was happy to see it won the Golden Globe.