Waltz With Bashir

-Documentary based on the Lebanon War and the aftermath

- Directed and Produced by Ari Folman

            The film Waltz with Bashir follows the journey of Ari Folman and his lost experiences in the Lebanon War. The movie could be considered a post-apocalyptic movie as it depicts the horrors of the Lebanon War and the unpredictable burden it placed on those in the area. The film starts out with Ari Folman’s friend talking about his experiences and most prolific memories during the war. His friend asks Ari whether he has experienced anything like this. He replies no, this is important for Ari , in complete shock his friend reminds Ari that he witnessed one of the most gruesome parts of the Lebanon War, the Massacre of the Shatila and Sabra. Departing from the bar Ari is confused and experiences a flashback of him emerging from the water with fellow soldiers at night viewing a city barraged with flares and screaming. Efforts to figure out what this dream means he goes on a series of searches to find and talk to soldiers in the Lebanon War that could possibly help him rediscover this lost memory.

            The film was created to introduce the tragedies of war and their outcomes. The Lebanon War took place in 1982 when 40 years after Lebanon was declared an independent nation from Israel. Upon creation they received a flux of immigrants from Jordan and Syria known as the PLO or Palestinian Liberation Organization. These Palestinians wanted to retrieve the land of South Lebanon due to cultural and religious ideologies. So they promoted war in the area and took over South Lebanon with the support of Syria. The Israel government decided to enact of this seeing as it was a improper reason for civil war. Israel mobilized against the PLO and other organizations that joined in the fight.

            There was a man named Bashir Gemayel who was a Maronite Christian that helped form the government and wanted to unite Lebanon with Israel to stop the advancement of Palestinian nationalist and Syrian support. He was a leader to all the Israelites and the people of North Lebanon. In the film he was portrayed to be as notorious as Jesus, having his face plastered everywhere imaginable. Because of his rising popularity, he was assassinated by an unknown organization. This angered Israel and North Lebanon and pushed them over the top. As a result, both forces mobilized into Sabra and Shatila (Palestinian and Syrian groups) territory and killed them off. This was known as the Massacre of the Shatila and Sabra, the same event Ari Folman seemed to have forgotten about.

            The documentary being animated utilizes many features that are not available to actual filming. For example, Ari Folman creates cut scenes of his reoccurring dream, creating many shades and lighting to reinforce the appearance of something of importance or unknown. Part of his dream he is walking through a town and seeing screaming women rushing down a narrow alleyway, all you can see is their faces screaming in terror. The also allowed Ari to invoke specific emotions and moods with the use of shading and coloring. Whether it be a soldier waltzing in a trance of war firing into the abyss that is two dark towers containing what would be troops as a metaphor for the unimaginable pressures that are out of reach for soldiers and the rest of humanity. It also could be the depiction the splendor of nature as beautiful rays of the sun petering through the trees in a orchard. There is a another element that adds more details and imagery that cannot be achieved so easily in actual filming.

            The picture used shading to signify importance so the viewer only rests his eyes of the blaring faces of the crying mob. Also being a documentary he interviews veterans throughout the film, he frequently animates their memories. It gives more appeal towards it being fact, since seeing is believing. Along with their memories Ari also decides to use music to express all the emotions that the veteran felt and thought during the memories. For example, he would use music expresses the rapid a changes in emotion, as a soldier is feeling walking through an orchid, Mozart would come on. As the Mozart would play, there would be a sudden fire fight, and the music would immediately disappear with the sounds of artillery, weaponry and mourning. This expresses the changes of war, the peace of nature and its neutrality for the chaos humans bring upon themselves, very anti-war.

            The audience for this film is directed towards all age groups of countries either dwelling in war or known to be involved with it. It is a documentary that signifies the atrocity of war and its impact on humans well after the war is over. That war not only brings about immediate changes in a nation but also post changes. Whether it be in government politics, the economy, or the soldiers and civilians, war has an affect on every single individual in the war and out. We can see the Lebanon Wars aftermath in present society with Israel being bombarded with Muslim nationalist. The killing involved for not only religious aspects, but also social aspects. The documentary contains a message of the atrocity of war and its effects on society.

Akira

-       A Japanese Anime Film

-       Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

            Akira is a film developed by a Japanese director Katsuhiro Otomo. It takes place in Neo Tokyo in 2019 after it had been reconstructed when it was destroyed in 1988 starting WWIII. The story follows two characters, Kaneda and his friend Tetsuo. The main plot of the story involves the Japanese governments desire to take children with psychic powers and nurture them to become war machines. A problem arises earlier in time when a child named Akira was becoming too strong so they froze him under Tokyo. This is important because Kaneda’s friend Tetsuo crashes into one of these children, who was running from the government and upon collision receives psychic powers. The government facilitates him and the power envelops Tetsuo to the point that he goes on a warpath. Destroying society believing it is some game. He searches to find Akira in order to become the greatest power in the world. Tetsuo’s thirsty desire for power will meet opposition with Kaneda’s will to save his friend.

            The movie depicts what war could possibly do to nations. That war may alter nation ways of protecting themselves and could possibly develop ways to become a world power, whether it is nukes or kids with psychic powers.  It also depicts how power may become a catalyst for destruction. Take Tetsuo and his desire to become an ultimate weapon, it causes chaos in the city, involving the deaths of many innocent civilians and rises in crazy philosophical themes. The end result was another destroyed city of Tokyo.

            Social aspect of the film rests on the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.  In Akira, it created a cyberpunk society in Tokyo. Cyberpunk is the idea of a highly developed society with poor living qualities. That even though the unknown explosion happened decades ago, it still has effects on the society.

            Also the use of Buddhist symbols is used throughout the movie that depicts purity and unrest in times of chaos. However, it also displays the importance of hope in these situations, as the near apocalypse was about to occur again, people banded together behind a wise man screaming gibberish that can only be described as sacred Buddhist praise. It concludes that some things people hang on too are the things that will get them through tough times.

            The filmmaker wanted to create an anti-war film to teach audiences about the horrors that could result in a war. More specifically, I believe it was directed at the Cold War. Otomo shows that the arms race towards military supremacy could cause some side affects. The power developed could result in rash, unrevised decisions between nations to use those weapons to obliterate their rivals. Take Tetusuo again, his desire to become the ultimate power was similar to the thinking of U.S. and Russia. However, Otomo decides that the power was too great and it was unleashed demolishing Tokyo, which is a microcosm for the world seeing as both the U.S. and Russia had enough nuclear warheads to blow the Earth +70 times. This possible occurrence could end all life on the planet, and as Otomo depicts, nature will continue as rays of light would shed on the destruction of human life.

            Otomo uses animation to express his ideas; he is a renowned creator of Japanese comic books who turned one of his comics into a movie. The use of animation in this movie was not only a technological achievement, but an symbolic one. The use of symbolism and the ease of transitioning into memories and dreams was helpful for conveying his message. The visuals of the movie were massive; it depicts explosions from the psychic children (appeared as nuclear bombs), destruction of towers, bridges and people. The slum of the once prosperous Tokyo could still be possible even if technology was up to date. To state a message that technology will not make a society better, it is the people that will. In addition, Otomo shows the violence in producing weapons of war and what outcome they could have on society. 

            The music was an important element for the movie, as it invoked emotions of love, chaos, realization and clarity. Especially at the end in the ruins of Japan, where the forces of nature are consuming Tokyo it was music that was not present when the city was inhabited by humans. This gave chills as it was a metaphor for the loss of humanity that could’ve possibly happened during the Cold War

Battle Royal

-       Japanese Foreign Film

-       Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

            The film is a post apocalyptic film portraying the downfall of the youth in Japan. The nation of Japan suffered an economic collapse that left many unemployed and out in the streets. The youth of Tokyo began to start boycotting school in order to demonstrate their desire to not conform to regular operations. This further afflicted the economy seeing as there will be less people becoming skilled workers in the sciences. In order to prevent further economic downfall the government placed a martial law over the country. The heads of government installed a law known as The B R Act or the Battle Royal Act. This act allows the military to take classes of students who demonstrated poor commitment and intelligence to be sent to an island in an unknown area. On this island, they would fight to the death until one person remains. If no one dies within each day, the military would kill all the students. It is a scare tactic to be used to make the Japanese youth stay in school and develop into adults that will promote growth in the economy. So a group of 36 students are the participants in this Battle Royal, however we follow one protagonist and his girlfriend as they see their school group turn against each other in this gauntlet of survival. It resembles the book Lord of the Flies as the social structure between mutual people collapse as barbaric and somewhat tribal instincts develop.

            The tribal and barbaric instincts that can be resembled in animals in nature is similar to accounts taken from most wars. For example, All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel written by Erich Marie Remarque used animalistic qualities to describe the breakdown of humans during the war. That they had their humanity stripped from them during training camp, which can be equivalent to the briefing before the battle royal, leaving them as not humans but animals to survive and cope with the war / battle royal.

            The social aspect of this film resembles the economic prosperity of Japan. That even the most civilized of societies can take a turn for the worst. As the 36 students chosen to perform the Battle Royal seemed to be a mini society resembling a civilized nation crumbling apart. It goes to show that a society where people are thrown into flux and confusion may begin to panic and afflict themselves with rash decisions and moral irresponsibility.

            The political aspects of the film show that a society thrown into economic insanity will most likely be susceptible to marshal law. Similar to times of war, in order to maintain equilibrium in society the government along with the military takes full control of society. In this case the government invoked fear in order to gain acceptance and rule, which can be associated with Machiavelli’s The Prince which depicts that this was one method a ruler could use to bring about loyalty. It symbolizes the single importance of individuals were to a government, since Fukasaku was deeply against the government since youth.

            The director of the film when he was young was drafted along with his class to create munitions for WWII. Although WWII did not involve battles on the Japanese country, his class was caught in artillery fire and with no combat experience what so ever. They were told to use the corpses for their fellow students for cover fire. After the fact, the director than realized that the Japanese government mocked the invasion and killed their own civilians, placing harm and destruction in his pure eyes only for the social support of the governments want for war.

            The director chooses to have children between middle school and college as a population to be chosen for the battle royal. The reason behind this is because usually that teenagers are usually the ones being opposed to conforming to the norm. They are usually the rebels in society that throughout history are chosen to be the audience of new social and economic systems. For example, Marx and Communism has chosen to educate students in particularly at a college level due to their position of being the runner up to economic levels. So as a rebellious age group who are still somewhat pure are driven into a situation that is hard for them to cope with. So it shows the purity of pre adultery stage of life converting to barbaric stages. For example, it shows young lovers performing suicide in order to not see their love one suffered. Also depicts the unproblematic killings between strangers. In addition, seeing the basic structure between friends collapse due to their difficulty in creating moral decisions that only comes easy for the wise.

            For the music aspect the director decides to play music like Beethoven, Mozart and other classical music at certain points in each day. It is a sort of cease fire period where everyone stops fighting and cooperates with the director of the island. Information is given to where they are not allowed to travel on the island. The cease fire along with the soothing music is similar to an intermission between sports and other gaming events. This connection allows the idea that war is a game played by the people in power as the soldiers, in this case the children, are depicted as chess pieces and every so often the directors needs a bathroom break, intermission?