Yup, uh huh, this cartoon cuts pretty close to the edge...

War in all it's gory glory.

Surely the best war movie since how long? I'd say the last time we had one this good was way back in the underrated We Were Soldiers, or no - - heh - - it was much more recent. The best new war movie I saw before tonight was Letters From Iwo Jima - - forget the rest of Clint's work for the past decade, that's his masterpiece.

Waltzing With Bashir takes on the lo-tech cgi screen painting that was used to similar effect most recently in Persepolis, ineffectively in A Scanner Darkly, and of course, there remains the best of this sub-genre of animation - - the marvelous Waking Life. If you are at all interested in phun philosophy, that is a film that you need to see again soon.

This though uses the filmic animation style to the max! WWB is a visual attack on your civilized areas. The music then takes that excess, and proceeds to amp it out into full Apocalypse Now territory - - "This is the end, my friend..."

Yep, this here's one all out, flag wavin', boot stompin', pistol whippin' good time of a genocidal romp!

My one viewing recommendation: Don't go in expecting a good time.

38 out of 5.

Better than Persepolis?

Yes, sir.





(...but of course the bigger question is: "Better than WALL-E"?)

Will I feel offended?

stupid question?

Isn't that a pretty subjective sort of thing? Even so, I think you'd have to be a fool. I know people who are pretty jingoistic on either side of the conflict, and they've both praised it. I completely agreed with both of them.

NO.

YES

I could possibly agree with you in regards to the animation - - Persepolis was truly stunning in it's B&W glory, while Waltz With Bashir's animated style suited it's own story, it has been done before.

But, in terms of the overall film, Waltz With Bashir multi-perspective retelling of Ari's war experiences was vastly superior to Marjane's pedestrian life story in Persepolis...