Watch Lebanon For Free

Thanks for the memories!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Instructed to drive their tank through a small Lebanese town, four Israeli soldiers question the validity of their mission amongst mounting chaos and civilian deaths in this tense war movie, set entirely inside the tank. With the camera only leaving the tank in the opening and closing shots, the film acutely captures the soldiers' claustrophobia and discomfort, forced to view their destruction at a distance with a physical barrier between themselves and their victims. There are some excellent extreme close-ups of their wide-open eyes as they watch the horrors unfold before them and the echoing sound design adds to the desolate mood, with every noise in and outside the tank accentuated. Some have criticised the limited detail regarding the war in question, but this actually makes the soldiers' situation more universal; they could be any group of scared young men in any war. More problematic is the sketchy character development. The soldiers are a little too interchangeable and the performances are average at best. There are some solid turns though from the actors and actresses outside, with Reymonde Amsallem a standout as a grieving civilian mother. There is also a memorable bit involving an innocent farmer who gets in the way and the fact that the soldiers have to endure everything without any hand-to-hand combat renders 'Lebanon' one of the more unique war movies of recent time.

Whether or not the plot itself is believable or realistic will depend on a number of things: your political inclinations, your love/hate for war movies dealing with the psychological/emotional aspect of war rather than the jingoistic portrayal you will get in a run-of-the- mill summer blockbuster, and some suspension of disbelief depending on the previous two. Having said that, if you are willing to set aside any perceived slights or petty arguments about the above, what you will find here is a tightly directed character piece shot in the confined space of a war machine, portraying a number of specific themes about man's place in conflict - what a man owes, what a man owns, and what a man can expect from a war...moreover, how war situations can affect soldiers, civilians, and even societies drawn unwillingly into the conflicts. I find all these especially fascinating to ruminate upon and to learn from, particularly in the light of the wars of the last decade. The acting is excellent and believable although lacking in any tour-de-force parts, and the action scenes are intense. Appreciating the filming challenge presented here is also very enjoyable, and I believe that challenge has been overcome splendidly by the director. If you like war-themed movies with a dose of the more cerebral, then I would highly highly recommend this movie.

A very claustrophobic feel is created by centring all of the action inside the tank. The only glimpses we have of the outside world is through the viewfinder on the tank's guns. It's all very dramatic with bickering amongst the crew as they all try to have their say as events unfold. All the performances were excellent and it seems unfair to give plaudits to any particular performer. I must also thank the people responsible for putting the subtitles on the screen; nice large print that's easy to read; please do more like this! Over all, a very well made film with some nice ideas and well worth a look.SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDEDMy score: 7.9/10You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

I had mixed reviews prior to seeing Lebanin and sadly this was a film that lacked in many departments and I am glad I resisted ordering on blu-ray.Situated inside a tank for several claustrophobic days during the Israel-Lebanon war and seen, largely, through the gun sight of the gunner this could have been a tense, gritty film with much in common with submarine films or the decent 80's film The Beast.Some reviews I have read complained about the emotive or manipulative images or events portrayed and I share these sentiments. The camera unnaturally/gun focuses in close up on "evocative" images like corpses, a poster of the virgin mary, more corpses, crying women - the gunner is spends the film watching like a tourist providing the audience with dramatic/tragic scenes in close up. Which feels unnatural, scripted and left myself and other reviewers feeling manipulated.The grime of the tank is palpable and the soldiers become dirtier as they creep further into (or out of) contested territory. This might have been a device designed to reflect the mental state of the soldiers (and interesting) - but the psychological states of the inexperienced and uninteresting crew was beyond us. We just didn't care by the time things got tense.Perhaps if the driver's view, and the commander's, were included instead of just the gunners this might have helped the film. As it was the gunner spent the whole time turning the tank barrel to follow people in close up instead of doing his job and watching for enemies. It felt wack.Viewers that think a camera being shaken in the last word in action and that believe what is put on screen before them is implicitly true and authentic might love this film. The wife gave up at about 30min, I fast forwarded the last 20 min.Get The Beast out or watch Das Boot again instead...