Lebanon War Films: Waltz with Bashir and Lebanon (2009)
This paper examines how two Israeli films — Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz with Bashir (2008) and Samuel Maoz's Lebanon (2009) — portray the 1982 Lebanon War and its most infamous episode, the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Drawing on the history of the Israeli Defense Forces' invasion of southern Lebanon and their alliance with the Phalangist militia, the paper argues that both films humanize soldiers' experiences to expose the futility of warfare and the moral burden placed on combatants. It also considers how the films navigate questions of culpability — particularly the IDF's indirect responsibility for the refugee camp massacres — and how cinematic perspective shapes audience understanding of atrocity and collective memory.
- Introduction: Thesis on Israeli films humanizing war's futility
- History of the 1982 Lebanon War: IDF invasion, PLO withdrawal, and Sabra-Shatila massacre
- Waltz with Bashir: Memory, Trauma, and Identity: Folman's autobiographical film and repressed PTSD memory
- Lebanon: Inside the Tank: Maoz's claustrophobic tank perspective and soldier transformation
- Media Portrayals vs. Historical Reality: Kahan Commission findings and IDF culpability in films
- Conclusion: War ideology, genocide, and lasting memory of 1982
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds film analysis in concrete historical context, giving the reader enough background on the 1982 Lebanon War and Sabra and Shatila before moving into cinematic critique.
- Uses a direct quotation from director Samuel Maoz to support its argument about audience identification and the psychological transformation of soldiers, adding an authoritative voice beyond the films themselves.
- Connects both films to a unified thesis — that humanizing combatants reveals the moral futility of warfare — rather than treating each film in isolation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative textual analysis by reading two films alongside each other and against the historical record. It moves fluidly between plot description, directorial intent, and historiographical evidence (the Kahan Commission findings, the MacBride Report) to assess how cinematic choices shape a viewer's moral judgment. This technique — triangulating film, interview, and historical scholarship — is an effective model for humanities papers that analyze media representations of real events.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a contextual introduction establishing the thesis about humanization and anti-war messaging. A historical section grounds the reader in the events of 1982. Two body sections then analyze each film in turn — Waltz with Bashir for its treatment of repressed memory and PTSD, and Lebanon for its claustrophobic tank perspective and questions of command responsibility. A fifth section compares the films' representations against established historical findings. The conclusion synthesizes the argument, escalating to the claim that the Sabra and Shatila killings constituted genocide.
Introduction
The Middle East has long been a battleground, with wars fought throughout history over control of religiously significant land. Much of the modern conflict in the region centers on the nation state of Israel and the responses of neighboring countries to its presence. The Israeli film industry's portrayal of past ethnic conflicts offers intimate points of view from which audiences can learn both the truth behind events and the director's message. In the case of both Lebanon (2009) and Waltz with Bashir (2008), applying a human face to tragedy makes the conflict more personal, allows audiences to relate to the events, and illuminates the inherent futility of violence and warfare — as well as the damage inflicted on survivors and the deceased alike.
History of the 1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War, also called Operation Peace for Galilee, began on June 6, 1982, when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) invaded southern Lebanon. This attack was purportedly in retaliation for an attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. The conflict was relatively short: by September 1982, the PLO had withdrawn most of its forces from Lebanon, leaving Israeli forces in control of the area.
The intent of the invasion had little to do with Lebanon itself. The Israelis were far less interested in acquiring territory than in demonstrating their nation's dominance over the PLO. To that end, Israeli forces allied with the Lebanese Christian Militia, also known as the Phalangists, led by Elie Hobeika. This group would be directly responsible for the massacre of more than 1,000 people at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps — an act of retaliation for the assassination of their president, Bashir Gemayel (Shahid 38).
Works Cited
Erlanger, Steven. "A Tank's-Eye View of an Unpopular War." The New York Times. 2010. Print.
Lebanon. Dir. Samuel Maoz. Perf. Oshri Cohen and Itay Tiran. Sony Pictures Classics, 2009. DVD.
MacBride, Sean. Israel in Lebanon: The Report of the International Commission to Enquire into Reported Violations of International Law by Israel During its Invasion of Lebanon. London: Ithaca, 1983. Print.
Shahid, Leila. "The Sabra and Shatila Massacres: Eye-Witness Reports." Journal of Palestine Studies. 32:1. 2002. 36–58. Print.
Waltz with Bashir. Dir. Ari Folman. Perf. Ari Folman. Sony Pictures Classics, 2008. DVD.
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