Lebanon

Samuel Maoz creates a gripping and effective atmosphere by confining us to the interior of a tank and frequently locking our P.O.V. into the crosshairs of a gun barrel, which is like a character itself. The first half of the film is thrilling, relationships are developed and the story keeps moving. But later, the story stalls and the character development falls short of expectations. Maoz tried to transcend the action genre and find something deeper, unfortunately he was not entirely successful.

Mediocre jewish cinema schlock. tho well made , overall a mayor yawn. Lets see if criticker removes my review, i said it was jewish cinema schlock on IMDB and they removed my review! how about that. them Jews are everywhere!

This is what cinema is for. For an hour and a half, I was in that tank, I was in that war.

This bold Israeli film manages to capture the horror, chaos, and pointlessness of war. And it does this by allowing the viewers to witness the experience and share the point of view of four scared and confused soldiers who must strive to survive while inside the constrictive atmosphere of a tank. That's just awesome.

Be advised that this is not necessarily what you'd call a guy movie. It's more of a grown man's war movie -- all about how, yes, war is really exciting, but also seriously horrifying. Most of this material is not new, and I tired of one of the occupants of the tank asking to go pee every five minutes... but how great and glorious it is that there are still some movies that coax the viewer to search his soul rather than cheer the explosions

The copy I watched had subtitles that appeared to be written by Borat which was odd. See Fury or The Beast if you want a decent tank film as this is pretty bad.

Like 'Buried', this is all about the audience being locked in as well which results in one pretty tense movie. Even if it does sort of lose its way, you've got to respect the attempt as well as the refusal to compromise. It's the short cousin to 'Das Boot'.

Nothing like a war film with some added claustrophobia. Well made yet some silly developments had me scratching my head. Also left me feeling like it could of been a whole lot better.

Capped a wave of Israeli anti-Lebanon-war movies following Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, all of them from rank-and-file perspective, gritty and realistic. Gets off to a bad start with some gratuitously gory and manipulative scenes (a defensive war but with silly goals, it was needlessly gruesome). Thankfully, the film then turns into a relentlessly unsettling and tense war thriller with the camera never leaving a tank's interior (we only see the outside through the viewfinder).

The "through the sight" shots seemed a bit too gimmicky to me.

worst experience ever. so much appreciated by the critics but i didn't like the movie at all

tense war movie, interesting central gimmick, but also dramatically and narratively contrived, and i really have little patience for films whose main priority is to humanise members of the invading army, no matter how "justified" this invasion might have been (and in this case, well...). i completely lost interest once the guy told us about his crying story, ugh.

Intense depiction of the war that takes an interesting allegorical approach but stretches it a bit thin. Almost to the point of gimmick.

Stunningly shot, slow-moving, realistic and unsettling, "Lebanon" is one of the most powerful -and original- war films I have seen.

The tank equivalent of Das Boot. Very manipulate in a bad way in the first half but gets much more interesting in the second.

I liked the way it was shot but I hated pretty much every character in this movie.

avesome

lübnan, savas, israil, falanjist, tank (tank icindeki bir grup israil askerinin hikayesini anlatiyor. özellikle keskin nisanci bu durumdan hic hosnut degildir.) Fena film degil. Biraz klestrofobik

Well put together and memorable. The subject matter is harrowing and it personifys the horror of war- but not greatly entertaining or enjoyable.

"Blood, sweat and oil...the only thing worse than the dark, hellish, odorous claustrophobia of the tank's innards is the tunnel vision afforded by the gun-sight..."

Some parts were very good, some parts almost hilariously overwrought. The tear of the dying camel?

"Das Panzer".

I thought this movie was great is a lot of ways. The POV of the four confused/scared soldiers within the tank was awesome (because the actors all do a great job). The lingering shots through the cross hairs do an excellent job adding to the atmosphere and puts us on equal terms emotionally to the gunner himself. My only real complaint is how often the soldiers within the tank blatantly disregarded orders and no one ever seemed to care that much (seemingly unrealistic). Otherwise it's great.

On the one hand this is gritty and claustrophobic and must be applauded for the way it pulls no punches in portraying horrific violence and cruelty. On the other hand it does employ quite a few cliches of plot and characterisation that diminish its impact significantly.

Great little film about the horrors of war as it is seen from the inside of a tank... However, it is still filled with clichés suchs as a disobeying soldier and why oh why is the tank hatch never locked? It could have been done even more claustrophobic and if they had taken their time streching the ending a bit more and making it more suspensefull the overall rating would have been higher. I imagine that it is due to a small budget and with that in mind the creators get the best out of it...

Overall Enjoyment: 20/40, Plot/Themes: 10/20, Cinematography/Direction: 10/20, Acting/Writing: 10/20 Film entirely from the view of the tank crew, the only interaction with the outside world was through the tank's scope. Ultimately though, not much happened in the movie and what did happen was quite predictable from the beginning. It was your standard anti-war movie, but the characters weren't that interesting and neither were the set-pieces.

"Samuel Maoz's portrait of four young Israelis manning a roving war machine on the first day of the 1982 Lebanon War is solely an experiential affair." - Nick Schager

goed perspectief

In war, we are reduced to blood and piss and fear and moan. An agonizing chamber piece of audio-visual critique. Der Tank.

A surviving mother, a higher officer, all of whom fix their eyes into the tanks' gunsight, challenging the viewer and questioning his/her reaction to war and loss rather than the gunner's, nice touch by Maoz, who shows some great talent. A shame it stumbles through its occasional questionable stupidity: disobeying orders, tank's hatch never locked,... Thrilling and reflective if flawed, but definitely worth your time.

25/05/10. Makes Waltz with Bashir look like The Care Bear Movie. Genuinely tense and incredibly atmospheric, a very powerful if somewhat traumatising film.