[I wrote this last September when I saw THE CRYING DONKEY Lebanon at New York Film Festival. I even was quoted as wanting to punch people who liked this film. Re-published from defunct blog.]
It is an undeniable fact that Samuel Moaz’ Lebanon is a focused view on the horror of war and the undesirable situations one would find as a solider in conflict. Barely ten minutes into the ham-fisted melodrama, the disorienting nature of P.O.V. and fear are hammered home in such a way that it’s almost hard to believe what you, as the viewer, are privy to.
Then, there’s the crying donkey. As the gun turret (which represents our view and Shmulik, the Gunner’s) wildly scans the aftermath of an air force bombing , the camera stops on a blown apart donkey. The turret zooms in repeatedly, “clicking” each time as it gets closer until finally the only thing in the cross hairs is the donkey’s eye.
And a sole tear slides down.
This is, in effect, everything that cripples Maoz’ film in a single shot. Touted by a few other critics in attendance as “this year’s Waltz with Bashir,” which was at NYFF ‘08, Lebanon follows a Tank crew of green soldiers who are dispatched to clean-up the remnants of a town with a paratrooper squad before moving onward.
While heavily based in Moaz’ own experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon war, the film evokes its’ mood in a pitch-perfect sense that everyone is afraid and no one can be turned into a soldier, no matter what kind of artillery they’re given. The sound design, as Steven Boone noted at The House Next Door, is phenomenal and Alex Claude should be lauded with countless awards, medals and tiny gold speakers. Unfortunately, we can’t just focus on that.
Lebanon drowns itself in sentimentality and overwrought statements from a character continually repeating “I have two weeks left in the service” and to “call my mom, so she isn’t worried about me.” He may as well reveal his last name is Red-Shirt. If you want to use the excuse that since this is a war film, it has to be heavy handed–go right ahead. But it’s appalling that this by-the-numbers “war is hell” has received so much critical love for something as asinine as a crying donkey.