Quote:
Maoz doesn’t understand that the best way to convey maddening, terrifying semi-blindness is to emphasize what’s not quite visible. Instead, he makes such painfully crass moves as a slow, lengthy zoom onto the tear-filled eye of a dying donkey, bludgeoning the viewer with editorial pathos in a way that would make even Steven Spielberg wince.
Ouch! D'Angelo is absolutely right that Mao's characters are broadly-drawn and one-dimensional. Basing a script on one's own experience doesn't guarantee an authentic feel. Maoz, who apparently was the rookie gunner, was probably too naive and scared then to observe character in his team members deeply, and seems to lack the skill as a writer today to inject the depth he lacked back then. The movie is exciting and tense, but the "formalist stunt" of shooting everything inside a tank isn't enough to justify a big award at Venice. Nor is this as profound a statement (even granting their limitations of the Israeli point of view) about the Lebanese war of '82 as either Beaufort (a conventional, but intricately suspenseful war film) or(most thoughtful of the lot) Waltz with Bashir.