Lebanon

Introduction

"Before he leaves the camp he stops, he scans the world outside,
And where there used to be some shops, is where the snipers sometimes hide…"

So sang Phil Oakey in the Human League's 1984 single The Lebanon, subsequently voted as the 9th worst lyrical couplet ever - rather unfairly really as it's pretty much accurate.

Lebanon ('The Lebanon' is dismissed by its natives as an Israeli term…) is the latest film from Israeli director Samuel Maoz, based on his own experiences in the 1982 campaign in said country. The invasion of Lebanon in June 82 was justified by Israel after an assassination attempt on Israeli diplomat Shlomo Argov by a splinter group of the PLO. That first year of fighting led to the deaths of an estimated 17, 825 Lebanese. Maoz was a young tank gunner conscript during this war and his film is based upon his experiences.

Rookie gunner Shmulik (Yuav Donat) is assigned to a tank after training in gunnery against barrels. His fellow inexperienced crew are tank commander Assi (Itay Tiran), gun loader Hertzel (Oshri Cohen) and driver Yigal (Michael Moshonov). The tank is assigned to a group of paratroopers under the command of grizzled veteran Jamil (Zohar Staruss), who is unsympathetic to the inexperience of the crew. He is even more unsympathetic when Shmulik hesitates to fire on an incoming vehicle that leads to the death of one of the paratroops. An opportunity to redeem himself seconds later only makes him feel much worse as he inadvertently blows up a chicken farmer's pickup.

The tank moves on to its next objective, a nearby village obliterated in part by the Israeli air force, with orders to clear it before moving on…

Picture

Maoz attempts to show the claustrophobic conditions of serving within a tanks and so the main action is shown within the dimly light and cramped conditions of the tank itself. It feels like a smaller scale version of Das Boot in many ways, there appears to be no escape from the confines of the tank with only the occasional visitor via the top hatch allowing sparse light to enter the environment.

The world outside is shown via the gunnery sight, only Shmulik and Yigal are able to see what's going on outside. Panning in any direction is also accompanied by the sound of hydraulics to imitate the movement of the turret. The gun sight also changes during the course of the film with it becoming slightly dirtier and also cracked as the tank is exposed to war, maybe symbolising the effect that war also has on the young men.

Extras

Quite an interesting commentary from director Samuel Maoz, who explains his motivations behind the film, how his experiences in the war shaped him and the sense of redemption that the film gave him.

There are also two text extras, one on the history of the 1982 Lebanon war and the other on the background to the film. Both pretty interesting.

Overall

So, have you ever wondered what it might be like to go to war in a tank? My dad was an Armoured Farmer with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment but I don't think he ever served in a tank, he was a tech storesman and so may have been spared the rough cramped ride that inevitably comes with tanks. Thankfully the Western democracies have had little practice with tank warfare over the last couple of decades, only the two Gulf campaigns - there's not much room for tanks in the Afghanistan campaign.

Israel, on the other hand, uses tanks all the time and has a conscript army to boot, with mandatory service required from age eighteen for up to three years. Israel has had more than its share of big tank battles since its formation in 1948, but tanks can also be assigned in smaller numbers to support infantry objectives. Lebanon explores this second scenario through the eyes of gunner Shmulik, himself a surrogate for director Maoz. The scenario facing Shmulik is exactly the same experience that the director went through and you sense from the commentary and background text that having this sequence on film allowed him to make his peace at his inexperience and hesitation.

Despite the action sequences, Lebanon is a slow building film with tension growing inside the tank as the inexperienced crew get their first exposure to war. The claustrophobic conditions are displayed well and you can almost smell the cordite and oil, the latter leaking from instrument panels. Another nice touch is the addition of bags of soup croutons 'borrowed' from the kitchens as extra food, smeared all over the crew and the inside of the tank after being hit by an RPG that rips open the bag as croutons explode all over the inside of the turret, coating all the surfaces that are already caked in oil. Tank life is a glamorous experience. Which I guess is the point that Maoz is making here…

There has been a fair amount of criticism of the film in being Israeli propaganda and not being a fair depiction of Israeli action. I would guess that this is the point of setting the film on day one of the conflict with none of the tank crew having faced action before, with all the tension and foreboding that comes with the realisation that war has arrived and you have no option but to play your part in it. A day or two later and all the initial misgivings would pass as the soldier gets used to the conditions and his role, no longer afraid of pulling that trigger and quite possibly all the more eager.

Confusion also reigns within the tank as commander Assi slowly falls apart under the stress of it all and crew can't make out why they have suddenly found themselves engaging Syrian soldiers when they should be facing the Lebanese. This is never explained to them, and it suddenly appears as if the whole of the Arab world is facing them. You add on the quite horrific experiences of just what damage your tank can do and it all adds up to quite a scary prospect for 18 year olds…

I wouldn't say that this film is better than The Hurt Locker, but it is a nice addition to the anti-war film genre depicting the hopelessness of war. Regardless of the fact that these are conscripts rather than volunteers (such as the British Army), it is true that most combat veterans are between the ages of 18 and 25 - I left the operational theatre of the first Gulf campaign on my 23rd birthday.

A war film for those who can think about rather than just revel in war…