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Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Ashraf Barhom, Reymond Amsallem ... see more see more... , Michael Moshonov , Zohar Strauss , Dudu Tassa

The First Lebanon War - June, 1982. A lone tank is dispatched to search a hostile town that has already been bombarded by the Israeli Air Force. What seems to be a simple mission gradually spins out o... read more read more...f control. Shmuel the gunner, Assi the commander, Herzl the loader and Yigal the driver are the tank's crew, four 20-something boys who have never fought in a war and are now operating a killing machine. Though trying to remain brave, the boys are pushed to their mental limits as they struggle to survive in a situation they cannot contain, and try not to lose their humanity in the chaos of war. Writer-director Samuel Maoz's raw and visceral film is based on his own experiences as a twenty year old novice soldier serving in the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon war. Using his own vivid recollections to bring us inside an Israeli tank during the first 24 hours of the invasion, Maoz restricts the film's action entirely to the tank's interior and shows us the outside world only-as the four young soldiers themselves see it-through the lens of a periscopic gun sight. The cathartic process of writing and directing LEBANON allowed Maoz to finally free himself of the events that he had experienced twenty-five years earlier.-- (C) Sony Pictures Classics

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71% liked it

5,042 ratings

Critics

90% liked it

97 critics

R, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: Samuel Maoz

Release Date: August 6, 2010

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DVD Release Date: January 18, 2011

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Flixster Reviews (389)

  • blacksheepboy
    April 1, 2012
    blacksheepboy
    A suffocating story centered on four Israeli soldiers within a tank moving across an invaded land - isolated from the chaos outside but seeing everything through the gun-sight. A complex war film shot entirely inside the vehicle, depicting the personal impact of a conflict.
  • c0up
    March 28, 2011
    c0up
    'Lebanon'. A gritty and visceral look at the war in the 1980s, geniusely directed purely from the viewpoint of a group of soldiers inside one tank, with their scope / viewfinder being the only link to the outside world.
  • SirPant
    November 8, 2010
    SirPant
    Lebanon is quite a unique war film in that its shot entirely from the perspective of a turret controller of a tank. This gives the viewer a voyeuristic glance at war and highlights the crews contrast of emotions. On one hand they feel trapped and claustrophobic but on the other h... read moreand they feel safe and protected. This all of course can be too much for a man, what with the heat, conflicting views and general madness and confusion that war brings. It does however make compelling viewing. A compelling, original and brilliantly devised film by Samuel Maoz - a director to look out for!
  • gor41
    October 2, 2010
    gor41
    Throws you right into the heart of the madness of war and doesn't shy from showing there are no winners. Chastening tale which makes an excellent companion piece with 'Waltz with Bashir'.
  • Alireza64ir
    September 15, 2010
    Alireza64ir
    Im sick of these political-war films.Always the same message.All of them are similar with just different locations and names.They should portray war from a new point of view.
  • michaelneumann
    February 2, 2011
    michaelneumann
    A film fraught with shameless war clichés that seems to arc toward genuine tension and intrigue, and then ending when you think the film is about to get good. Disappointing, considering the buzz, because it offered nothing new or unique while also squandering a premise with pote... read morential. It was actually kind of amazing how the periscope vision - this being on a 1982 tank in Israel, mind you - would have a high-res zoom-in on so many situations and faces. The narrative was that of a really boring first-person-tank video game. There was a character moment worth a laugh, and a real sense of intensity that ratcheted up toward the end... but that ratcheting needed to happen earlier in the film, or it needed to find a less blatently didactic focus to fill the film's first 3/4 runtime. By only meting out characterization from the limited occupants of the tanks, and relying so much on the imagery from outside of the tank, the sense of claustrophobia the director clearly wanted never actually occurred. It really was just a slow tank up to Lebanon.
  • fb796967648
    August 30, 2010
    fb796967648
    Rigorous in form, brutal in content, this jittery hothouse film takes place almost entirely in the tight confines of a tank lumbering through a war-torn town. There are occasional glimpses through the cross-hairs of the firing sight and momentary visits from outside, but the thi... read moreng is almost entirely in the hands of the bedraggled four guys just trying to get through the mission. It's gripping and stomach-churning, and can sometimes feel like a (very good) play; but it's also a cry for the end of war and a fairly eloquent one at that. A haunting film that will not soon leave your thoughts.
  • gator681
    August 22, 2010
    gator681
    "Lebanon" is a visceral and horrifying anti-war movie that makes great use of its limited location of the interior of a tank.(It is not as cramped as I imagined it to be, as there is room to lay down or a corpse.) The movie starts at 3:00 am on June 6, 1982 inside a tank that re... read moreceives orders from the crew's superior, Jamil(Zohar Shtrauss). For the record, everybody seems to be on a first name basis, with ranks rarely brought up.(It is eventually revealed that Jamil is a major and Asi(Itay Tiran), the tank commander, clings tenaciously to his being an officer, even if nobody is listening to him.) That looseness clashes with what is happening outside of the tank that we only get to see from the tank's point of view.(How much should I read into a shot of a poster of the World Trade Center caught in the crosshairs?) So, while the viewer might get to see the war up close and personal, there is little on the big picture that leaves who is on whose side a little murky and very realistic, making a dangerous situation even worse. Speaking of which, Yigal(Michael Moshonov), the tank driver, would like his mom to know he is okay while Shmulik(Yoav Donat) freezes at his first opportunity to fire which results in the death of an infantryman, but not the second time. Yes, while we may laugh at the fact that he just killed a lot of dangerous looking chickens on a truck, the movie again becomes deadly serious when we are reminded about the driver. This is the kind of thing that no amount of training can prepare you for, as nobody ever tells the soldiers about the possibility of civilian deaths when they are shooting barrels.
  • danieljparsons
    January 15, 2011
    danieljparsons
    Flawed but fascinating, entirely tank-set war film with the feeling of claustrophobia its greatest achievement. The 'tank-eye' view did eventually get tiresome and actually not that much happens, but there are some memorable moments (a woman's dress catches fire and a soldier hur... read moreriedly tears it from her then pushes her to the ground; music playing from an unidentified source signifies that the tank is about to be attacked), fine performances and a palpable sense of atmosphere - you can practically smell the blood, piss and dirt within the confines of the tank.
  • Nutterjr
    June 6, 2010
    Nutterjr
    Exposes our human vulnerability through 4 frightened, under-prepared Israeli soldiers reluctantly involved in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Shot entirely inside a tank, the sense of claustrophobia is vivid.

View All Lebanon (Levanon) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Roger Moore
October 20, 2010
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

We can smell the sweat, urine and diesel fuel in Lebanon. We can taste the exhaust, the metallic tang of explosive fumes from a shell ejected from the cannon. Full Review

Jonathan F. Richards
September 22, 2010
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com

There's a bit too much of the tight close-up of sweat- and soot-stained faces trembling with emotion and doubt, but there's no mistaking or escaping this movie's powerful impact. Full Review

Ty Burr
September 9, 2010
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

A filmmaking challenge that a cynic might dismiss as "Das Tank" if it didn't offer a scalding moral challenge in the bargain. Full Review

Tom Horgen
September 2, 2010
Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It is a grisly experience, and one of the greatest war films I have ever seen. Full Review

Peter Rainer
August 27, 2010
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Despite the film's staginess and conventionality, Maoz does a powerful job capturing the countenances of his soldiers in resonating close-ups. Full Review

Stephanie Merry
August 27, 2010
Stephanie Merry, Washington Post

Along with the plot's steady torment, a collection of elements reels the audience into the action to astonishing effect. Full Review

Andrea Gronvall
August 26, 2010
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader

Samuel Maoz drew from his own war experiences to write and direct this searing drama, which ranks alongside Platoon and No Man's Land as an antiwar statement and recalls the claustrophobic despair of ... Full Review

Michael Phillips
August 26, 2010
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

The 94 minutes of Lebanon are about as intense as an autobiographical war drama can be. Full Review

Roger Ebert
August 26, 2010
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This is a platoon picture in a rumbling, rolling crate. Full Review

Liam Lacey
August 20, 2010
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

An emotionally powerful if somewhat divided experience. Full Review

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