Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 31, 2010

Winner of the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, Samuel Maoz's "Lebanon" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distirbutors Metrodome Video. The supplemental features on the disc include an audio commentary with director Samuel Maoz; "Views from the Frontline"; "Background to the First Lebanon War"; and the film's original theatrical trailer. In Hebrew, with optional English subtitles. Region-B "locked". Please be advised that the film contains disturbing footage that is not appropriate for minors!

Man is steel. The tank is only iron.

Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon reminded me about Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort. Both films effectively reveal the enormous psychological pressure young soldiers have to endure while serving in the Israeli Army. Both films are also notably claustrophobic, to the point of being impossible to endure.

In Cedar’s Beaufort a group of young Israeli soldiers guards a mythological 12th Century Crusader Castle, which is shelled by Hezbollah on a daily basis. While the bombs keep falling, some of the soldiers become paranoid. Eventually they leave, having realized that they have been sent to fight someone else’s war.

In Maoz’s Lebanon a group of young, inexperienced Israeli soldiers (Yoav Donat, Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Michael Moshonov) are dispatched deep into the heart of Lebanon to search a town that has been heavily bombarded by the Israeli Army. They are unsure what exactly they are searching for, or when their mission will come to an end. The soldiers are in a tank that is literally falling apart.

Once in Lebanon, the soldiers are ordered to shoot at different targets - a moving old Mercedes-Benz, man in a truck, building. They can hear the explosions but not the screams of the injured. Occasionally, they can clearly see the torn bodies of those they have been shooting at.

The soldiers get lost and end up in an area controlled by Syrian guerillas; one of them (Dudu Tassa) fires an anti-tank grenade launcher and hits the tank; shortly after, he is captured. No one is injured but accusations start flying around. Outside of the tank, the unit’s commander (Zohar Strauss) asks for aerial support but instead gets two heavily armed phalangists, who offer to show him how to get his men out of the town.

Lebanon is a graphic, disturbing, gloomy, claustrophobic, notably realistic war film. It is shot in a unique fashion that made me feel as if I was inside the tank, next to the sweating soldiers; practically all of the action is seen through the tank’s scope. There is an overwhelming amount of extreme close-ups as well, showing the agonizing faces of those who are dying outside of the tank, or the men inside it, who are slowly losing their minds.

The chaotic sounds in the film are also remarkably effective. When shots are fired or the tank gets hit, the intensity is unbearable. I have never been inside a real tank and can only imagine what it feels like to be in one - literally, a giant metal box with a limited amount of air and light - but Lebanon allowed me to gain a real sense of the incredible psychological torture soldiers that operate tanks must endure.

Director Maoz was a young man when he served in the Israeli Army as a tank gunner. He was in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982. Like the soldiers from the tank in his film, he killed. Twenty five years later after the First Lebanon War, director Maoz wrote the script for Lebanon. It was his way of dealing with the fear, sense of guilt, and paranoia he suffered through the years.

In 2009, Lebanon won the prestigious Golden Lion and Nazareno Taddei awards at the Venice Film Festival. The film also won four Israeli Film Academy awards, including Best Cinematography (Giora Bejach) and Best Sound (Alex Claude, David Lis).

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080/50i transfer, Samuel Maoz's Lebanon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Metrodome Video.

Before I comment on the quality of the high-definition transfer the British distributors have used for this Blu-ray release, I would like to mention that I did not get a chance to see Lebanon theatrically and therefore have no point of reference as to what its intended look is.

Generally speaking, fine object detail is good, particularly during the daylight footage. Clarity, however, fluctuates a lot; the footage from inside the tank is typically very dark, at times making it incredibly difficult to see clearly everything the camera is focused on. The color-scheme is certainly unique - greens, yellows and blues are subdued, browns warm, and blacks rich and truly overwhelming. Because of the manner in which the action is film, there is hardly any natural balance - the dark colors are the prevalent ones. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern; neither is macroblocking. Mild motion-judder, however, is at times easy to spot. Last but not least, I did not see any purely transfer-related anomalies to report in this review. (Note: The main feature on this Blu-ray disc is encoded in 1080/50i. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B player and a TV set capable of processing the 1080/50i encoded data, or a Region-Free player that will also convert the 1080/50i data to 1080/60i in order to access the disc's content in North America).

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Hebrew DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Hebrew Dolby Digital 2.0 (both with portions of Arabic and English). For the record, Metrodome Video have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The Hebrew DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is solid. The bass is powerful and punchy, the rear channels not overly active but effective, and the high-frequencies not overdone. When the tank moves, or gets hit, you will definitely get a good feeling of how well your audio system can perform. The dialog is mostly crisp, clean, stable and easy to follow. Even the occasional radio transmissions are easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Nicolas Becker and Benoit Delbecq's ambient score either. Finally, while viewing the film I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hissings to report in this review.

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Background to the First Lebanon War - a factual summation of the First Lebanon War highlighting key events. In text format. (1080p).

View from the Frontline - writer and director Samuel Maoz, production designer Ariel Roshko, director of photography Giora Bejach, and actor Yoav Donat address the production history and message of Lebanon. In text format. (1080p).

Theatrical trailer - the original theatrical trailer for the for the film. In Hebrew, with imposed English subtitles. (3 min, 1080/50i).

Commentary - an interesting audio commentary with writer and director Samuel Maoz. Mr. Maoz addresses the production history of his film, how specific scenes were shot, what obstacles his production team had to overcome, etc. Mr. Maoz also talks about his participation in the First Lebanon War. In English.

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Samuel Maoz's Lebanon is a raw, powerful, very intense war film. In my opinion, it was also one of the top films to be released theatrically last year. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of British distributors Metrodome Video, looks and sounds very good. It is, however, Region-B "locked". Let's hope that a local distributor will bring Lebanon to North America as well. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.