Lebanon

2009 Directed by Samuel Maoz

During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.

Oshri Cohen Michael Moshonov Yoav Donat Itay Tiran Zohar Shtrauss Reymonde Amsallem Dudu Tasa Ashraf Barhom Fares Hananya

Alternative Titles

Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey, Líbano, Ливан, Lebanon - Tödliche Mission, Libanon, Livanos, Liban, 레바논

drama war

93 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam_Davie ★★★

We're all aware of the blurred lines between good and bad when a war's fought. Both sides fight for what they believe is right. And when someone's life is on the line, desperate times bring forth desperate measures. The franticness of it all can lead to split second decisions that create abiding traumas for its survivors. And no amount of therapy, public adoration, or justification from those in charge can change that.
It's why Samuel Maoz, the director of Lebanon, refers to war as an act that "is not the last solution.” He believes that “War is no solution at all." Before becoming a film director, Maoz served as a gunner in the tank corps of the Israeli Defense Force…
Review by 49,42% ★★★★★ 3

mhm je ne sais pas qui est ce type Samuel Maoz ni pour qui il se prend de domper ceci [le film de guerre le plus viscéral et physiquement drainant de ce côté de private ryan] et foxtrot à dix ans d'intervalle et littéralement RIEN D’AUTRE et pourtant maintenant je suis convaincu qu’un cinéma personnel, engagé, poétique, immersif et techniquement élaboré existe, le genre de mix Villeneuve/Khondji/Wajda qui semble absolument improbable mais relève du miracle une fois que tu le vois à l’écran. tous les paris stylistiques portent fruit c’est décadent, je ne saurais par où commencer si ce n’est qu’utiliser le viseur du char d’assaut comme caméra subjective s’avère riche au niveau moral, au niveau du montage et au…
Review by Fips ★★★★ 2

It's like the Blair Witch Project, except instead of a forest they're in a tank and instead of a witch there's a war!
The IDF, much like the Wehrmacht after invading Poland, earned their reputation as a lean, mean, stainless steel war machine after the 1967 war. This movie tries to deconstruct the myth as none of the tankists are fit for the job. They don't know what they're supposed to do or what's going on, what any of it means and they fuck up. A lot.
I really liked it, it was a thrilling, claustrophobic experience that kept me on edge the whole running time. But just as the Blair Witch it's going to be extremely boring if you don't get into it. Just a bunch of guys sitting in a tank, whining and crying and you don't even get to see the action. Still ranks among the more inventive war films of recent years.
Review by Graham Williamson ★★★ 3

Part of March Around the World 2016. Today: Israel!
I'm always a bit bothered by the presumptuousness of films that name themselves after the country or town they're set in. A nickname or geographical feature is fine - Lone Star, Northwest Passage - as is a modifier - In Bruges, New York Stories. Brazil is something different, obviously. Baz Luhrmann's Australia, though, always brings to mind Mark Kermode's rejoinder - "What, all of it?" - and there's a similar problem with Samuel Maoz's Lebanon. This isn't the story of Lebanon, it's the story of a four-man Israeli tank crew trying to complete their mission during the war with Lebanon in the early 1980s.
Granted, ninety-eight per cent of all war…
Review by TajLV ★★★½

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Film #19 of 31 in my March Around The World | 2019 Challenge (Isreal)
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I visited Beirut in 1972, a decade before the First Lebanon War. To me, it was a wonderful place, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in peace, where history resided in every corner of the country, and where nature was at its most splendid, from the blue waters of the Mediterranean to the majestic cedars in the mountains near Bsharri. I am so fortunate to have such memories.
Here, Israeli writer-director Samuel Maoz gives us a very different view of Lebanon, as a war zone seen from the turret of a Centurion battle tank in 1982. On the very first day of the war,…
Review by Ruffa Ronan (Viola Davis stan) ★★★★★

To all the families in Lebanon whose life has been affected, destroyed, and taken away, i send my loves to you all. This is such a big massive havoc. We are currently experiencing a crises, yet another came. I am in tears after i saw all the pictures of the destroyed homes, deaths, and victims of the explosion. It was horrifying. Condolences to all the affected families. I love you all!
#PrayForLebanon
Review by Hicham Lamalem ★★★★½

سأستغل هاته الباحة للتعقيب على فيلم شاهدته في يوم سابق من هذا الأسبوع و على ضوءه سأعقب أيضا على هذا الفيلم.. كلاهما من إنتاج إسرائيلي.. الأول " رقصة والتز مع بشير " للمخرج أري فولمان، حاول من خلاله تقديم صورته المشوشة عن حرب لبنان لكنّي لم أستطع إذابة تفاعلي العاطفي مع مضمونه.. فهناك قد تلاعب المخرج بالأحداث بشكل يتحايل على الذاكرة.. تلك الذاكرة الأليمة التي لاحقت كل العرب بعد مجزرة صبرا و شاتيلا.. الفيلم كان ممتازا على المستوى الفني، الموسيقى كانت مميزة و خلط الأسلوب التوثيقي بالفلاشباك الروائي و الكل في قالب كرتوني.. كان عملا إخراجيا مميزا لكن مشكلتي معه كانت في المغزى منه و هو محاولة تبرئة إسرائيل من مسؤولية تلك المجزرة و إلصاق التهمة الكاملة بالكتائب اللبنانية المارونية.…
Review by Oliver Matheson ★★½

Samuel Maoz's Foxtrot back in 2017 is a really impressive work, visually powerful with a fascinating and thoughtful story to back it up. I was very curious to see how he kicked off his film career, and while it is interesting to see Maoz discover his preferred themes, Lebanon is unfortunately nothing more than a warm-up.
Lebanon follows the usual beats of your typical "new soldier joins the squad right before embarking on a mission" storyline, but does not tie that to a larger meaning, instead wallowing in predictability. We meet a young soldier named (I have no idea what his name was, I don't know the first thing about any of the characters, let alone their names) who joins a…
Review by Mustapha Othman ★★★★★

" يا مرحب بالقبضايات "
Lebanon 2009, is one of the deepest character studies in the history of cinema. It captures the feelings of four soldiers stuck in a tank on their first day in the Lebanese war.
Shmulik, Assi, Hertzel and Yigal.
Assi is the tank commander, an uncertain leader who cannot take decisions or takes bad ones, he has his " own reasons " for every bad decision he takes.
Shmulik is a gunner, he's way too stressed to fire a single shot, he's overwhelmed by the horrors of war, he observes the field, but his stress and fear keeps him from doing his duty as a gunner.
Hertzel reloads bombs, but he's the most stable in the…
Review by russman ★★★

Tank Up!
Review by Anthony Sutcliffe ★★★ 2

Great idea but after looking forward to seeing this for some time it was not as claustrophobic as I'd hoped. The idea for the film was that everything took place from the POV of the Israeli fighters in the tank. However this was weakened by the strange decision to subtitle the foreign fighters/civilians, even though our protagonists said that they didn't understand them. I appreciate this can add suspense to the story-telling (see Hitchcock's "bomb under the table") but this was only used to any effect with the foreign combatant locked with them in the tank. The film would have much better captured the dislocation of war if we the audience, like the fighters, couldn't understand what was being shouted…
Review by Baz ★★★

An interesting premise that is shot in a unique way, ultimately falls flat due to inexperience and a script that has too much packed into it, it feels overcooked.
There are real horrid of war on show, with some of the scenes so real you’d think you’re there. The idea to shoot predominantly through the periscope of the tank is to be commended. However it soon becomes more of gimmick and alienating from the central characters to be a fascinating tool.
Lebanon is another example of a film with nameless and characterless people that we should care about, yet we don’t. The situation is horrid; it’s war, it’s not pretty. As a film, its trying too hard to be all encompassing in terms of entertaining and factual, which ultimately is a faux pas.
Definitely worthwhile watch, but don’t expect Waltz with Bashir.

Recent reviews

Review by Onnib ★★★

Das Boot in a tank. A relatively short movie depicting an encounter of a rookie tank crew in the Lebanon war from the perspective of the crew inside the tank.
Review by Loïc Cardenas ★★★½

Damn that was stressful, even if some of it is a bit cliche and has some continuity errors but overall decent.
Review by Facundo Schlegel ★★★★

Al asesinato en masa
Los hombres lo llaman guerra
Review by Christina Javene

So there’s a whole five minute monologue in this about this dude bustin a fat load on his teacher’s stomach after finding out that his dad died. That’s about the subtlety they showed all the dead bodies with
Review by Matthew Kopp ★★ 1

While the movie seems to gratuitously lay on the gore and dead civilians, it never seems to arrive at any moral conclusion regarding the swath of death it surveys. The ugliest moments of human tragedy and killing are simply presented as "disturbing" and "bad." The disorienting nature and unclear timeline of the movie limits its ability to speak to a larger war experience, and gives very little explanation for the carnage.
All of this is done of course to achieve the movie's concept. While the director strives to emulate the isolation and emulation of the men in the tank, the movie suffers for it. Fury made me feel claustrophobic while still exploring more than just petty arguments and the occasional shallow moral dilemma. This movie also features the least competent or impressive tank crew of all time.
Review by Keith Lawrence ★★★★½

Intense, disturbing, claustrophobic, Lebanon is a gut-wrenching broad-brushstroke of an anti-war film but which simultaneously retains a deeply personal perspective through its raw emotion.
Filmed entirely within the confines of a battle-used tank, the first days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 are meticulously detailed by the palpably terrfied crew. Young and inexperienced, destroyed buildings and bloodied, dead bodies are merely glimpsed as instructions are received via a disembodied voice on the radio. Panic and fear reach fever pitch when it’s realised they have lost their way – and must rely on two Lebanese Phalangists to help them find the right track.
Based on his own personal experiences, writer/director Samuel Maoz (Foxtrot) took more than 20 years to bring his traumatic story to the screen. It’s a powerful, heartfelt telling.
Rating: 87%
Originally reviewed:
anopinionortwo.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/lebanon/
Review by foodslut ★★★★

I've never fought/worked in a tank, but I've dealt with enough folks who have to know that at least some of the technical detail inside the tank is not on - I'll leave it to tankers to fix those mistakes in the reviews. It was the tech inaccuracies that kept me from going to five stars.
That said, the film is not entirely without merit.
It does a good job, like Amos Gitai's Kippur, showing the confusion and, at times, seemingly ad-hoc nature of warfare as seen by the lowest level of the pyramid/pointiest end of the "spear". Do what you have to do next, no need to see the bigger picture because you're too busy doing - move now,…
Review by porroypeliculas ★★★½

La claustrofobia en la guerra. Emociones y sensaciones se mezclan entre el hierro y la pólvora. No es solamente subirse a un tanque y disparar. Tiene tintes de metraje encontrado.
Me gustó: un drama bélico bastante diferente que busca explorar otro costado de la guerra.
No me gustó: por momentos se vuelve muy asfixiante y planos confusos para la vista. También algunos enrosques en melodramas que no van a ningún lado.
Review by Camden ★★★

The stance to set the film within a tank is very interesting. The story is sometimes a bit rough but the characters' psychology is well written.
Review by Andrei Mutuliga ★★★

6.50/10
War is hell...and that's it.
Premisa este foarte buna, dar atmosfera claustrofoba si apasatoare din punct de vedere psihologic pe care si-a propus sa o transmita nu prea i-a iesit din punctul meu de vedere. L-am privit prea relaxat pentru un film de acest gen. Intrigile din interiorul tancului sunt fortate prin niste personaje slab dezvoltate, iar ceea ne ofera in afara tancului sunt doar imagini de manipulare emotionala. Per total este destul de captivant incat sa merite vazut o data macar pentru idee si pentru mesajul anti-razboi , mai ales de catre fanii genului, dar nu intra in categoria filmelor de razboi reusite care sa-ti ramana intiparite in minte.
Review by Guilherme de Alencar Pinto ★★★½

Una de las premisas formales de esta película que es —sólo en este sentido— minimista, es que toda la acción transcurre dentro de un tanque de guerra, en la «primera guerra de Líbano» (1982). No es exactamente así, porque buena parte del metraje consiste en escenas exteriores vistas a través del periscopio (indicado, a la manera de las viejas películas, con una máscara circular con los retículos para establecer el blanco, tal como se ve en el afiche). La premisa es violada en las imágenes marco (la primera y las dos últimas), que muestran un campo de girasoles, tributo inevitable al lirismo de Dovzhenko (TIERRA, 1931). Ese plano-marco inicial es de enigmática riqueza: pese al día soleado, son girasoles «tristes»,…
Review by Matheus Moura ★★★★

esse filme define muito bem o que poderia ser o significado da palavra ''dor''.