Sharna Blog

Waltz With Bashir Blog EntrySharna Nelko
In our most recent class, we continued to watch the movie Waltz with Bashir. As the plot begins to unfold, we see Ari‘s memories surface. He talks to his army friends to see what they remember in hopes that they will trigger his memories. This in fact does happen, and he starts to recollect what he did during the war. Many of the stories include people removing themselves from the situations that they were in. There were parties and party boats to distract from the massacres, hallucinations, games, and dancing in the middle of a battlefield.
There had to be an explanation for all of the soldiers’ behavior. During class discussion, we came to the conclusion that the soldiers were involved in these odd activities because they were attempting to distance themselves from the situations that they were in. They partied and played games to distract from the fact that they were killing people and could themselves die at any moment. Had they thought about everything that they were doing, they would have been driven to insanity. If they detached themselves from what they were doing, it could not bother them. Perhaps the reason that Ari does not remember parts of the war is because he was psychologically removed from it. He also may not have wanted to remember what happened, until now.
A story that one of his friends relates to him includes the friend being on a “party boat”, falling asleep out of fear of being a soldier, and hallucinating. During the hallucination or dream, he sees a very large woman come out of the water who then draws him into the water with her. This woman is much larger than him, and she swims away from the boat while he is holding onto her. During discussion, we discussed that this was not a sexual reference at all, but evidence that this man was very scared, and longing for a motherly figure to rescue him from what was just about to happen. After he is far away from the ship, he sees it explode. This is another example of someone wanting to distance oneself from what is going on and not wanting to participate in it.
Another situation is where one of his friends is involved in a battle. This man gets up from where he is ‘safe’ and begins to shoot at all of the buildings above him. The interesting part of this scene is that while he is shooting, he is dancing at the same time. He is dancing a waltz, and there is classical music playing in the background of all of the shooting. This man seems crazy to be doing that, but he is simply escaping from the reality of his situation. We also discussed how it was particularly interesting to see such an elegant thing like the waltz present in such a crude and violent situation like war.
The plot is unfolding and the movie is beginning to get very interesting. It is remarkable that after hearing his friends share their stories Ari suddenly remembers what happened to him. It is also amazing that these soldiers were able to repress the disturbing memories. I speak on behalf of everyone in the class when I say that we cannot wait to see what Ari remembers next.