Reviews

I am not sure why this movie is rated so low on this site. Huge spoiler:

Maybe because it follows the cliché of a robot becoming more human by falling in love.

However, otherwise the movie is very well-made and deeply philosophical, but at the same time not boring by any means. Being familiar with the USSR does provide some context that makes the movie more enjoyable, but it's probably not required.

While I can appreciate the message that the director was trying to get through with this movie, while watching I was constantly reminded of how boring the movie was, and how I could be doing something better than watching it, for instance, watching fish in a tank.

The camera work was bad, the story... what story? And the little character development that was there didn't make any impression on me at all.

Being from Israel myself, I had very high hopes for this movie, but Gitai flat-out blew it.

Back to the point of the movie - I believe it was trying to portray how war is terrible, especially for the common soldier. However, Gitai failed on all accounts: firstly, the viewer never feels sorry for the main characters, because they're never in danger and never lose anyone they really care about. Secondly, in his crusade to portray war as terrible, he completely destroys the image of the Israeli army. Thirdly, and this is probably the most important, the main characters (Russo and Weinrub) don't die, but return home safely. It's as if, right at the end, Gitai spit on his message, and decided to create a new one: nightmares happen, but eventually they're over and life returns to the way it used to be.

Whatever you do, don't see this movie. Not only is it bad, but it's also plain boring. Movies are meant for entertainment, or for provoking thought, or both. This film provides neither.

Warning: May contain spoilers!

First of all, let's forget the political implications of this movie. Doing so enables us to see that it's a masterpiece documentary. It could be the most entertaining documentary I've ever seen, and that's considering I already knew all the information it presented before seeing it.

Now, about the political implication...

It's no secret that this movie is pro-Israeli. It interviews just one Palestinian as opposed to about a dozen Israelis, of which there's just one that is left-wing (supports the Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders openly).

On the other hand, one must understand that the Palestinians are taught from youth nowadays how to act with the media around and it's seen in every Israel-Palestine documentary, including this one. When the Palestinian interviewee speaks, he says the official lines that he was told to say, and guess what? They're lies.

SPOILER: For example, he says that they have no problems with the Jewish people, only the 'Zionist occupation'. I won't get into why 'Zionist Occupation' is an incorrect term, but it's enough to see the Palestinian sermons on TV (sanctioned by the PLO/PA!) where preachers say 'Jews are Jews! Kill them!' to understand what I'm talking about. And this is one of the things this movie shows.

So, what about the Israeli responses? They might be pro-Israeli, coming from Israel, but if you double- and triple-check all the facts presented by them, they're all true. Not a single lie inside. This is important because I can personally pinpoint outright lies in every single pro-Palestinian documentary to date.

Sure, omission is used in this movie as a tool to get the pro-Israeli point across, but the fact needs to be faced that there are very few objective documentaries on this subject. I've seen at least two dozen (probably more, lost count) in total and only one was objective (and one more or less objective). Moreover, the majority of these are pro-Palestinian.

In other words, this movie shouldn't be taken as a standard gauge for objectivity and it should be understood that it's pro-Israeli. However, even considering that, it's the best there is for a quick presentation of the Israeli point of view. And also it doesn't tell lies - that's important.