Waltz with Bashir

  It was movie night for the YSSP tonight, so again (as last time, with The Age of Stupid) we watched an uplifting, cheerful romantic comedy.  This week it was Waltz with Bashir, an animated movie about being an Israeli soldier in Lebanon at the time that a famous massacre occurred there, and about the difficulty of even remembering what has happened and what role one has played in past events.  A beautifully done movie, with a style somewhere between a dream sequence and a documentary.  Highly recommended.  In fact, it ought to be recommended viewing for anyone who is thinking of becoming a soldier.  Not just because it's anti-war; in fact, I'm not sure it is, exactly.  More because it raises big questions about moral responsibility, about questioning the chain of command, about thinking about the things that are happening around you instead of simply being carried along.  Important questions.