Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey [DVD] [2009]

Set inside an IDF tank during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon this film attempts, with success, to give an idea of the claustrophobia, confusion, and fear arising from fighting inside a large tin box with indifferent air conditioning, vision and lighting. The crew of the tank seem rather hopeless: a mixture of Dad's Army's Private Pike and a worker's soviet. They are by turns confused, truculent, and ready to run. However, for all the awesome power of the tank it is fighting in a town and depends on its little brothers - the paratroopers led by the ferocious Major Jamil - to protect it in an environment where it is blind. As if the crew had not enough to contend with in their own bickering they meet everything from a Syrian RPG operator, through some Phalangists to fedayeen using civilians as shields (though with indifferent results for themselves). The only conclusions I reached were that being a civilian in a shooting war is dangerous and that I think I would prefer serving with the Nine Mile Snipers than the Sprockets. Effective cinema but not one that will get repeat viewing.

This film does for tanks what Das Boot does for submarines. It is well-filmed and well-acted and gives a tank's-eye view of the conflict in Lebanon with everything seen from the perspective of the tank crew. There is a real sense danger and the tension amongst the crew is built-up effectively by the director. This is a subtitles film - which may put some people off but it is a different take on warfare that is all the better for it.

Having just viewed this movie at the cinema, and about to purchase the DVD, I am basing my thoughts on the large screen experience which may be superior to the DVD one. Ignore the opinions of ex tank crews, this is drama, not a doco so of course it will resort to dramatic effect over hyperrealism. I work in a hospital and know better than to watch medical shows, they annoy the crap out of me. So many criticisms of the crew's ineptitude. Remember, they were conscripts, not GI Joe's itching for action, they hadn't trained together so were not a cohesive unit, and they lacked real world experience in battle. Another reviewer thinks that helping the enemy relieve himself was an act of humanity, truth is if he hadn't the prisoner would have urinated in the bottom of the tank and the crew would have waded in it, so it was an act of pragmatism. Others lament the lack of political analysis. It's irrelevant. It isn't an anti war film, it isn't propaganda, it is about the emotional experience of being inside a potential coffin with scant vision, scant information, scant experience and a truckload of fear. The nationality of the crew is also irrelevant, change the language to Iraqi, Russion, German, it would be the same. The fact that it would turn you off war is a by-product. It certainly would turn you off being in a tank crew. For me this film does what it set out to do brilliantly.

It was with great anticipation that I was going to view this one. Could this be the the movie for us tankers? They were going to show how war is from the inside of a tank and it was my tank, the Centurion! It was also made in Israel and if anyone knows about tank warfare it is them. Unfortunately, nobody asked any tankers. The Director instead took what I suspect is the inside from a submarine in the first world war and tried to make people believe that this was a tank! There was even water inside! After one minute I was so angry that my family who were watching this with me started covering their ears! There is no room in a tank to walk around as they did here! Tankers wear helmets with radiospeakers built in so they can hear. No one can talk inside a tank in combat without radio and telehelmets! The actors in this film would have been knocked senseless within a hour of driving across the terrain. Of course you can fire the gun without running the engine! There is no room to drop into the tank killed soldiers or prisoners. The list can go on and on.Ok, leaving aside that this was not a tank but more of a submarine did it show tank warfare? No, absolutely not. The Infantry in this movie more or less acted as they should but the tank...No one sends a tank alone into a fight. Tanks stick together in platoons, companies and battalions. This was just silly.The drama, what about that? Did it show the stress and fatigue of tank warfare on the crew? Considering that the whole film covered about one day and that they were in very little combat the crew showed the strain as if they had been fighting for weeks. But on the other hand if they are sent into combat alone in a WWI submarine in Lebanon maybe that is understandable.Any political overtones? Hard to say. We were never informed about the war or why they were fighting. We meet an Israeli tank crew that were psychologically unfit from the beginning, an Israeli platoon commander that was very one dimensional, one Syrian commando that was treated fairly well by the Israelis, one falangist that was horrible and of course the usual innocent civilian casualties. Yes, war is horrible, that is why we should avoid it. Was this worse than any other war? No.I am still waiting for anyone to make a movie about tank warfare from the tankers point of view. If you watch this you are still in the dark.

Great movie and often overlooked. As practically everything happens inside the tank, it is very claustrophobic and will keep you feeling uneasy fight until the end.

This is a film worth seeing but there are not a lot of laughs. The perspective is unusual and very claustrophobic but well done - you get a good sense of what it would be like to be inside the tank. I think it portrays well the dirty, tedious and frightening reality of this type of war, there is no glory here. Also interesting are the relationships between the soldiers and how they endure this particular hell. The futility of war and the fragility of life are exposed in this film.