By Tom Horgen
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
In the cinema’s long fascination with chronicling war, one would think we as viewers have seen just about all there is to see. Apparently not, as the Israeli film “Lebanon” deftly handles the challenge of telling its entire story from the innards of a loud, careening metal tank. It is a grisly experience and one of the greatest war films I have ever seen.
“Lebanon” takes place on the first day of the 1982 Lebanon War. The bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian opposition has led to an invasion of southern Lebanon, which is a stronghold for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Rolling north is an Israeli tank, charged with accompanying infantry platoons as they move through villages decimated by the Air Force. “Lebanon” shares a clear lineage to the classic war film “Das Boot,” which took place inside a German submarine. But the tank is a different kind of mechanical beast. It is hot, cramped and it stinks. Controlling its movements are four young men — a driver, a gunner, a loader and their commander. All are ill-trained to handle the seething power beneath their feet, and they know it. “Till now I’ve shot only barrels,” says the gunman.