noralee
As an Israeli's view of war, "Kippur" takes "Thin Red Line"s visual approach, with little plot or explication or context, from the sacred (Yom Kippur mis en scene) to the procreative beginning, to the wounds and exhausted faces of the soldiers.This is a war where a soldier takes his used Fiat right up to the front and back again to his girlfriend's front door. Unlike "Tigerland" where the soldiers are young neophytes with taut basic training bodies, these are lean, lanky, long-haired chain-smoking, experienced reservists who pretty much pick and choose where they'll serve. Instead of the usual U.S. barking sergeant, this unit is based on long-term friendship, training, coordination, shared goals and consensus. Fodder for discussion on military management styles. And I can't think of another war movie where a guy named Weinraub is as sexy looking. Even my husband, who is a devotee of the War Channel and thought it was way too arty (and amazingly this was from the same director who did the agit-prop anti-Orthodox domestic drama "Kadosh") found one long sequence with almost no dialog very effective, as the medics try to rescue the wounded in the mud.The projectionist shut down the credits before it was finished.(originally written 12/2/2000)
kwhatever55
This is not a Hollywood film, and not an action film by any means. Its an art film, just look at the opening love making sequence. Two characters making love sopping in paint on Yom Kippur while everyone else takes part in religious activities. You dont get much more sac-religious than this. So we know this is not a propoganda film. Despite its boredom and such, when compared to other "anti-war" films like platoon and such, this is king. Why? Because there is nothing glorifying about it or the characters, its boring, there is not a single gunshot in the whole film. Rather we spend 2 hours following a medical rescue team in a chopper hauling dead and wounded bodies into a chopper. No heroic sacrifice, no barely dodging bullets and RPG's, no cool action sequences at all. Israel needs more films like this, to see the futility of fighting wars like this. The use of long shots puts us on the outside looking in on the film, and the use of long takes helps us observe these events in real time. Specifically with the stuck in the mud scene. THe one character ironically says "this earth, this sH^&*^" When the Israeli ideology is so focused on a spiritual connection with the land, the land they feel entitled to.
Its about time that Anti-war films actually institute a feeling of real social change, and not pretend to be anti-war films conveying sacrifice and a "it was worth it" ideal. Real anti-war films do not just show the horror of blood and guts and death, they show the futility of it completely. And they are very difficult for the viewer to accept for the first time.
frindegill
That's all I have to say, finally an Israeli film with some noticable budget and they blew it. Having been from Israel and a filmmaker as well all I can say is that I was extremely disappointed with the film. First of all- the story takes place in a war, yet it is never felt by the audience that the characters are in any kind of danger. The camera work is so lame that I was ashamed. The beginning of the film tried to show the shock and lack of readyness by the Israelis to the surprise attack on Yom Kippur, yet the scene was made so bad that we could not know and get the feeling of what really happened mainly because tight shots were used and there was no way of establishing what happened. Towards the end there is a scene that they are struggling in the mud to take out an injured soldier, the scene is shot in one long (ver long) take it is unrealistic, I served in the Israeli military it takes about 30 seconds to evacuate an injured soldier, that scene took ten minutes and did not show the training of the Israeli military which is the best in the world.And now for the story- I understand that the story is based on a real one but everyone has a story (a war story in Israel) and most of them are not interesting, there was NO character development, very boring dialogues and no real relations established between the characters To sum up if you got 2 hours to spend go see other films you will be disappointed Waste of time
dhpye
This movie doesn't provide much of a context for understanding either the war itself, nor the characters it follows. Characterization should be key in a piece like this, which dwells more on the (in)humanity of war than the action, but Kippur features a level of character development that wouldn't pass muster in a low-grade action flick: you're essentially following around a chopper full of ciphers as they pick up dead and wounded and suffer nervous breakdowns along the way.
AD
