Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Very little good I can say about this film. The only way I can see anyone actually liking this film is if there were a) israeli b) a die-hard israeli supporter or c) clueless. Oddly, one thing this film ironically accomplishes is that it underscores just how disconnected many Israelis are from the people they claim to know everything about. The very fact they chose the title "Lebanon", when it's about israeli soldiers in a tank, rather than being about Lebanon, Lebanese people or giving ANY 2-dimensional view into the conflict is proof of the arrogance of the writer/director of this farce. And I seriously don't know why Ashraf Barhom allows himself to continuously play degrading roles, but he is to Arabs what minstrel shows were to African Americans. The actual events in this film did occur...maybe one day someone will actually create a film that do them justice.

first of all I've heard all the comments about the weak shot. For me this was the reason I watched it. It's a story of young men thrown into conflict with little or no training. And the whole idea of what they see from that enclosed space is for me the most compelling part of the film. As an exercise in claustrophobic atmosphere it wins hands down. This was not a big budget film this wasn't your Private Ryan this was Das Boot set in a tank. Although I agree the tactics and deployment of the tank were at best the logical and against modern warfare theories. It was done for artistic license, which you have to in these situations. More than anything from me it boiled down to a few young men making very grown-up and misinformed decisions. But isn't that the point? In Old Man's War Novel by John Scalzi he explores this very thing. And tries to make the position that until you have lived a life you cannot determine the life of another.

I don't even have to get to the story, much less the themes or worry about whether it's too blatantly anti-war, pro-Israeli or whatever your politics say. Ignore that. No, it just seems so very, very fake. Like it's an elaborate stage production. Such that I'd have been happier if it was obviously so. If the exterior scenes were all similarly staged it would have worked.What I mean is not minor gripes about detail: what tank their in, the amount of room, not wearing helmets, the tank being lower than a person, etc. Those are annoying, but not critical. No, I mean how the tank looks like a set. Different parts move, and they wobble like crew is behind it pushing it. Smoke, from starting or explosions, looks like someone off-stage puffed some smoke in. The grime is clearly not from action seen in the movie, but is painted on so is on the back of boxes and around corners and too consistent. It doesn't match much of the dialog or implication that they are in this indestructible device. Of course it breaks down over the course of the film: it's made of plywood and paint. This was only matched by the ham-handed characterizations, and the inexplicable inability of the crew to act human. Even before the first engagement (where it's like the gunner, then everyone, is being stalked by a horror-movie killer) they act like tween schoolgirls who don't want to clean their room. Forget soldiers, soldiers trained enough to operate a tank, what /adults/ act like this? Vastly, vastly believable, so impossible for me to understand or care about anything, or anyone in it.

The film opens with a new crewman getting into a tank; from that moment to the final scene the viewer is effectively trapped inside the tank with its crew. The only views we get of what is going on outside is the restrictive view through the gun sight. When the film starts the tank, call sign 'Rhino', is in Israel but soon it is heading north into Lebanon where its crew will learn what war can be like. They aren't really aware why they have been ordered to go to war and it soon becomes apparent that some of them aren't really prepared for what they will be expected to do... as the gunner learns shooting at people is nothing like shooting at barrels! Their first encounter leaves one infantryman dead along with an innocent chicken farmer. When they get to the town which they believed to have been cleared things get tenser as they encounter more resistance than they expected and after the tank is damaged it looks as if they could be trapped in enemy territory.Inside the tank the conscript crew are bickering before they have even seen action with the loader moaning about being ordered to keep watch. Then when the action does begin the gunner can't bring himself to open fire when a car approaches which leads to the death of a soldier. It is clear that none of the conscripts wants to be there as they question just about every order given to them by the commander and by the officer who visits them occasionally to give them further orders.I can't speak for the realism of the film, but as its writer/director based it on his memories of serving in a tank in Lebanon I can only assume it is accurate... more importantly it works as a film. By only showing us what is happening in the tank and the limited view through the site the viewer feels the claustrophobia more than if we had regular external shots of the tank. What we do see through the sight is a snapshot of the brutality of war; a soldier bleeding to death, a woman left naked after her dress catches fire and a maimed donkey dying in the road. Director Samuel Maoz does a fine job bringing his story to the scene; as do the small cast of actors inside the tank. If you are looking for a war film which is about people caught up in the war rather than about gung-ho action you could do a lot worse than this.