User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 24
  2. Negative: 5 out of 24

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    10 out of 10
    Rate this:
    out of 10
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
  3. Characters remaining: 5000 out of 5000

  1. Oct 1, 2010
    9
    Really an outstanding presentation of war and the sudden moment when human skin is seen as either filthy or absolutely clean (I know I'm being obscure, but see the movie). Unfortunately it lasted only one week here in Naples, FL - so grab it when it comes through town - it won't last long, unlike the conflict it portrays.
  2. Jan 31, 2011
    2
    If those four guys in the tank are representative of the typical IDF soldier, Israel must fear for its survival. They look at dead animals and start to cry. If I were one of those paratroopers, I would opt to walk BEHIND the tank, for fear the gunner would accidentally fire a grenade...at me ! The problem with this move is: it is way too slow. There is too much reflection, it kills the intensity.
  3. Nov 30, 2010
    2
    Comparing this movie to "Full Metal Jacket" or "Platoon" is a travesty. This is a movie about taking 4 sissies and putting them in a tank. I was glad when it ended.
  4. utm
    Feb 9, 2011
    9
    It's oddly refreshing to see a war story where the combatants are not these seasoned, fearless, war heroes who eat grenades and kill people with throwing knives 4 miles away. This movie will not so gently remind you that war is fought by kids who are often in an army they don't want to be in, following orders they don't understand (or believe in), killing people they don't know, and dying for people who will never come face to face with the enemy. The clumsiness of the movie, and the seeming lack of direction only exemplifies the confusion of men who are not given clear orders, a clear map, or a clear objective. They are lost and confused, just like any of you would be in a situation so obscure and foreign. The director's (or producer's) choice to film this ONLY through the eyes of the men in the tank is brilliant. Watch it! And think about it. Expand
  5. Aug 8, 2011
    1
    Horrible horrible tankers.. As far as a film goes I may not know but I am a Combat Veteran (As a Ranger with 3rd Bn, not in a tank) and I know those guys were horrible as soldiers. The gunner should have been dragged out and shot in the head by his commander after he refused to fire at the first truck which cost the life of his fellow soldier. The entire crew cared only about themselves and nothing else. There was no loyalty, discipline, respect.. Nothing... The gunner looks at nothing but pictures and faces, does not scan the area, does not cover his unit, does nothing to protect the guys on the ground or even attempt to do his job. There is nothing but **** and whining all around and everyone in that tank never should have been in one to begin with. They all deserved to die and I say that because you either do your job and work together to get everyone home as best you can or you fail yourself and everyone around you by caring for nothing but yourself. It has nothing to do with politics or reasoning, just each other and they failed 100% when it came down to that simple fact. Expand
  6. Aug 12, 2010
    9
    Ganadora del Leon de Oro en Venecia 2009, la opera prima de ficción del casi cuarentón Samuel Maoz, es una intensa y claustrofóbica cinta bélica cuya acción ocurre, casi en toda la hora y media de duración de la película, en el interior de un chirriante, caluroso, asfixiante, tanque de guerra. De hecho, cuando la cámara se digna ver hacia el exterior, lo hace precisamente sólo a través de los ojos de los personajes que ven a través de la mira del tanque. Lo que ven ellos es lo que vemos nosotros y no es nada agradable: destrucción, violencia, caos y muertos. Muchos muertos: cadáveres, cadáveres y más cadáveres. El interior, filmado por Giora Bejach, no es más alentador: se trata de una interminable sucesión de primeros planos en la que no vemos más que rostros deformados por el miedo, el horror, la ira, el desconcierto. El tanque, además, parece tener vida propia: los sonidos del aparato no cesan, el aceite gotea continuamente, el vapor sale de todos los rincones... A ratos parece que estamos en un filme de horror y no en uno de guerra. ¿O será que la guerra es el único, auténtico, horror? La cinta inicia el 6 de junio de 1982, el primer día de la guerra en Líbano. En el tanque de marras van cuatro soldados con nula experiencia bélica: el comandante Assi, el conductor Yigal, el disparador Schmulik y el renegado Hertzel. Ninguno de los cuatro sabe bien a bien lo que tienen que hacer, las órdenes recibidas por el radio son oscuras y las milicias falangistas que, se supone, están del lado suyo, muy pronto queda evidente que no podía interesarle menos la suerte de esos atemorizados veinteañeros que fungen como víctimas pero también -y eso Maoz lo deja muy claro- como victimarios. Maoz, veterano de esa guerra precisamente, ha realizado un filme bélico impresionante. En él no hay heroicidad de ningún tipo porque es claro que nadie puede reclamar el papel de héroe en el interior de un temible monstruo de hierro como en el que avanzan los cuatro soldados. Pero aunque estuvieran afuera: la guerra es la misma, el horror es igual y la muerte los cubre a todos. Expand
  7. Jun 8, 2011
    8
    Lebanon is claustrophobic; it is the Army’s Das Boot. The entire film is shot from within a single tank. About 75% of the time, the audience sees the four men inside of the tank and the other quarter is the view from the gunner’s camera. The driver, weapon’s loader, and tank commander may sometimes feel envious that the gunner gets such a good view, but the film lets the audience know the gunner is the unlucky one. He witnesses the effects of the 1982 Lebanese war on both militants and innocent civilians who get caught in the crossfire of the Israeli and Lebanese bullets. The crew of this single Israeli tank has a very myopic view of the war; they have no bigger picture of their place in maneuvers of their small platoon respective to the rest of the Israeli advance into southern Lebanon. They also may be the worst trained armor soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force. The concepts of chain of command, military bearing, and following orders appear to be words on paper to them rather than engrained truths. It is never clearly stated if they are regulars or hastily called up reserves, but perhaps the situations they are forced to endure and their complete lack of vision and understanding would call into question any tank crew’s abilities. The tank’s gunner has never fired his weapons in a violent setting prior to the war’s outset on June 6, 1982. His first chance to fire upon the enemy and protect the lives of the dismounted patrol next to his tank does not go well. Sweat pours down his forehead and his shaking hands are reluctant to follow through even though it becomes clear the oncoming vehicle means harm to his fellow soldiers. To make up for his mistake, the next truck to come down the road bears the brunt of the gunner’s attempt for repentance, be it an enemy or an innocent farmer. Not helping the gunner’s attempts to do his job is the incessant squabbling between the tank commander and the weapon’s loader. These two men obviously know one another from their day jobs and the command structure does not seem to apply to their interactions because the loader constantly questions the commander’s orders thereby undermining his authority. The commander does no favors for himself or his crew by looking unsure of himself and his situation. The most effective and memorable scenes are those from the gunner’s camera of the war’s destruction. There are mutilated bodies in buildings and along the road side. There is a screaming mother asking the soldiers about her daughter even though everyone knows the daughter is dead upstairs in a building. The single view from the gunner’s camera of the outside world creates a fog of war so thick for the crew a breakdown is almost inevitable. The tank becomes absolutely filthy, oil leaks from every porous rivet, and the floor is covered in a junk yard of refuse and filth making the viewers relieved they do not have to smell the inside of that tank. I highly recommend this film. To fans of war movies, their pre-conceived ideas of what a war movie is will be shaken by the events happening through the gunner’s camera. Overall, I hope audiences take away ideas that war does not produce the objectives their politicians claim it will and even though a particular culture or ethnicity has been deemed evil by your society, they will look particularly vulnerable and more like yourself than you can imagine when seen getting annihilated through a camera. Expand
Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 28
  2. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    Dec 17, 2010
    50
    It's the same fine line that so often separates artfulness and "trying too hard" -- a line that Lebanon tramples all over.
  2. 100
    A terrifying, absorbing 93 minutes spent in hell. It captures the intensity of warfare in a visceral fashion that recalls Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" and Oliver Stone's "Platoon."
  3. 75
    Lebanon isn't as resonant as the haunting mix of autobiography and animation in "Waltz with Bashir," which dealt with the same war. Still, the film's fresh craft promises more from a director who turns the tiniest possible of settings into a sobering metaphor for the madness of a larger world.