Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 28 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

  • Summary: June, 1982 - The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 28
  2. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. It's an uncompromising drama, not easy to watch. And it is one of the year's highlights.
  2. Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    80
    The emotional traumas of young Israeli soldiers drafted into the war with Lebanon in the 1980s are recounted through the eyes of a tank crew in this wrenching concentration of raw emotion directed by Samuel Maoz.
  3. Director Samuel Maoz's gripping you-are-there feel does for tanks what "Das Boot" did for submarines, and that chokehold only gets tighter as this taut drama about the 1982 Israeli-Lebanese war goes on.
  4. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    Lebanon works as a disasters-of-war screed, a depiction of men under impossible stress and, politics aside, a taut, agonizing thriller. You'll want to see this salutary, unrelentingly claustrophobic nightmare.

See all 28 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 3 out of 8
  1. utm
    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
  2. 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. Collapse
  3. A very claustrophobic feel is created by centring all of the action inside the tank. The only glimpses we have of the outside world is through the viewfinder on the tank Expand
  4. 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. Expand

See all 8 User Reviews

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