Product Description

2007 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: BEST FOREIGN FILM

WINNER: BEST DIRECTOR (BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL)

After 18 years dug into a heavily fortified mountain deep in occupied Lebanon, the last Israeli soldiers enduring constant bombardment at the site of the ancient crusader stronghold called Beaufort receive orders to abandon their posts, detonate the warren of bunkers in which they ve tenuously clung to life and victory, and come home. Amid redoubled shelling from Hezbollah, the fort s brash, impossibly young commander Liraz (Oshri Cohen) struggles to keep himself and his men safe from a faceless enemy that would turn withdrawal into massacre, and transform a just cause into a lost cause. An unusually dexterous ensemble cast and director Joseph Cedar s (Time of Favor) visionary combination of gritty objectivity, lucid sudden violence, and keen sensitivity to the tangle of terror, duty, and sacrifice common to soldiers of any era, results in a film so realistic, so intense, it verges on the surreal. (LA Times). Suspenseful, poetic, and heartbreakingly transcendent, the Oscar ® nominated Beaufort is a movie of tremendous power (Entertainment Weekly) and one of those once-in-a-decade war pictures that reminds us what's worthwhile about putting the ritualized barbarism of combat onscreen in the first place. (New York Sun)

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- The Making of Beaufort
- 10 Deleted Scenes
- Trailers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23757 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-30
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Hebrew
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Customer Reviews

Good film, but read the book . . .
This Israeli film captures some of the deep ambiguities of the novel it is based on but must struggle with the challenge of externalizing a story that is mostly internal, told in the novel by its central character in a rich flood of thought occupying his brain as he deals with the impossibilities of the military situation he and his men have been thrust into. Also problematic, the camera robs the characters of their youth, as the actors portraying them are not really young enough to convincingly play 18-to-20 year olds. Meanwhile, the individual personalities of the young men, the humor, adolescent angst, quirkiness, and youthful playfulness, disappear behind the layers of protective gear they must wear 24/7. The one advantage of this film version of the story is that you can see the layout of the installation - a warren of narrow reinforced passageways - as well as the panoramic views from its mountaintop location.

If you have read the novel and want to relive the experience, relishing again a Catch-22 vision of warfare, this film may be a disappointment. For the most part, it tells its story straight, and stripped to the novel's fairly simple plot line, there is much less to enjoy. Missing in particular is the wild, absurd, often raunchy humor of the novel - the wacky carry-on of Zitlawi especially. Outtakes from the film, which are included on the DVD, suggest that the filmmakers tried to get cinematically out of the box - the men searching outside the fort for the body of a slain comrade, or bathing together in a stream - but the decision seems to have been to maintain the claustrophobia by keeping the action inside the walls of the fort as mortars randomly fall around them, fired by an unseen enemy. For Israeli viewers, this has every potential of symbolizing the nation's hold on an embattled piece of earth at the cost of maintaining a defense force that militarizes a large percentage of its own youth. It raises what must be uncomfortable questions.

Still, it's one of the best and most ambitious Israeli films I've ever seen. Its two hours take you to a time and place that represent what is often missing in news coverage. But read the book.

Incoming
A very interesting film, if not a particularly stirring one. It focuses on the last days of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, similar to Vietnam for the US, more or less endless with no ability to actually win in any meaningful way at this stage of the game. The soldiers are dug into the heights around the Crusader fort Beaufort. Everyone knows they're leaving, but politics precludes them from evacuating immediately. So, they're just up there as sitting ducks, albeit well armored, fortified ducks, taking incoming mortar rounds, with no ability to fire back or do much of anything beyond keeping their heads down. Fear mixed with boredom, and a big dose of frustratation is pretty much the story, as they never actually see the enemy or fire a single round back, but hang on to do their duty until they can leave. You'll enjoy the film if you're interested in the subject matter or at least familiar with the war, but for many this will prove dull.

Good acting but way too slow and drawn out.
From a history perspective I found the story to be interesting. From a theatrical viewpoint I found the acting to be good but the directing left a lot to be desired. History some might argue can sometimes be boring while telling the true story line. Regardless this movie moved entirly too slow for my taste.