Despite what his bio says, it is clear that Israeli director Samuel Maoz has either never been inside a tank (it is claimed that he was a gunner in the June 1982 War) or has forgotten everything he ever saw inside one. The 2009 Israeli film Lebanon, about an Israeli tank crew on the first few days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, is easily the worst war film ever made. It is multiple sins: it is completely unrealistic in important details, the characters are ridiculous and unsympathetic and is essentially built around a gimmick, rather than a story. The director's idea was clearly to capture the claustrophobia of tank warfare and the intensity of frontline action through a "gunner's eye" view of events. This is not a bad idea in itself, just horribly executed here. For starters, I have never seen a tanker (having been one myself) suffer from claustrophobia; exact opposite - "man, oh man, am I glad to have all this armor wrapped around me instead of being outside like the bloody infantry." Tankers love their tanks (exact when they are broken down), and do not treat them like garbage piles as depicted here. The film is also very anti-Israeli at its core, which explains why it was both blocked by the Government of Israel and given an award - for political reasons - in the Venice Film Festival. It was an awful choice.
To begin with, none of the film is actually filmed inside a real tank and the only hint as to what kind of vehicle it is supposed to represent appears in the last few seconds of the film - a brief exterior shot of a Centurion tank amidst a field of sunflowers. It is clear that the Israeli military provided no help in making this film (why would it? - it makes them look like thugs). It's hard to believe that this is the same country where the best tanker movie ever made - the Beast (1988) - was filmed. It is clear that the director made a tank interior set, which is about three times too large inside. In one scene of the drivers compartment, one can see that the "radio" is actually just a plate with dials attached to a wall. The director also seems to have forgotten from his military service that Israeli tankers wear CVC helmets and talk via intercoms - there is no way that the tank commander could direct the driver without it. The water and trash on the floor, the water dripping on the hull inside (from where?), ammunition lying on the floor of the turret basket - these are all horrible mistakes.
The film is essentially built around the gimmick of the "gunner's eye view," except the view doesn't look anything like a real gunner's primary sight (or 105-D secondary sight). The reticule has no numbers on it, so how would the gunner determine range. Most of the "sight pictures" are zoomed in to 100x mag, looking right at people's faces and even showing the hairs on their face. This is ridiculous. The gunner never scans for targets, but instead focuses on a picture, on a dead chicken, on a Seven-Up can. Folks, this is NOTHING like what a real tank gunner does or sees. It is pure fantasy. At times, the director seems to forget how "big" his tank is and we see it moving under low overhangs and other times he seems to forget that there is a main gun attached to his sight and that it can traverse so quickly or easily in a city street. The crew never gets out of the "tank" - again ridiculous - but other people are constantly coming inside as if it were a bus station. Israeli tank commanders are known for fighting "unbuttoned" so they have better situational awareness and can use their .50 cal machinegun against infantry. Operating buttoned up as in this film, would be suicidal. However, it is clear that the gimmick became essential when the Israeli Army refused to loan Maoz a real tank for his anti-war film.
As for the characters, the director chose the "small unit drama" format and employed the hackneyed formula of internal strife. Rather than a crew, the four men are portrayed as inmates in a small prison, constantly at each other's throats. The gunner - obviously a self portrait of Maoz himself - is a hysterical jerk who sees everything with wide-eyed astonishment. The anti-war sentiment of the film is ham-fisted and presents the hardly-unique notion that war is hell. I believe William T. Sherman said that already. Folks, this is not how a tank crew talks or functions - it is an anti-military caricature. In real combat, these guys would be dead very quickly. All in all, this film is an insult to the Israeli Army and tankers everywhere.
