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West Beirut
 
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West Beirut

Rami Doueiri (Actor), Naamar Sahli (Actor), Fadi Abi Samra (Director) | Rated: Unrated | Format: VHS Tape
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Ziad Doueiri established his credentials as the assistant cameraman on Quentin Tarantino's early films, but his feature debut, West Beirut, belongs to the more European strain of coming-of-age films than Tarantino's cool crime wave. Tarek is a rebellious class clown and aspiring filmmaker, a restless Lebanese teenager who rails against European colonialism with little acts of defiance at the French High School of Beirut. It's 1975. Fighter jets ominously scream overhead, soldier convoys rumble through the streets, and the tensions that grip the city explode when a violent terrorist attack sinks Beirut into civil war.

Tarek, played by director Doueiri's younger brother Rami in a spirited, charming performance, becomes Ziad's cinematic alter ego and a spiritual cousin to François Truffaut's Antoine Doinel. When a military blockade splits the city in half, cutting Tarek and his friends off from their school, the war zone becomes their playground. Doueiri never slights the danger of their situation and fills the background with telling detail (from snipers and booby traps to the increasing racial and religious intolerance), but his heart is with the adolescent adventure of his recklessly naïve kids. He captures an excitement and energetic curiosity only possible in the innocence of youth as they dodge military patrols, sneak across checkpoints, shoot their Super 8 movies, and fall in love in the shadow of war. Former Police drummer Stewart Copeland provides a funky rhythmic score with a Mideast inflection, easily one of his best. --Sean Axmaker

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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 (2)
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Lebanon at time of war, May 30 2004
By 
This review is from: West Beirut (VHS Tape)
This movie represents pure Lebanon at time of war. The anxiety of the parents, and the fun of the children. The way the movie is written is genuinely clever, it's not directly about the war, but it's about 2 guys from Muslim West Beirut that want to develop a porn movie in Christian East Beirut. The beauty is not about this small and trivial story, but the things that they got through while trying to get to East Beirut. Everything in there used to happen at times of war, like the behavior of the armed guys on the check point to East Beirut, and the hiding in the warehouses at time of bombing. Though the movie is presented in a comic way, you can't help but cry many times if you are a Lebanese, because it makes you remember the bad times. The acting of everyone is almost perfect, even though it's the first acting experience for most of them. The only bad thing about this movie is the translation to English. I highly recommend this movie for everyone who's interested in what really went on in Lebanon, and the true identity and personality of the Lebanese people.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Shrewd comdey, Mar 19 2004
By 
Yasmine (Montreal , Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: West Beirut (VHS Tape)
This movie is about the beginning of the civil war in beirut . The director did a great job portraying the life of teenagers , parents , and common people during this period. I had tears in my eyes while i was watching the movie... because i was laughing so hard. Ziad doueiri gathered a brilliant cast , that didnt need to act a role but rather paraphrase their lives in the movie. This movie is one the happiest dramas you can watch, and it will give you true insight on how it is to grow during wartime .
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.5 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling coming-of-age story, Mar 29 2001
By Joseph Leydon "(a.k.a. Joe Leydon)" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: West Beirut (VHS Tape)
Tarek (Rami Doueiri) is the kind of anarchic class clown who's often ejected from classes by impatient teachers. While exiled to a hallway one afternoon, he looks out a window and sees hooded gunmen slaughter the passengers of a bus. It's April 13, 1975, and Lebanon's civil war has just begun in this semi-autobiographical drama by writer-director Ziad Doueiri (a UCLA-trained filmmaker who has worked as a cinematographer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez). With his younger brother cast in the lead role, Doueiri spins an uncommonly compelling coming-of-age story about life and loyalties in a divided city. At first, Tarek and his buddy Omar (Mohammad Chamus) are too caught up in their day-to-day lives, and too happy about the closing of their school, to worry much about the schism between Christian-controlled East Beirut and a West Beirut controlled by Muslim militias. But as the ethnic and religious clashes intensify, Tarek is forced to confront the collateral damage outside his apartment (bombs reduce buildings to rubble, soldiers and snipers control key thoroughfares) and within his family (his parents repeatedly quarrel over whether they should abandon their homeland). "West Beirut" is at once vividly detailed and effectively understated as it views war through the eyes of a resourceful teen-ager who's determined to make the best of things in the worst of times.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and sad., Mar 3 2003
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: West Beirut (VHS Tape)
This is a great movie for anyone who has lived in Lebanon at the start of the civil war in 1975. The movie depictes the times and mood of Beirut in 1975 very well. The movie accurately depicts the Lebanese youth, their sense of humour, and unrelentless desire to live, and have fun. However this is a sad movie. This is a movie about war, people, and survival. The consequences that war has on the youth is also well depicted. Yes kids were happy that school was shut for a day, a week, a month at times, but the future was uncertain to them, their dreams were shattered, and they began to feel these consequences as the war progressed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Innocense lost and real life sadness, Aug 10 2003
By Ammar Al-Sagban - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: West Beirut (VHS Tape)
This movie was amazing and when I watched it back in 1999, it really moved me. Eversince then I had begun to appreciate movies as forms of communication and not just hollywood entertainment. It was raw and real. As a Kiwi-Arab, I truly can relate to this, and recommend to all estranged Arabs as well as anyone interested in Arab society. i am only sad that I can't find anymore movies he had directed.
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 23 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars 
 
 
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