Hearts & Minds (review of the movie Beaufort)

New York Sun ^ | January 18, 2008 | Bruce Bennett

[Lorianne]

Joseph Cedar's new film "Beaufort" coolly traces the conviction, loyalty, and consciousness-distorting contours of wartime with a forthright and supple narrative dexterity unseen in the war movie genre since Russian Elem Klimov's mid-1980s World War II masterpiece "Come and See."

Indeed, time, the protean physical foundation of storytelling itself, is what "Beaufort" is all about — specifically, what American troops in Vietnam anxiously nearing the end of their individual tours of duty referred to as "short time." Organized warfare frequently saddles its warriors with a soul-sucking, sanity-testing period as the conclusion of a soldier's active service — the result of retreat, rotation, or ongoing negotiation — draws tantalizingly near, even while the bullets keep on flying. For 132 minutes, "Beaufort," which opens in the city today after making its New York premiere last week at the Jewish Film Festival, explores war's trial-by-clock with haunting intensity, intelligence, and grace.

It's the spring of 2000, and the Israeli Defense Forces' hard-won, 18-year occupation of a mountain outpost in hostile Lebanon has reached its end. Named for a crumbling stronghold created during the Crusades with which it shares both real estate and ultimate fate, the IDF's Beaufort is a jumble of concrete slabs, trenches, and heavily reinforced underground tunnels connecting a series of subterranean bunkers and cliffside viewing posts. Outside, Beaufort resembles the contents of a prefab concrete Stonehenge kit whose pieces have been laid out at random. Inside, the fort's cramped warren of sandbags and corrugated metal is like the interior of some derelict submarine or crash-landed spacecraft.

[Cecily]

I saw “Beaufort” this week and thought it was very good. It is an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film.

[BlackVeil]

They did miss out on an award, but the film is getting coverage.