Review of West Beyrouth

Introduction

This is the story of coming of age in war-torn Beirut in the year of 1975. It is the beginning of a civil war that is destined to drag on for over 17 years, eventually affecting over 3 million people.

Centering on a teenage boy, Tarek (played with passion by Rami Doueiri), and his adolescent struggles in a city at war, this foreign film astounded critics worldwide upon its release. Otherwise entitled "West Beirut", it contains some really gritty filmmaking and extremely convincing locations and characterisations.

Making his directorial début with this movie is Lebanese immigrant Ziad Doueiri (yes, well spotted - he is the real brother of the main lead Tarek). Shot on a very small budget, the imagery put before us is strikingly realistic and at times quite moving.

I approached this movie with some degree of trepidation, not really being a foreign film fan. If I had known beforehand how this movie would hold my interest, I`d have watched it sooner.

Video

I`m afraid the quality of the imagery is not that good with a fair bit of pixelation visible. However, flesh tones are reproduced well as are the dark foreboding city landscapes and considering the shoestring budget, the movie comes across well and at no time does the inadequacy in the encoding affect the happenings on screen.

Audio

As a dialogue-based movie, I wasn`t expecting it to challenge my surround system. The Lebanese dialogue was clear, as were (thankfully) the English subtitles. I did notice a very small amount of lip-sync delay, but this was confined to the first part of the movie, and never really got to the annoying stage. Ambient effects are clear and one never loses track of what is going on, even with the subtitling.

Features

Nothing much to mention, except for some cast & crew biographies. The menus are static and frankly a bit dull. It would’ve been nice to have been given a collection of newsreel articles or video clips of the region`s turbulent history,

Conclusion

The first thing that struck me about this movie was the quality of the acting performances, particularly that of Tarek and his best friend Omar. Considering this was their first real acting attempt, they portray their characters with great feeling and emotion. It`s also interesting to see how our Western culture has reached their shores, with posters for Abba and Bruce Lee on their bedroom walls. The director even stole some imagery from “Saturday Night Fever” as we see Turek and Omar strut their stuff in town, festooned in bellbottom jeans.

One can only imagine what life must`ve been like for Beirut`s residents, seeing their once-loved city split into two halves - Christian and Muslim and unable to cross over into the other half for fear of attack. Tarek`s parents, torn between staying or leaving the area, are fiercely proud people and only want what`s best for their son. Together they share some of the most emotional scenes in the movie and one gets the feeling that they are the main element of the movie.

There are some great comical moments too, such as when the two teenagers secretly film a sexy aunt in her underwear and then struggle to get the offending Super 8 film developed. In fact, they almost get themselves in extremely hot water doing so. Other classic moments include joining in a protest march and being totally unaware of the person they are supporting, discovering a secret brothel and taunting a larger-than-life lady in a flat above.

So here we have a very enjoyable and emotive first effort by Ziad Doueiri. It held my attention throughout and I found the end quite thought provoking. It is a great shame that even today this area is still in conflict, and the images that are portrayed in this movie are as real today as there were back in 1975.