Megillat Esther

Let me start by saying that this was one of the tougher readings for me due to the fact that I really haven't been too religious for most of my life. That being said, one thing that I did like about the graphic novel was the pictures. I thought that the layers drawn within each picture were the most interesting of any graphic novel that we've read so far. They really added to the story and were much more detailed compared to other books. I also liked how the pictures weren't all drawn in separate boxes. I feel that this made it a little more open to interpretation as to how the book should be read and in what order.

Another thing that I found interesting was the overall idea of putting the Bible into a graphic novel. I think that this probably turns a lot of people away from giving the book a chance. The overall idea of the graphic novel is not as accessible to the public as other graphic novels that we have read. For instance, I would have never given the book a chance if I didn't have to read it in this class. I would have probably seen that it dealt with religion and just walked the other way. Graphic novels such as Maus interest me more because I know more about the subject. I think the reason for this is because public schools bring us up with so much knowledge about the Holocaust, but really aren't allowed to talk about religion in any fashion.

Waltz With Bashir

Since I missed the last two weeks of blogging, I figured I would go back and talk about Waltz With Bashir. I thought the movie was really good. One of the scenes that I found rather interesting was the opening scene with the dogs. I found the color scheme and the overall feel of the scene to be very powerful. It pretty much set the mood for the entire movie. I also thought that this scene immediately showed how the memories of the war affected the thoughts of each of the characters. The scene was basically a dream sequence of all the dogs that one of the characters shot during the war. This was fundamental in creating the setting for the story.

Another thing that I loved about the movie was the ending and also the overall music. I feel bad saying that I loved the ending because the story was very sad, but I thought the choice to show the actual video footage of the end of the war was very powerful. It reminded us that the animated characters in the movie were actually real people. The movie was already extremely emotional, but the woman at the end screaming made it that much more powerful without taking anything away from the animated part of the movie. The music in the movie was tremendous and definitely added an extra layer to the film.

Overall it was a great movie. It was the first animated film to ever be nominated for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards and it definitely deserved it.