BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1989 Thomas E. Billings
Director: Jennifer Fox. Documentary; USA, 1987, color, 123 minutes. Released by: Circle Releasing Corp.
This documentary tells the story of a woman, Gaby Bustros, who returned to her home in Beirut in 1981 after spending 15 years in the US, and who decides to stay in Beirut despite the ongoing civil war. The Bustros family consists of Gaby and her two older sisters (all in their thirties), her younger brother (in his twenties), and her mother. The family lives in a very large and luxurious mansion located in the Ashrafiya neighborhood of Beirut, scene of some of the most vicious fighting of the Lebanese civil war.
The first half of the film centers on how the family manages to live nearly normal lives, despite the violent war raging around them. The family essentially ignores the fact that artillery shells have landed in their garden, blowing up trees and killing a soldier from the local militia. When the shelling gets really fierce, they close all the window shutters and throw small neighborhood parties while the rockets and artillery explode around them! Many of the interviews in the film have as background noise the gunfire of the war, which seems to never end. The considerable wealth of the Bustros family is a sharp contrast to the chaos and destruction that surrounds them.
A point of considerable discussion in the film is the fact that the family could sell their home at a substantial profit, and move to a safer area (Paris, New York, etc.). However, Gaby's oldest sister refuses to consider the idea and insists on staying. The film suggests that her reluctance to move may be because she finds the war to be "exciting." A more pedestrian & also more plausible explanation is that she has an emotional attachment to the house. Unfortunately, the film does not explore this possibility.
In the middle of the film, there is an interesting conversation with two male friends of the family, which takes place on a sailboat in Beirut harbor. One friend blames the war on the laziness of the Lebanese & their unwillingness to protect their freedom. The other friend claims that war has become a way of life for the Lebanese!
Although the first half of the movie provides an interesting look at life in a war zone from a woman's perspective, the last half of the film is a real disappointment. The film moves into a study of the (failed) love lives of the sisters, their feelings for their late father, and the upcoming wedding of Gaby's brother. In other words, the film degenerates into something resembling a (very boring) soap opera! The only high point of the second half is the spectacular and, yes, beautiful, footage of nighttime artillery & rocket battles in Beirut, and the warm glow of the city as it burns afterward.
I went to see this film because I have some first-hand knowledge of Beirut, having visited the city three times. [My last visit was unscheduled; I was flying standby from New Delhi to Rome, and was offloaded in Beirut at a time when there was active fighting. I had the "privilege" of experiencing the civil war first hand. Moral of story: if you fly standby, don't fly through Beirut!] Also, the local film critics praised the film highly. I was deeply disappointed by the film, and regard it as a rather boring soap opera style documentary. Overall evaluation: poor; recommend you avoid it.
P.S. The Boston PBS station, WGBH, provided some of the funding for this film. This suggests that the film may soon appear on PBS television stations. If you are a supporter of your local PBS station, you might consider sending their programming department a note, suggesting that they not waste any of their (limited) programming budget on this boring film!
Reviewer: Thomas E. Billings; Department of Statistics University of California, Berkeley Reviewer contact: teb@stat.Berkeley.EDU
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews