Oh Ester, Where fore art thou!

Megillat Esther.  That's right, I said it.  Megillat Esther.  The first half thus far is a particularly brilliant rendering of the story.  The minutiae details represented would spend me writing and observing for the better part of a year and surely some brilliant scholar much better versed than I on the Old Testament will applaud this endeavor the fullness it deserves.  Where to start...

Well starting with the plot would be basic.  Anybody familiar with the Old Testament would surely know the only fictional story included in it.  I'd prefer to start with the level of art.  The art is strategically drawn, carefully, so as to show that the comical nature of it should be taken with a grain of salt.  It is a serious story with serious implications.  But also to be taken into part is the beauty of the Hebrew script throughout.  Some would argue that this is a distraction to the overall art.  I beg to differ.  The script is just as beautiful as the art itself, not only because it is written in a very flowery sense, but also because of the level of complexity it engineers in the plot itself.  "Surely on that day I will hide my face for what my people have done."  The Hebrew everywhere just as much as the inclusions of Saul and David seek to make the public realize the depth of the Old Testament story.  The inclusions render much of what the actual story describes as being accurate.  Oddly enough, given the reading of the massacres in the actual book, they seek to take a different road compared to Saul and David.  David decides to spare Saul.  The Israelites choose to take the road less traveled, or more traveled in those days.  I feel it serves as a stark contrast to changes in conscience.  Why react that grotesquely when you can solve most quarrels through simple actions and speaking.  The author is clearly attempting to grasp at certain straws and commentaries that nobody in the graphic novel world has yet encountered.  That kind of social criticism, especially given several contemporary references in the piece, truly stands as a shining literary accomplishment and will surely be given its due credit in the near future.

Waltz with Bashir!

Beautiful, enigmatic, moving.  I felt more viewing this fantastic display of cinematography than I have during any of the graphic novels we have encountered.  The stylistic representation and the beauty beyond it really dramatized it in a way that would put "Lost" fans in their chairs with awe.  The story drew me in to the point where, during the break, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was watching.  It wasn't just the cell-shading style.  It was the intrepid plot and the dynamic characters miraculously well explored in the short time that the movie takes.  When the machine gunner actually dances with his gun, amid total gun-fire, the most gripping point of the movie takes hold when realizing the sheer desperation enacted upon each of the characters.  Moving on to the amnesiac memory of forgetting a traumatic event, one can truly visualize why one would want to forget about the horrors and atrocities witnessed after that key event.  Nobody wants to take part in a massacre, but according to dissolution of responsibility, given greater numbers, people would think they took less and less part in the actual massacre.  The level of realism especially given the actual autobiographical content was inspiring.  I particularly enjoyed how it all started from such a little thing.  Craving the memories you lost and realizing if your exact memory was truly captured, which it clearly was not, but essentially your mind would not let you realize what you were doing for fear of it being really bad.  And the only thing he remembered were the dogs he had to shoot down.  I have already suggested viewing of this movie to all of my friends.