West Beirut

Tarek, played by director Doueiri's younger brother Rami in a spirited, charming performance, becomes Ziad's cinematic alter ego and a spiritual cousin to Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel. When a military blockade splits the city in half, cutting Tarek and his friends off from their school, the war zone becomes their playground. Doueiri never slights the danger of their situation and fills the background with telling detail (from snipers and booby traps to the increasing racial and religious intolerance), but his heart is with the adolescent adventure of his recklessly naive kids. He captures an excitement and energetic curiosity only possible in the innocence of youth as they dodge military patrols, sneak across checkpoints, shoot their Super 8 movies, and fall in love in the shadow of war. Former Police drummer Stewart Copeland provides a funky rhythmic score with a Mideast inflection, easily one of his best. --Sean Axmaker

This time I came across of the movie called "West Beirut". I am not going to tell you a story. It is up to you to see it. One family and three young friends take almost all of it. War. Christians and Muslims fight each for reasons not too many can understand. Palestinians shoot in all directions killing everyone in sight. Muslim religious fractions fight each other for the power. Israel is forces to enter the civil war in order to protect the own borders. One family and three young friends are in the thick of it. Pain, sadness and the unforgettable Middle Eastern humor make thin film to stand out and to be noticeable. It is well written and filmed, and well acted as well, of cause, considering the budget and the locations limitations. I enjoyed it so much believing that this part of the world was not lost for civilization and these people one day soon would raise again as a great nation.


A compelling coming-of-age story   March 30, 2001
Joseph Leydon (Texas)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Tarek (Rami Doueiri) is the kind of anarchic class clown who's often ejected from classes by impatient teachers. While exiled to a hallway one afternoon, he looks out a window and sees hooded gunmen slaughter the passengers of a bus. It's April 13, 1975, and Lebanon's civil war has just begun in this semi-autobiographical drama by writer-director Ziad Doueiri (a UCLA-trained filmmaker who has worked as a cinematographer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez). With his younger brother cast in the lead role, Doueiri spins an uncommonly compelling coming-of-age story about life and loyalties in a divided city. At first, Tarek and his buddy Omar (Mohammad Chamus) are too caught up in their day-to-day lives, and too happy about the closing of their school, to worry much about the schism between Christian-controlled East Beirut and a West Beirut controlled by Muslim militias. But as the ethnic and religious clashes intensify, Tarek is forced to confront the collateral damage outside his apartment (bombs reduce buildings to rubble, soldiers and snipers control key thoroughfares) and within his family (his parents repeatedly quarrel over whether they should abandon their homeland). "West Beirut" is at once vividly detailed and effectively understated as it views war through the eyes of a resourceful teen-ager who's determined to make the best of things in the worst of times.


Funny and sad.   March 4, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a great movie for anyone who has lived in Lebanon at the start of the civil war in 1975. The movie depictes the times and mood of Beirut in 1975 very well. The movie accurately depicts the Lebanese youth, their sense of humour, and unrelentless desire to live, and have fun. However this is a sad movie. This is a movie about war, people, and survival. The consequences that war has on the youth is also well depicted. Yes kids were happy that school was shut for a day, a week, a month at times, but the future was uncertain to them, their dreams were shattered, and they began to feel these consequences as the war progressed.


A country turned upside down   March 30, 2001
E. Blau (Alexandria, Virginia USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I liked this movie a lot. Set in Beirut in 1975, at the start of the Lebanese civil war, it follows the actions of three teenaged friends (two Muslim, one Christian) as their city and country rapidly descend into division and sectarian strife. There is a lot of humor in it, befitting the resilience of youth, but always in the viewer's mind it is tempered by the awareness that around the young people their world has descended into war and anarchy. I think anyone interested in modern Lebanon or, more broadly,in the way people adapt and struggle to get by when forces beyond their control take over, would enjoy this witty but sad film.