Every war carries a different view on life and dreams comparing to peace time. During peace, life reduces to small worries such as school grades and gossips at work. On the other side, when a war strikes out, it brings out the best and the worst in people at the same time. The film "West Beirut" is a film about love and friendship during war time. This film describes growing up amidst civil war in Lebanon. Civil war is the worst kind of all wars because one cannot know who the enemy is, and in most cases enemy, is supposed to be your neighbor or simply a person with whom you don’t agree. Tarik and his parents grew and changed during this war.
Tarik and Omar are best friends. From the film it can be seen that their friendship before war was mainly based on similar interests such as infatuation with camera and school pranks. However, as the time pass and they see that war is something that they should take seriously their friendship becomes stronger. The scene where their friendship culminates near the end of the film is when Tarik says that his family has no more money and that he is afraid that something will happen with his parents. Omar is silent, he just puts his hand on his shoulder and cries with him (1:27-:1:30). On the other hand, a scene that reveals the best and the worst in people is a scene when Tarik and his mother go to take food at the local bakery along with dozens of their neighbors. A young militant Darwitche comes and wants 20 bags of breads and Hassan says, "Stand in line. These people have been waiting all day here" ("West Beirut"). After that, Darwitche beats the old baker and stabs the bags with flour. Before the war, he was labeled as a person who is a little crazy, but the war has given him the freedom to behave anyway he wants. It is a time when all the good people bend down their heads when confronted with an injustice and the only law that applies is the "law of the jungle".
People undergo changes during war times. The film shows that people need a lot of courage and love to stay emotional stable when everything around them is falling apart. Tarik and Omar showed the real meaning of friendship and mutual understanding. On the other hand, the war brought out the best in others and enabled them to torture and kill under the protection of the war.
Cited work:
"West Beirut". Doueiri, Ziad. Online film. YouTube. YouTube, 25 August 2014. Web. 10 March 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9v5Ws3AJXA
