Engaging war drama that subtly mixes in several different genres to intriguing effect, though it occasionally relies too heavily on cliches.
Comment
10/18/08
Beaufort (2008)
88
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:42
Rotten:6
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Beaufort is a deeply observant and meditative war film, masterfully rendered by director Joseph Cedar.
Theatrical Release:28-03-2008
Synopsis: Lebanon War veteran Joseph Cedar (CAMPFIRE) directs a harrowing, often haunting account of Israel's 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon and the Beaufort ("Good Fort") mountain fortress. Built by Crusaders... [More]
Starring: Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Eli Eltonyo, Itay Turgeman
Director: Joseph Cedar
Reviews for Beaufort
This Oscar-nominated drama makes excellent use of its location and ensemble cast.
04/18/08
Top CriticA war drama about waiting, and the director, Joseph Cedar, does a terrific job hanging danger and crushing tedium in the air, side by side.
03/28/08
Top CriticDespite the unremitting focus on the claustrophobia of outpost life, it's hard to ignore the by-now hoary tropes of the war movie with which Cedar litters his screenplay.
03/28/08
Top CriticAn achingly honest account of the daily fears faced by soldiers.
03/28/08
Aside from a pretty impressive final battle, there’s little to engage here, although all that waiting around does mean there’s time to nicely flesh out the characters, while the action scenes are well handled.
03/28/08
Not a polemical antiwar film, but rather a deeply human elegy for young lives lost.
03/28/08
Top CriticThe broader political questions aren’t addressed, but Cedar successfully conveys the boredom, fear and claustrophobia experienced by his conscript characters.
03/28/08
Whether framed against this vast landscape or in the poky, subterranean living quarters, an impressive cast of young actors are able to express a growing sense of claustrophobia without words, and music rarely interrupts.
03/28/08
Top CriticBeaufort is reflective, quietly powerful, and thought provoking - a sobering postscript to the movie is that one month after filming finished, the 33 day “Second Lebanon War” broke out.
03/28/08
‘Beaufort’ mounts an impressively credible ‘expressionist’ reconstruction of the futility and contradictions of war as experienced by these men. Its limitation comes from a fundamental failure of vision.
03/27/08
Top CriticMoody, tense and claustrophobic, Cedar's unconventional war movie allegorises the political tensions within a beleaguered, bunkered Israel.
03/21/08
Top CriticA riveting depiction of combat-zone terror, this film's main strength is its understatement.
02/23/08
Powerful portrait of an officer and his soldiers facing up to what it means to serve in an army of a fallible, democratic country that spins an explosive pyrrhic victory
12/23/08
It doesn't come like a full-length, filmed history lesson at all. In fact, it's a pretty fascinating, sometimes disturbing tale about the emotional and physical toll of combat.
10/18/08
Clearly something has gone MIA in moving from the small pictures into a cohesive big one.
09/01/08
As long as soldiers have gone into battle they have struggled with the rightness of their actions and their purpose in the field -- no matter how firm their resolve at the outset.
08/22/08
The film is slow and rather too long (and a bit preachy), but always intense, and its intentions are certainly clear.
08/22/08
[A] blistering antiwar film.
08/22/08
In the end [it] isn't about victory or defeat... It's about surviving another day, doing one's job, and getting back to family.
05/29/08
Latest News for Beaufort
February 02, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds