Defiance (2008)

What is most impressive about this film, and something one keeps thinking while watching it, is that most of this was actually undertaken by the people portrayed and specifically by these 4 shunned Polish country brothers. This kind of reminder of the lengths that some people are able to go to defend and provide for others is why this film is a worthy addition to the human story of WW II. James Bond does an excellent job as does Jamie Ball.

Year 1941; World War-II at its height. The Nazis invaded Belarus and swept entire towns of Jews - liquidating and deporting many to concentration camps. "Freedom" was reduced to shreds; yet to reattain, it all began with the act of Defiance Recently orphaned in the carnage, the four Beilski brothers took refuge in the forests; only to know that hundreds like them, were scattered all over. The eldest two - Tuvia and Zus - soon realised that a more concrete settlement would be needed, citing the increasing numbers of their exiles. Makeshift huts came up first, followed by those sneaky "food missions". Thus, those stranded ones grew into an armed brigade ("otriad"). A "communally-functioning-camp", individuals worked for the survival of all while living with the strict rationing in food, medicines, clothes, and even reproduction. Their lives constantly at threat of being caught or killed-in-action, didn't stop the Beilski Otriad to join the resistant Soviet Red Army against the Third Reich.When Jews were considered best at surrendering and dying, that frail clique resisted by living. Moses didn't, but they themselves hand- in-hand parted their waters, with "courage as their ultimate weapon".Good casting choices of Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and the ensemble, to enact a lesser known sequence of events in this biographical-war-drama by Edward Zwick ("Blood Diamonds"), amidst his signature action-choreography and Oscar nominated civil-scoring by James Newton Howard ("The Hunger Games") makes it a fair watch for anyone interested in a different side of history. Rating - 7/10.

Is Edward Zwick the dullest filmmaker in America? He's certainly one of the most infuriating--time and again discovering fascinating stories buried in the corners of history, only to completely botch their revelation. Zwick movies invariably balloon into lumbering white elephants, embalmed in the icky molasses of awards-season prestige and corny Hollywood contrivances.The Last Samurai could've been an absorbing take on ancient tradition colliding with a modern world, but instead devolved into a lovingly photographed tribute to the wind blowing through Tom Cruise's hair in slow motion.Blood Diamond had all the ingredients of a gripping, topical thriller, but instead played out as a morbid procession of Oscar clips, climaxing with the preposterous sight of a gutshot Leonardo DiCaprio making not one but two weepy farewell phone calls while in the middle of a gunfight.There's a specific sort of turgidness to an Edward Zwick film, an oatmeal blandness evident since his feature debut, 23 years ago, when he distorted David Mamet's scathing play Sexual Perversity in Chicago into a sitcom-like vehicle for Rob Lowe and Demi Moore called About Last Night ...There's obviously no material that this man can't flatten with his tedious middlebrow sensibility.Zwick does it again with Defiance, making a cheesy mess out of the captivating, little-known tale of the Bielski otriad. In 1941, four hard-drinking, rough-hewn criminal brothers headed deep into the Belarusian forest, building a kibbutz where they and fellow Jews could hide from Hitler's goons and wait out the war. The Bielski brothers saved hundreds of lives, but these wondrous facts don't provide enough nobility for Zwick. This is such a damned good story, he's determined to oversell it.Daniel Craig--the blonde-haired, blue-eyed 007 who apparently became an honorary Jew after Stephen Spielberg cast him in Munich--stars as Tuvia Bielski, and we can tell right away he's supposed to be the hero because he makes gaseous proclamations from atop a white horse, his every utterance underscored by a martial bleat from of composer James Newton Howard's trumpets. The rest of the people in the movie are always seen gazing upward at him in slackjawed awe.Well, everybody except for Zus, Tuvia's hot-headed little brother, played with a swarthy intensity by Liev Schreiber. Zus just wants to kill as many Germans as he can, but Tuvia insists that "living will be our revenge." These two have many tiresome parable-inflected arguments that play like bad knockoffs of the Talmudic debates Tony Kushner wrote for Munich.Meanwhile, the third brother, Asael (Jamie Bell), sheepishly stands off to the side, presumably wondering the same thing as the audience: What casting director in their right mind thought James Bond, Liev Schreiber and Billy Elliot could pass for brothers? Shot by cinematographer Eduardo Serra in that same digitally tweaked, washed-out color palate that's become the cliché for WWII movies since Saving Private Ryan, Defiance ignores what's most interesting about its own story in favor of a ton of stock scenes we've already seen; there are no surprises here. When the saintly elderly Hasidic comic abruptly coughs mid-quip, everybody knows what's going to happen to him within the next 10 minutes. There's even a gooey romance between Craig and Alexa Davalos, which arrives out of left field and seems to be motivated by a producer's decree that every big-budget Hollywood film must have a romance in there somewhere.Still hungry for vengeance, Schreiber's Zus takes off to fight with the Russians. Zwick and his co-screenwriter Clayton Frohman take a couple of jabs at the irony of Jews enlisting alongside a bunch of virulent Anti-Semites, but as is the case with any potentially interesting idea in Defiance, this one takes a back seat to the plot mechanics of a risibly inauthentic rescue sequence.By the time estranged brother Zus rides in like Han Solo to save Moses Skywalker's butt at the exact moment when things look hopeless, Zwick's done it again. He's made a true story feel awfully false.

Through the Foggy Lense of History the True Story told by Survivors and Historians vary Wildly. Accused of Their Own despicable atrocities trying to Survive deplorable conditions in the Wilderness, the Bielski Resistance is Currently in Heated Dispute about Their Actual Fighting and Activities.Depending on what Source You seek out there will be an Enormous Amount of Partisanship and Opinions. The Film takes the Positive Nuggets Uncovered in the frustrating ability to Pin-Down the Accuracy of such a Tumultuous and Tragic Era of Human Suffering.Putting Aside the Historical Truth (if there is such a thing) and Reviewing the Film as a Film, an Attempt at an Enlightening Entertainment, it is a rather Well-Made, Interesting, and Inspiring Movie.The Director Edward Zwick is not Shy about using Modern Movie Flourishes of Action, varying Film-Speed and Camera Hi-Jinx to Heighten the already Dramatic War Battles. He uses this to accelerate the pulse.Also, with the Over-Use of Violins pulling the Heartstrings, Zwick spares no amount of Hollywood Ness to make the Movie Watchable amongst the Truly Depressing Suffering.Overall, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, along with Jamie Bell make this a Well-Acted, Controversial Film, that is Worth a Watch. But to find out just what Really Happened might be as Frustrating as the Filmmakers Pretensions and in the Final Analysis only Guilty of what most of History is, "...a set of lies agreed upon." (Napoleon)