Defiance

Oddly enough, Defiance is an action movie that doubles as a historical document about the heartwarming true story of three brothers who boldly, bravely and at first, reluctantly, rescued several thousand Jews from extermination during Hitler's reign. It probably wasn't director Edward Zwick's intention to treat the material in an action'y way, but the result is nonetheless there. Essentially, it's a new way to artistically portray a dark period in history that has been revisited by many filmmakers over time.

Daniel Craig, fresh off an incredibly successful James Bond run with Quantum of Solace, is this generation's broodiest leading man and action hero. He and Liev Schreiber play Tuvia and Zus Bielski, respectively. They're a pair of rough 'n' tumble siblings who are thrust into an unenviable situation. They then become leaders despite not having a choice to decline the honor.

Defiance doesn't even muster an attempt to sugarcoat the aspect of Jews having to avoid capture by the Nazi hunters. The Bielski brothers go on the run and accidentally become safeguards of other Jews fleeing. What starts out as a few hiding in the forest quickly grows into several hundreds. It's not a task the Bielskis want or are equipped for, but necessity is invention's maternal unit! The Jewish exodus in Germany begins as an every-man-for-himself scenario that quickly multiplies into a colony in the trees where the escapees rely on one another for survival and protection. At this point, the film becomes a retelling of Biblical stories. Defiance poses the Good Book's notion that Jews had to be their brother's keeper. Also, the chaos, confusion and utter despair that springs forth during that time period is recreated in the woods where there is no law and order, and a makeshift society is forced to be established. The Bielskis bear the burden of this. There's also a crucial crossing of water to escape the Germans that recalls the desert and the Red Sea from the B.C. era! Only now, that parable is placed in the lush green forest of modernity. The brothers and their commune view themselves as a brigade of independent fighters where Tuvia functions as a current incarnation of Moses.

Like most World War II films, it'll leave you wondering how things happened the way they did, where good men resort to "any means necessary" tactics to ensure survival. Vigilante justice and vengeance is enacted and dispensed by the brothers Bielski as they go on a killing spree after Zus finds out his wife and child have been executed. The group's "food missions" require them to steal whatever they need to survive. Craig's sullen, wisecracking Tuvia is often at odds with his brother's politics, but both maintain an aura of being a raging inferno of strength. Zus doesn't want to be a savior and defects to fight with the Russians, while Tuvia eventually rises to the occasion despite the pressure. This requires Craig to make a few emotional speeches.

Zwick takes his time establishing the difficulties of life in the forest–typhoid, lice, starvation, frostbite—which halts the film's momentum, since he repeatedly makes a point the viewer is already well aware of. His film is WW II-era Lords of the Flies, where the enemy is not only a few bad apples within the community, but also the common enemy of the SS.

The film can be summed up in one juxtaposition; Zwick pits a beautiful Jewish forest wedding in the freshly falling snow against scenes of a bloodied Zus shooting, forging his way and becoming what the war has turned him into. The film's essential theme is that war turns boys into men, no matter what period in time.

— Amy Sciarretto
01.08.09

A Holocaust film that's light on sentimentality but high on human drama, Defiance tells one of those remarkable survival stories that's so incredible it must be true. Though the poster image may indicate a film geared more toward a physical act of defiance rather than a philosophical one, anyone walking into Defiance in search of some cathartic, Nazi ass-kicking action will be sorely disappointed. It turns out co-screenwriters Clayton Frohman and Edward Zwick (who also directed) are more interested in using the scenario to explore man's inhumanity to man and the ways that war simultaneously brings out both the worst and the best in our unpredictable little species rather than following a group of machine-gun-toting Jews as they decimate Hitler's ranks. Defiance takes its inspiration from Nechama Tec's nonfiction book -Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, which recounts the tale of three brothers who narrowly escaped a Nazi raid on their family farm, took refuge in the surrounding forest, and survived in the wilderness by setting up a small community with others who had lost their families and/or homes to the Nazi invaders. The year is 1941, and the Jews of Eastern Europe are under the threat of total extermination. Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell), and Aron Bielski (George MacKay) have just lost everything they ever loved, and now in order to survive they must retreat into the trees. At first they have a distinct advantage over their pursuers; they grew up in these woods and know well how to use the cover to their advantage -- though as other wanderers arrive and their ranks begin to grow, so too do their chances of being discovered by the Nazis. When the competition for leadership between Tuvia and Zus threatens to stir dissent within the ranks, Zus makes the decision to leave the group and join a brigade of Russian resistance fighters who have set up camp nearby. As winter sets in, food supplies dwindle and disease begins to spread, causing many to wonder whether they should have remained in the ghetto and taken their chances with the Nazis.
When it comes to Holocaust dramas, filmmakers have a habit of focusing on the larger stories and the epic battles -- and who can blame them? After all, it was a time when the world came precariously close to falling under the command of a fascist tyrant commanding an imposing army, and seeking to wipe out an entire race. And though many film lovers immediately recall haunting images of mass graves or sweeping shots from Triumph of the Will when we think of that horrible time in history, some of the most remarkable stories from that time are also some of the smallest, as evidenced by the continued impact of -The Diary of Anne Frank, or, more recently, Roman Polanski's The Pianist. In Defiance, you won't find any goose-stepping Nazis marching in formation, and the one shot of a mass grave is revealed with a sure-handed subtlety that truly makes the blood run cold. This is an intimate story of family and community, told on the kind of small scale that forces us to experience the horror of losing someone whose face we recognize and whose voice has faded forever into the wind. It's a stark, albeit inspiring drama wherein brotherly bonds (both literally and figuratively) are put to the true test, and the challenge faced by survivors is how to maintain their humanity while being hunted and slaughtered like animals. The value in a film like Defiance is in helping us realize what it takes to hang on to our compassion even in times of unprecedented despair, and never giving up hope -- even when logic dictates that all is lost. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide