Defiance
	Rating
	Type	Video On Demand
	Audience Rating	R (Restricted)
	Release Date	2009-12-24
	Actor	Daniel Craig; Liev Schreiber; Jamie Bell; Alexa Davalos; George MacKay;
	Director	Edward Zwick;
	Length	137 minutes
	Price	Item currently not available
Categories
Drama  Thrillers  Paramount
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Description
On the run and hiding in the deep forests of the then German occupied Poland and Belorussia (World War II), the three Bielski brothers locate the impossible task of foraging for food and weapons for their survival. They exist, not only together with the fear of discovery, contending together with neighboring Soviet partisans and knowing whom to trust but in addition get the responsibility of looking afterwards a large mass of fleeing Polish Jews from the German war machine. Women, men, kids, the elderly and the young alike are all hiding in makeshift homes in the dark, cold and unforgiving forests in the darkest times of German occupied Eastern Europe.
Customer Reviews
Still Life in the Forest With Partisans   2010-03-20
By Celia Hayes (San Antonio, SA)
One wonders why it took so long for the story of the Bielski brothers, sensible and steady Tuvia (Daniel Craig), hot-headed Zus (Live Schreiber) and peace-maker Asael (Jamie Bell) and their partisan band, who hid out in the forests of Belarus during World War II. Eventually, the brothers gathered to them a self-sufficient band of refugees from the nearby Jewish ghetto of Stankiewicze - that part of Poland taken over by the Soviets at the beginning of the war. Eventually, the Nazis and their `final solution' came to the Bielski's home; the older brothers were already living in the woods, and in the very first scenes of the movie, they return to find their parents dead, and their youngest brothers hiding in a makeshift bunker under a haystack. The movie outlines the growth of the Bielski partisans and the clash between the two brothers. Only relatively small portions of the band were active fighters; the focus as Tuvia sees it, is to protect their people, their fellow Jews; their surviving friends and neighbors, and those whom he has managed to convince him to leave the dubious shelter of the ghetto and follow him into the woods. Tuvia resorts to banditry and violence when pressed, to feed and supply those whom he has taken responsibility for; he will also take swift revenge on the family of the Polish collaborator responsible for killing his parents. Zus just wants to kill Nazis: he will go and fight with a Soviet-led partisan band, rather than shepherd a miserable band of town-bred intellectuals through a brutal winter in the woods. An excellent touch in this movie is the realistic way that life in the forest is depicted: not just as a sort of long-term experience of camping out in the summer - when the woods are beautiful, misty green - but also the having to endure brutal near-Siberian winters. It is made very clear that existence then is one long misery, of dirt, semi-starvation and cold. The move itself was filmed not fifty miles away from where it all took place, in a similar forested setting. Refreshingly and realistically also, the characters generally appear unkempt, ragged and dirty, and the males indifferently shaven for much of the movie. And the occasional explosions during the moments of combat are realistically understated; no spectacular fiery clouds. The one aspect lacking in this account is some kind of explanation of why Tuvia and his brothers were adept as leaders, and so well-disposed to hiding out in the woods in the first place. It might have been a bit more artful in the story-telling to have set up a bit more of the Bielski's back-story, to have shown a bit more of what they were doing before the war, of their milieu as small farmers, on the edge of the woods, and gone into a little more of their personal losses. Tuvia and Zus are depicted as being in their thirties, after all; they would have had meaningful adult lives, careers, wives and children. Briefly revealing those elements, instead of just a bare mention in brief dialog would have added an extra dimension to the story. It appears that Tuvia had served in the Polish Army, and that as the war ramped up, he and Zus may have been active as smugglers - which would account for them being in the woods in the first place, and disinclined to cooperate with law and order in the second. All in all, an interesting movie venture in telling a relatively unknown story.
And an Aryan will lead them.   2010-03-18
By Julian Kennedy (St Pete Florida)
Defiance: 4 out of 10: I have a soft spot for director Edward Zwick. I have a real soft spot for his Blood Diamond flick despite its pedestrian script and subconscious racism. In addition, The Last Samurai is another film of his that I loved despite its historical inaccuracies and bizarre lead casting. Defiance shares many of the same endemic faults that plagued those two films. I was not able to brush off the faults this time; I found them even more discordant as the film went on. Problem number one is Daniel Craig. He does not look like an Eastern Polish Jew. He looks like he misplaced his Oberstleutnant uniform at the Wehrmachts cleaners. Even if you were able to accept Daniel Craig as some sort of Paul Newman style Jew who parachuted into Eastern Europe, only Helen Keller would buy him as Lev Schreibers brother. A mutant dancing Australian with adamantium claws is a more believable brother for Schreiber than Craig is. In fact, Craig and Schreiber seem to be in two different films and Schreiber is in the much better one. Schreiber seems to be in the here and now with a strong subtle performance that is the best thing in the film. Daniel Craigs performance is as shaky as his accent. He, of course, is forced to do things like give Braveheart speeches from the back of a white horse, so the fault is hardly his alone. And saying platitudes such as Our vengeance is to live" and "Every day of freedom is like an act of faith" while gazing at the camera with those, just give me an Oscar and I will go back to entertaining you, baby blues doesn't help his cause either. Problem number Two is best summarized by one of my favorite ladies: "I don't think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It is like, how many have there been, you know. We get it. It was grim. Move on. No, I am doing it because I have noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust you are guaranteed an Oscar ... That is why I am doing it. Schindler's bloody List. The Pianist. Oscars coming out of their arse." Kate Winslet (Winner of the 2008 Best Actress Oscar for Holocaust drama The Reader) in Extras, 2005 Defiance is clearly Oscar bait. In one scene Daniel Moses Craig leads his people through the reeds and swamps and away from the forest (and inexplicably away from decent cover and fortifications) until a Rabbi collapses, sputters out "I almost lost my faith but you were sent by God to save us and then promptly dies... oy vey. It really is not that easy to make a mainstream Holocaust film, release it in December, and get no nominations* for Golden Globes or Oscars. Defiance is clearly trying too hard. The third problem is that a third rate cast of Fiddler on the Roof somehow showed up lost in the woods. Somebody call the Jewish stereotype prison, cause there has been a mass escape. Everyone is here. The nebbish intellectual who cannot hammer a nail, the passive Jews who are unwilling to fight, the greedy Jew more interested in money than his fellow man. Good lord, it is as if Leni Reisenthals travelling troop of clichés showed up. Thank goodness, Daniel Craig is here to straighten them all out and lead them to the Promised Land. Yup blond, blue eyed, Daniel Craig. Yeah the movie has issues. *No nominations except, inexplicably, for its score; which at two hours of crying violins will test any ones nerves.
Better than average   2010-02-25
By Up North
While it is certainly not a perfect film, I can't understand why so many critics didn't care for "Defiance". It's well acted, has a gritty feel all its own, and makes one think about what it means to be human in terrible circumstances. Those who like suspenseful World War II films should have a great time with this.
gripping story, well-filmed   2010-02-06
By cat-bear (Upstate NY)
excellent movie, I wonder why I didn't hear of it soooner. I must admit I haven't seen Schindler's List (nor others about the Holocaust) but the perspective of this one intrigued me. Daniel Craig & Liev Schreiber were great. Some reviewers commented that the lead & supporting characters were under-developed. To them I'd say bring a little more imagination to your film-viewing.
Excellent & Haunting   2010-01-26
By Tim Warneka (Cleveland, OH USA)
I was completely unaware of this chapter of WWII history. Having recently watched this movie with my 14-year old son, I found it quite moving. My son is in a 'guns-are-awesome' period, and I think this movie (thankfully) put a slight damper on his ardor. For me, I haven't been this haunted by a movie since I saw "Platoon" in college in the late '80's. (Not a bad thing to be haunted by a movie, methinks.) While I'm sure this movie is far from accurate (the final scene with the tank was a bit over-the-top), the gift this movie gives is bringing the story of these Polish survivors to the world. The acting was first rate ... I very much enjoyed watching the brothers interact with each other. Hollywood machismo was (happily!) tossed aside here. These brothers struggle, cry, disagree, reunite, fight, embrace and kiss. How wonderful to see movie stars act like real men for a change. Daniel Craig, for instance, was so much more three dimensional in this movie than in any of his Bond films (films which are fun to watch when you're in the mood for such things. They are just more 2 dimensional). I think this would be an excellent film for college and groups for discussion of community and honor and right choices ... and so much more. My son and I watched this movie on DVD. There were several places where we stopped the movie and had interesting, "Ok, you are Tuvia. What would you do right now?" conversations. (My son puts up with a lot from me. ;-D) I certainly intend on reading the book to learn more about these brave people who lived in the woods for over 2 years to escape the horrors of the Holocaust. Highly recommended.