Defiance movie review
Defiance is a WWII drama directed by Edward Zick (Blood Diamond, Last Samurai) based on a true story about Jewish brothers who built a community in the forests of Belarus for refugees who escaped from the Nazis thereby saving more than 1,200 Jews at the end of the war.
After finding out that their family and friends were either killed or captured, Tuvia played by Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Zus played by Liev Schreiber (CSI, Manchurian Candidate) along with their two little brothers fled to the forest. There they encountered a small helpless group of refugees and took them under their wing. They became guerillas raiding villages for food and supplies to support themselves.
Soon after their popularity grew, more and more Jewish survivors found the Bielski encampment and they were forced to be self-sufficient, thus, a community is formed. While Tuvia remains passive when it comes to survival, Zus left camp and joins the nearby Russian partisans to fight against the Germans.
The story is really compelling as you will see how Tuvia, being the leader of their community, makes decisions on different conflicts and situations. Surviving winter with little food, jealousy in the ranks, etc. Midway through the film I thought it would go downhill from there but actually the ending was pretty nice.
Daniel Craig showed range in his acting in this movie (I only saw him in Bond) but I was mostly impressed with Liev’s performance. I saw a bit of parallelism from Zwick’s The Last Samurai.
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5. It was an enjoyable 2 hours but take note that it is loosely based from what actually happened wherein the Bielski brothers are touted more as bandits than heroes (Demonizing the Bielksi Heroes).
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