Defiance
Director: Edward Zwick
Writer: Clayton Frohman and Edward Zwick (screenplay); Nechama Tec (book “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans”)
2008
Defiance is a film about four brothers who saved the lives of over a thousand Jews during World War II by living in the Belarussian forests, which they navigated expertly. Although the film is a generic WWII era piece, that is (by my opinion) it’s only fault. Defiance is a heartwarming story of extreme courage and bravery with fabulous, solid performances by Daniel Craig, Live Shreiber and Jamie Bell. I commend the actors on actually learning Russian for the film, which sounds pretty authentic – much better than the Russian (or any other foreign language) I’ve heard other English speaking actors attempt. The language just comes naturally to these actors, and that is a key to the authenticity of the film. The running theme that ties the entire story together and the motivation for the brothers is, for each life they save, they are responsible for that life. This is at the core of Tuvia (Daniel Craig), who knows he cannot fully provide for everyone he saves but what he can do is give them a chance to survive. With powerful performances and a courageous true story, Defiance is definitely worth a watch.
