Review: ‘Defiance’

Jeremy:

‘Defiance’, the new World War II drama from director Edward Zwick is a lesson in a good movie that falls short of greatness at several instances. It tells the type of story that Hollywood dreams about. A group of underdogs who must survive the bitter environment while the threat of capture and death surrounds them at every turn. Zwick’s direction is aesthetically fine, but it never really captures the story’s epic nature.

Written by Clayton Frohman and Zwick from the novel by Nechama Tec, ‘Defiance’ tells the story of the Bielski brothers. In 1941, just after Poland is invaded by Nazi Germany, the Jewish brothers took refuge in the forests they grew up around. Accompanying them in the forest are a handful of Jews, a group whose numbers quickly grow. Before long, the brothers are leading an entire community in the forest, fighting for their survival against the cold, the hunger and the invading enemy.

The film tells us that by 1944, the camp lead by the brothers became home for over 1200 fleeing Jews. This is told to us by narration that comes up just before the end credits. However, the film never really shows this. Instead, the main focus falls on the dichotomy of the brothers.

There’s Tuvia, played by Daniel Craig, who is the oldest brother and the leader of the community. There is Zus, played by Liev Schreiber, the fighter of the group whose motto is “Blood for blood† and would rather fight off Germans than help the community strive. There are two more brothers, Asael, played by Jamie Bell, and Aron, played by George MacKay. Asael’s individual story unfolds within the film, but the real driving force behind the film is in the relationship between the two oldest Bielski brothers.

We are shown a few other relationships between secondary characters, and the film’s scope is more intimate than it needs to be. With a $50 million budget and the director of ‘Glory’ and ‘The Last Samurai’ behind it, the film should have been much more epic.

The screenplay falls into Hollywood convention a few too many times, as well. You know at every step of the way when things are going to go right for the community and when things are going to go horribly wrong. We even get the compulsory rousing speech by Tuvia while he paces back and forth on horseback in front of the group. It’s not as ridiculously trite as it could have been, but its mere presence cries out conventionality.

But, if you think the propelling speech is a Tinseltown staple for films like this, wait until you see the ending. I won’t give away much detail, but, apparently, Poland is about the size of a football field, and everyone involved in the story just happens to converge on the exact same location at the exact same time. It may have happened in actuality this way. If it did, than I take this criticism back, but it just seemed all too convenient for the sake of ending the film. Too much is wrapped up is too little a time.

However, there are great things about ‘Defiance’. The film looks amazing. Eduardo Serra pulled cinematography duties, and he does an incredible job. Particularly in the scenes during the wintry months, Serra shoots the snowy trees and mountains beautifully.

There are certain moments in the film where Zwick’s direction and the editing by Steven Rosenblum are emotionally involving. One scene that shows this better than any other is actually two scenes juxtaposed together. One is of a wedding and the other is of an attack on a Nazi caravan. The two are edited together perfectly, and it makes for a very powerful scene.

The acting is impeccable. Craig has a way of pulling off the reluctant hero with ease while, at the same time, forcing this sense of leadership that the character calls for. So much of Craig’s acting comes from his eyes, their movement, what other characters they fall on. Even when he is spouting the obligatory speech, he comes off convincing. He projects so much with just one look, and his performance in ‘Defiance’ is outstanding.

However, as good as Craig is, the best acting in the film comes from Schrieber. He brings an amazing range to Zus Bielski that the character definitely needs. From hard to soft in the blink of an eye, and always able to pull off some nicely timed comedy amidst all the depression, Schrieber does everything possible to make his character believable. Schrieber even shows his action star chops in a few of the more exciting scenes.

‘Defiance’ is a film with issues. It is the type of story that could have made for an incredibly epic film, but the scope used to tell the story here doesn’t lend for that type of film. Between that and the various conventional potholes the screenplay falls into, the film is anything but perfect. Nevertheless, the amazing camera work and the staggering acting puts this head and shoulders above many other World War II films of recent memory.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]

Travis:

Let’s face it. While Edward Zwick may not be the best filmmaker out there, but he’s no amateur. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’d be hard pressed to find a filmmaker better suited to tell an incredible story in a time and setting surrounded by war and violence.

If you asked me why I love war films so much, I’m not sure I could properly put it into words. With that said, I’ve seen more than my share and there are many out there. I have nothing bad to say about more recent films like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or ‘Thin Red Line’. I loved both of these movies. What I find fascinating is the track record Zwick has with making well-told human dramas that take place in a war-torn time and place.

I am still most fond of ‘Glory’ as Zwick’s biggest accomplishment, but ‘Defiance’ had me fully engrossed in it’s story and will likely fit nicely into the second place spot in my book. ‘Defiance’ tells the story of the Bielski brothers who lose their entire family to a German massacre of their rural town in Belorussia during the Nazi raid of the area. While the Nazi SS death squads and local police under the control of the Germans spread across the land killing Jews, Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus (Liev Schreiber) Bielski lead a group of Jewish survivors deep into the woods to try and rebuild a new life and survive for as long as they can.

It doesn’t take long before Tuvia realizes that this undertaking will be more difficult than he imagined. As word spreads amongst the Jewish people in surrounding areas, more and more refugees from their own land find their way to the Bielski’s camp in the woods. With food and supplies dwindling, Zus finds himself torn between the insurmountable task of feeding and protecting an ever-growing community of Jewish survivors and his desire to fight the Germans instead of simply surviving.

Tuvia and Zus struggle with each other as they find themselves taking separate and opposite paths towards the same ultimate goal of regaining their freedom from the Germans. Zwick does a fantastic job of focusing on the human elements of the story. ‘Defiance’ has just enough scenes of war violence to remind us in just the right moments that it is a brutal time of fear and death. Zwick brilliantly taps into the anxiety and constant dread that must have haunted the forest camp survivors every day, not knowing each morning if this would be the day that the Germans would find them. Once winter arrives, Zwick manages to convincingly portray the suffering of the people who have minimal clothing, shelter and even less food.

Amidst the many accomplishments of ‘Defiance’ are a surprisingly honest performance from Daniel Craig, and an equally commendable performance from Jamie Bell (Asael Bielski) and the rest of the cast. The stand-out performance however goes to Liev Schreiber who was amazing. James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight) delivers a passionate score and Eduardo Serra (What Dreams May Come) adds a wonderful element of time and mood with his cinematography.

As I first left the theater, I found myself still within the story and weighing the effects it had on me. I made an attempt to get beyond my initial emotions of the story and determine what did and did not work, but what I found was that I had little to complain about with this film other than the beginning and the end. The opening scene attempts to transport us in time by recreating the feel of old grainy black-and-white 16mm German film reels of Jews being slaughtered, but the effect is lost because the effects feel fake and we already understood the time and place going into the theater. The ending was fine for a Hollywood film, and if the ending is how the story actually went then so be it, but it felt a tad too convenient to have actually happened as it does in the movie. Otherwise, ‘Defiance’ is an excellent and important movie.

[Overall: 4.25 stars out of 5]