Blu-Ray Review: ‘Defiance’

The Movie:

Due to the absolute craziest schedule in the world I missed our screening for this and just never made it out to theaters to see it once it was finally out. I was super stoked to get a blu-ray copy in the mail to review because I am obsessed with WWII, not to mention I wanted to see Daniel Craig do a Polish accent!

I popped it in and immediately became immersed in true life survival story of a jewish family trying to make it through the reign of Hitler. Daniel Craig and Liev Schrieber, Tuvia and Zus Bielski respectively, are brothers whose parents are murdered by the Jewish hating Nazi’s that have taken over the area of Poland that they reside. They decide to take to the forrest and build a village to keep from being discovered by German military who is tasked with the responsibility of killing/capturing all jews that they come into contact with.

The movie is slow in parts, and I was hoping to see more of a WWII aspect from the film but what you do get is a very emotional, and powerful true story about the will to survive. I think that both Craig and Schrieber really turn it out in these roles and its refreshing to see that they can play more than just themselves, unlike so many actors these days.

The Blu-Ray

Although it is meant to be grainy looking with the fact that its based during WWII but the images and sounds are absolutely amazing. Most of the film is based in the forrest and you can tell they paid close attention to alot of the details when it comes to the background noise.

There arent alot of special features, but there are some great ones. Edward Zick(director) does a great commentary track in which he talks about the shooting locations, creating realistic costumes, and the challenges of making this style of film.

There is also a mini-doc titled ‘Children of the Otriad: The Famlies Speak’ which explores the families of the survivors. There is alot of emotional stuff packed into this 13 minute doc so prepare yourself!

Overall: 4 out of 5