Defiance

Defiance

Director:

Edward Zwick

Writers:

Clayton Frohman
Edward Zwick
Nechama Tec

Starring:

Rating:

Rated R

Quotes:

Every day we live is an act of defiance.
Fight, or wait to be killed.
Oh, so now you are Moses?
If my friends at the New Socialist Club could see me now!
Our revenge is to live. We may be hunted like animals but we will not become animals. We have all chosen this - to live free, like human beings, for as long as we can. Each day of freedom is a victory. And if we die trying to live, at least we die like human beings.

What makes a hero or a leader?  Are they born, or are they merely a product of circumstance?  What constitutes heroic behavior?  These are the themes director Edward Zwick tries to tackle in his latest real story-as-drama feature, Defiance. 

With most of us being of a post-WWII generation, our main reference are the countless documentary series on the History Channel and the firsthand accounts of our ever-dwindling elderly population.  More importantly, there are very few accounts of the Jewish experience, other than those of the holocaust.  The ghettos, the isolation, being in a death camp - we haven't heard any other stories. We haven't heard any other accounts. Thankfully, someone had recorded the story of a group of Jewish citizens hiding in the Naliboki forest of Belorussia (now Belarus), that were not just surviving - they were thriving.  The center of the story revolves around the Bielski brothers, the surviving sons of a rural farming family who resolved to stand their ground.  They start off by using guerilla tactics against small groups of Nazis, but they end up collecting others along the way, first a few neighbors, then a few more.  Soon, Tuvia (Daniel Craig) convinces the residents of a nearby ghetto to flee and join their community in the woods.  The word community isn't a euphemism here either, they built living quarters, a school, a temple and chose to live by a simple community code and follow the laws of the Bible.  As Tuvia puts it, "They may hunt us like animals, but we will not live like animals".  Now there are some Hollywood contrivances that seem to get in the way of most of Zwick's films.  There are the simplistic fights of dominance and ideology between the brothers, leaving Zus (Liev Schreiber) to go off and fight with the Russians, and the almost perfectly timed action sequences about every 20 minutes.  However, the film's strengths lie in dynamic of the ensemble cast.  The four brothers have good chemistry, but it is the portrayals of their citizenry with their individual back stories that carry you through.  You route for them and hope that you would have a drop of their strength if placed in the same situation. The daily choice to live with dignity with war and chaos all around them made all of them heroes.

The most interesting part for me was the last 10 minutes when you find out what happened to the brothers when their time as rebel leaders was over.  Now that would make an interesting story!  I suggest that someone look into it.
 

http://www.defiancemovie.com/

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