An Underrated Movie About Hope

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2010)

The 2nd World War themed movies are very difficult to discuss with everyone because people wants to know if it is a great movie, if it is accurate or even if it has great explosions and something like that. And moviegoers always selects their favorites. Classics like "Stalag 17" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai" or more recent "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line". The director Edward Zwick placed us in several different battlefields in several different periods of history like the American Civil War in "Glory", the First World War in "Legends of the fall", and a samurai war in "The Last Samurai". In "Defiance" he finally get to the Second World War. But instead of concentrate the story in shots and explosions he preferred to tell the true story of three Jewish brothers and their attempt to fight against the Germans and save other Jews. The result is a incredible movie but people doesn't seem to understand its grandiosity.
In 1941, in Belorussia, the Bielski brothers finally succeed escaping the Germans hiding themselves in a forest. Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell) and a younger brother are the Bielski brothers. Their parents were killed and now they're doing everything they can to stay alive. But other Polish Jewish families are appearing and the brothers helps them, provides food, security and a place to stay in the middle of the forest hiding themselves of the Nazists. Zus is a rebel soul and he wants to fights against Germans and so along with a few friends and their brothers they started to plot against the Nazists, getting a revenge of everything that was happening with the Jews at the time. Many things happens, Zus and Tuvia fights against each other because Zus still wants to fight against the enemies and Tuvia wants to help his people. They went on different directions: Zus joins with the soviets fighting the Germans and Tuvia and Asael help everybody that comes to them.
This is a story about union, it's about hope in desperate times, it's about fight against your worst enemy and show to him that you're not defeated, that you can participate in the defiance and show that you're danger too. It's about suffering and resistance. And heroism in a certain way. The evolution of a people who were always educated to be servant as possible and the way they change this situation.
OK, it might not be a sad story like "Schindler's List" or a war movie filled with action like "Enemy at the Gates" but it still is a great movie in both departments, dramatic and action. It might not be accurate (although it's based on true events) but at least it's entertaining. The battlefield scenes are very well filmed, and edited in a brilliant work, there's no "shaky camera" in here. Why action and war movies have to follow this tendency of the shaky camera? It is supposed to people see the movie and not try to discover what's happening with the cameraman. That's why I enjoyed "Defiance". Zwick is a great director and he knows how to handle with a scene. The first fight against the Germans, when the brothers ambush an jeep, is fantastic, with great tension. James Newton Howard score was great (nominated for an Oscar), specially towards the end of the movie.
The actors trio was good. Jamie Bell is always a pleasure to see, every work he does he plays marvelously well (although he has less screen time than the other actors); Liev Schreiber is great as the nervous brother, very impressive; and Daniel Craig does a good job, sometimes over acts, sometimes he really finds the way of his character. "Defiance" also features Mark Feuerstein ("What Women Want") and Mark Margolis ("Requiem for a Dream") in small roles. I say give this movie a chance. Despite it has many slow moments and you might feel tired or bored of watching just be patient and you enjoy it every minute. 10/10