'We maybe be hunted like animals, but we will not become animals'

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2011)

Edward Zwick is a unique director and respected in Hollywood. He is known for making action films, but action films with a conscious and a social message. His previous films have often have a theme of oppressed people, like Glory, a American Civil War film about the first all-Black unit in the Union army, The Siege, about Islamophobia and how Muslims are rounded up into camps by the American army (and that was before 9/11) and Blood Diamond was able the illegal diamond trade, the evil actions of RUF and how Africa is ignored by the rest of the world. With Defiance Zwick was able to attach an talented cast to a film about Jewish fighters during the Second World War.
Starting in 1941, Belorussia has been conquered by the Nazi Germany and the SS and local Belorussian police start rounding up and killing Jews. The Bielski brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Live Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell) and Aron (George MacKay) are lucky to survive and escape into Białowieża Forest. In the forest more Jewish survivors find them and they start to form a camp. Tuvia, Zus and Asael star to raid the Germans and the collaborators and the Jews become a small guerrilla force. But Tuvia and Zus disagree on their approach, Tuvia wanting to be diplomatic with the locals and Zus wanted the group to be more aggressive and fight the Germans. Tuvia continues to lead the group as a collective and Zus leads to join Soviet Partisans where he had to face anti-Semitic attitudes within their ranks.
Zwick is a good director, he knows how to film an action scene and he made a fast paced film. This is not quite the Saving Private Ryan style of action, but he does show being shot is still bloody. The fighting in this film is often close quarters, not big scale battles and he simply focused on the Bielskis. The Germans were simply made as the empty from afar. This was not an in depth look into the Holocaust, simply about surviving and avoiding be captured. But this is not a film about fighting the Germans, it is more about how would you survive in the woods as a commune.
Historical what the Bielskis achieved militarily was a footnote, but as a story of survival and the impact it had on a community and human lives it is important. Some areas could have been explored more, like more about Anti-Semitism within the Soviet Union and show the complex people with the local politics, national politics and international relations. When Germany did invade the Soviet Union, a lot of people did welcome them as liberators from Stalin's regime, unfortunately the Nazis were just as bad.
One of the weird things about Defiance is that the characters speak in English with Russian accents, but sometimes spoke in Russian. It made no real sense to have both: either have the characters speak in Russian/Belarusian or in English, not both. It was a bit of a misstep for Zwick.
Zwick employed Eduardo Serra as his cinematography, a skilled man working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Unbreakable. With Defiance he used a grey filler which added to bleakness what it would have been like living in the woods and having to live of the wilds and be like bandits But the drawback was that it was hard to see anything during an action sequence at night. James Newton Howard also added a sad, violin based score, which was similar to Schindler's List: I would not be surprised that Howard was influenced by that film.
I personally would not have made the actors of the film use Russian accents, but if is acceptable in this film. Craig is a great actor, but his Russian accent was not the best it could have been. He did give a good performance and so did Bell, but it was Schreiber who was the best performer. He was more confident with the accent and I could easily believe that he was a more hot headed man who wanted to fight. He is also a big guy which you would not want to get on the wrong side of him. Plus the film also featured Mia Wasikowska before she became famous.