Sometimes the most fascinating stories don't transfer too well onto the silver screen

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2011)

World War II films seem to have grown far and few between in this day and age, it seems. I suppose "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" might have stolen the genre's thunder in film and transferred it to television. But I honestly wish there were more World War II films because in these modern times I'm sure it would be possible to cook up something new and interesting within the genre. Then again, maybe a lackluster piece of work like Defiance is all Hollywood can really come up with and that's why the genre has slowed down so considerably. Defiance is, as far as I know, the most recent big budget film about World War II. It's a much different perspective, however, as it details the Bielski Partisans, a group of Jewish rebels who hid from Nazi's in the Belarussian forests in Eastern Europe. The film chronicles the hardships this group had to face and turmoil they had to endure against the Nazis and even each other. If this were a great movie it would be a moving and heartwrenching story about friendship, love, courage, and endurance. Sadly, it's not a great film.
What's unfortunate is that Defiance tells a fascinating story that has been lost amongst the more popular stories that have come out of this time period. But to think that was a group of almost 1000 Jews living in the forest, fending for and protecting themselves is astounding. When you consider the true story it is empowering, incredible, and inspiring. But this film waters down that story to such a straightforward and easy piece of dramatic cliché that you aren't nearly as fascinated by the profound bravery of these people. The film is unnecessarily slow at points and it drags on with subplots that seem less and less important as the film goes on. The film boils down to a whole lot of nothing. It just seems like a bunch of people standing around in the woods waiting for something to happen, occasionally throwing in a predictable twist to the story. There are some good moments in this film but not enough to keep the energy and passion of it up. I don't even want to say that this is a poorly made film, it is just not all that interesting when it really should have been.
Even more unfortunate is the dullness of the characters. The two main players are Tuvia and Zus Bielski, played by Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber respectively. Putting these two men in the historical perspective of this tale makes them incredible. They are the brothers who establish this refuge for the Jews and, despite having their flaws, are true heroes of the time period. The translation of these two heroic gentlemen to the film isn't so great. They are very dull characters that don't peak any interest in me whatsoever. Craig and Schreiber are very good in their roles, but the characters are just poorly fleshed out. They aren't particularly interesting and at some parts they aren't even likable. It's not like they aren't allowed to do questionable things just because they are heroes, but there are long stretches of the film where I just didn't care for either of them.
The film does a poor job at establishing their true heroism and doesn't give us a chance to experience the struggle of discerning whether or not we should love these characters. They are either annoying or they're not. And when they're not, they're very boring. I really didn't feel any emotional connection to either of them or the film in general until the very end when we get to see real pictures of the men and are able to absorb the gravity of what they did in reality, and just how brave that was. In the context of the movie, however, they just can't hold their own on an emotional level, thus boring me and leaving me with an empty and underwhelmed feeling in the pit of my stomach.
It's a shame to see a story with such potential go to waste. This film had a lot of things to do right if it wanted to tell this story in the most fascinating and moving way possible, but it missed the mark on all of them. It's just not an impressive film on any level. It's not awful but it is not something I would watch again because it just does nothing for my emotions. I felt nothing but boredom during this film which runs at two hours and twenty minutes, which is painfully long when the film doesn't go anywhere. Visually it is shot well, acted well, lit well, costumed well, and scored well. But its the story that should have driven this film to be incredibly moving and glorious, but the story fails to accomplish anything worth mentioning.