Ed Zwick delivers a professional, worthy and slightly self-important film that is OK but doesn't have enough to be anything special

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2009)

As I believe I have mentioned before, my flat gives me a regular serving of bus-side posters in my face and it was here that I saw the poster for Defiance. I had also read some promo pieces and generally I was looking forward to it. Before I got to see it I had had my enthusiasm tempered a bit by looking at the poster closer and seeing "from the maker of Last Samurai and Legends of the Fall" on there  not the best films to list if you trying to draw me in because, although he is generally a good Hollywood director, Ed Zwick's involvement countered some of what I had been told about this film  the memories of Last Samurai are still raw with me! Before I get into my opinion on this film, let me just say that it is unmistakably an Edward Zwick film. Perhaps I could not have picked it out as such blind but once you know it is impossible not to recognise it for what it is. I say this because Defiance is delivered with great sweep, battle sequences are "important" rather than intense, sets and costumes are impeccable, the cinematography good but not that inventive and ultimately the whole project has an air of being worthy. It was the case with Last Samurai but the thing with that was, among other issues, it just didn't convince that it deserved that "worthy" air, at least with Defiance there seemed to be more potential for it being deserving of this.
Foruntately Defiance is a much better film than Last Samurai and it is a shame that it is just not as good as it should have been. I will leave the debate over the accuracy of the film to the message board users but shall merely say that if you rely on Hollywood films for your historical facts then you have problems that extent beyond this film. No, to me this is a story, not a matter of record and I did not watch the film concerned with where liberties were being taken (as they ALWAYS are taken). The rough thread of the film follows the three Bielski brothers as they lead a group of Jewish survivors into the dense forest to try and survive. The conflict comes where Zus and Tuvia clash on the amount of fighting they should do versus the amount of surviving. The film has elements of both. Almost without question Zwick is most comfortable with the fighting and the dying as both feed into his presentation of things as important, moving and worthy. This gives us plenty of battle sequences that do carry some emotion even if they feel air-brushed to a certain degree. This alone makes the film an engaging enough affair but for me it wasn't enough to make it something special.
The main way it could have impacted me more was to have been less glossy and a lot rawer and gritty. This is a film about desperate survival and fighting against the odds but only once or twice did it get ugly. Tuvia's aim is to avoid becoming animals but of course conditions mean the group will be pushed right to that limit, but yet we only see that a couple of times and each of these are delivered simply and filmed with characters looking away. Again this comes back to the "worthy" presentation because it feels like the film avoids this material for fear of painting the survivors in a bad light. I appreciated these moments for what they brought to the film but wanted them to be part of the story, no, part of the characters as this would have made the film realer, more urgent and more engaging. Instead we get battles of quite moving loss, heroic sacrifice and worthy looks, very worthy looks.
Indeed it is a credit to the main actors that, even though a big slice of their time is spent looking "worthy" and they don't have a lot in the way of character development outside of the broad sweep. Craig and Schreiber both deliver solid turns in the way the film needs. OK they do not have a lot of depth or complexity for the majority of the time but they find it when they can and do a good job otherwise. Bell has a bit more emotion and range to his character but again the script allows him to do what he does. These three carry the film and, although we have other characters, too many of them are simply drawn for the sake of filling the roles they fill.
Defiance is not a bad film though, indeed it is quite engaging and quite good. The problem is that it is all too glossy and worthy, wearing the latter a bit too heavily and losing the human drama as a result. The cast don't have as much to work with as a result and rely on presence and doing the basics and turn in good performances as a result. It certainly doesn't deserve all the Oscar chat it is getting and, although it is not a bad film, it is only ever an OK one.