A profound failure for all involved, especially director Edward Zwick

Rating: 4/10 (28 April 2009)

Wow, I never thought that I would ever mention Edward Zwick's name and the word "boring" into one sentence. Since "Glory" I always looked forward to the next film by this director. Yes, his films are of a varied quality, but they were always highly entertaining (Legends of the fall, Blood diamond), sometimes even thought provoking (Glory, The siege, Courage under fire). Going into a Zwick film I'm expecting something bold, big, pathetic (in a great cinematic way), great set pieces, fine music and fine camera-work...something that carries me away into the movie.
So what happened here? This film has an interesting premise, but the execution is a very long and very slow and very uninvolving bore. Cardboard characters, villains that look so obviously bad it's nearly laughable, bad staged action sequences and not an ounce of suspense. The fact that this is based on a true story makes the failure even more disappointing. And one more thing I never saw in any other Zwick film: This one looks cheap, to put it mildly. It looks TV-cheap, the sets, the one and only tank, the handful of German soldiers... Hey Ed, you made the spectacular, great on all levels "Glory", also a true story, also more of a drama than a war movie. Everything that works in "Glory" fails in "Defiance". I hope this is one misstep and that your next movie will have all the qualities I like so much in your films.