Zwick's best film; extraordinary.

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2009)

Defiance succeeds where most Holocaust films crash and burn. In most films of this nature, they try to force tragedy down the viewer's throat by depicting everything cinematically so you can say "Oh, look how well they shot that scene with the the four Nazis raping and killing that girl". It has a habit of coming off as exploitative to me, instead of just depicting the true events. They put so much effort into showing just how awful everything was, and as a result it feels artificial. I personally don't think a film can ever depict a real life tragedy as despicable as that, and Defiance succeeds because it doesn't try to. Zwick puts the focus onto the characters and their experience, instead of attempting to show the overall brutality of the event. He makes it a character film instead of a Holocaust one.
On the surface, this is a relatively simple story of men rising up and protecting people who were in trouble. But at it's heart, there is much more. As I said, it's definitely a character drama and most of the film focuses on the relationships between these people in crisis. Each of the three main brothers (there is a fourth brother who doesn't get much attention) get a significant amount of screen time and their own individual stories of love, tragedy and emotional extremes. Tuvia (Daniel Craig) is the oldest brother and as a result he takes the position as the leader of the group. Craig portrays him wonderfully as a flawed hero, rising to protect so many people but being unable to handle the pressure that comes with it when he's saved them all but now has no idea what to do with them. Zus (Liev Schreiber) is a brute of a man who wants to help these people, but is more focused on getting revenge for the loss of his family. Asael (Jamie Bell) is a boy who develops into a young, experienced man over the course of the film.
At it's core, Defiance is a story of three men who rise up out of their tragic circumstances to become something more than just Jews who persevered. They became heroes because they survived while helping others to do the same. But no hero is perfect and that's where the film really drew me in. The drama that was stirred up between these men, whether they were fighting against the Nazis, against the people they saved, or even against each other, absolutely fascinated me. Tuvia has to live with the pressure of trying to provide a decent state of living for all of the people he saved. About halfway through the film, Zus lets his need for violent revenge get in the way of what is truly important and he leaves the woodland society the Bielskis built to go and fight for a group of Russians who are busy killing Nazis. And Asael's transformation is actually what fascinated me the most. In the beginning he is too overwhelmed with sadness to be of much help to anyone, but as Tuvia gets sicker and sicker near the end, Asael rises up and becomes a leader for the group in the time when they need a leader the most. He becomes what Tuvia was in the beginning to these people; a shining light in a time of unimaginable darkness.
The characters definitely make this film the brilliant work that it is, and that is in no small part thanks to the actors who portray them. Daniel Craig finally has the chance to lead a big, widely seen epic like this, thanks to his fantastic work as the new James Bond. And he doesn't take his new status lightly, seen here in a tremendous performance. He brings so much quiet pain to Tuvia throughout the film, but he is most impressive when he lets the rage building inside him out into the open. He is mostly seen as a peaceful person who just wants to protect people, but when he lets that aggression out he is truly terrifying. Liev Schreiber's performance is the exact opposite. Although he doesn't express it in a theatric manner, for most of the film his Zus is looking for blood. It's in those quiet moments, like a relationship with a woman they saved or his breakdown after learning that his wife and child are dead, that his performance is the most impressive and is why he was the highlight of the cast. Jamie Bell is one of the best young actors working today and he proves that again with what I believe is his best performance yet. Of course they aren't the only actors in the project and everyone else, from their three love interests to all of the other unique characters living in the society they built, gives solid supporting work.
Being a Zwick epic, Defiance is not only filled with layered, tragic characters but also contains a bounty of massively entertaining, beautifully orchestrated action scenes. The technical aspects, from the cinematography and score down to the sound and costume design, are all tremendous and come together to create a believable, authentic setting for these characters to make this emotional journey.