inspiring if a bit fast & loose with history

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2009)

I was very moved by this movie even while I noted many departures from fact, which were obviously done in order to make more dramatic fiction. (Usually I go to historical movies first and then go out and read about what really happened. In this case, I read Peter Duffy's "The Bielski Brothers" before I saw this movie, which is based on Nechama Tec's "Defiance," which is also one of Duffy's sources.)
This true story is too little known. It can stand to be Hollywoodized if that means it will at least be told. Just as "Valkyrie" reminds us that not every German joined in Hitler's orgy of inhumanity, this movie reminds us that not every intended victim of Hitler's program of extermination went quietly. (Indeed, even those who were put into ghettos or taken to death camps did not always go quietly and they did not necessarily give up.) This movie is about one of several groups of Jews who responded to the Nazi threat by going on the offensive and becoming warriors. (Aside from the above-mentioned books about the Bielskis, there is now another book about Jewish guerrillas in Eastern Europe, "Until Our Last Breath" by Michael Bart.) One thing that comes out in this movie that is historically accurate is that the Bielski group took in women, the elderly and childrennon-combatants who others would not have taken because they might hinder the fighting mission of a partisan group. Tuvia is quoted in the books as saying he would rather rescue one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers. The movie doesn't have him say that, but it shows him doing it. As Peter Duffy notes, the Bielski brothers saved more Jews than Schindler of "Schindler's List" fame.
Some facts are played fast and loose with. Whereas only Tuvia is portrayed in the movie as riding a horse, actually, the other brothers rode horses, too.
The gentile farmer who helps the Bielskis is perhaps supposed to be a composite of those who helped them, but there was a real farmer who actually did more than his share of helping, and he survived the war. (Indeed, it is rather amazing that the Nazis were so slow to realize that he was running an underground railroad for escapees from the ghettos and that even after they finally caught on, they never caught him.)
The filmmakers' choice is to concentrate on 1941-1942 when the Bileski group formed; however, they have added some events from 1943 such as the move from the Lipichanska forest to the Naliboki forest and the trek through the swamp within the Naliboki. The battle with the tank unit at the end did not happen. The whole point of the trek through the swamp was to reach a place that could hardly be reached by a tank. But I understand that this sequence was made up in order to juice up the action. (I am afraid that I have seen worse dramatic betrayals of the facts.)
Thus they have gained more action and drama while avoiding the complication of showing the later increasing control over the Bielski group by the Soviets, who divided the group and gave each of the three brothers a different posting (which was OK with Zus but not with Asael). One of the consequences of the filmmakers collapsing the time line is that it makes it seem as if the Bileski group was already in the Naliboki forest in 1942, which it was not. The Bielskis have been accused of participation in the May 1943 massacre of the town of Nalibokiin some people's minds, as if they alone planned and executed the attack. In fact, at the time of the massacrewhich was led by non-Jewish Soviet partisans who were probably following directives from MoscowTuvia Bielski and the bulk of his group, consisting mostly of non-combatants, were some 40 kilometers away from the town of Naliboki in one of the smaller forests between the Lipichanska and Noliboki forests, busily moving from one forest to another to evade the Germans. They would not reach the Naliboki forest until the month following the massacre.
One dramatic weakness that I have to complain about is the short shrift given to the Asael Bielski character (Jamie Bell). Viewers will be surprised to learn that he was older than Zus, not younger. Moreover, he is kind of a nebbish in this movie, eventually forced to shoehorn himself into a leadership role. The real Asael was well-organized and rather tough, sharing some of the strengths and flaws of each of his brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus (Liev Shreiber). The characters of these latter brothers dominate this movie, with Tuvia embodying all of the leadership traits and Zus all of the tough guy traits. For example, it was really Asael not Zus who disobeyed Red Army orders and left his post to rejoin Tuvia. (In real life a Soviet partisan officer ordered the execution of Asael for this desertion.) Tuvia and Zus become exaggerated types while poor Asael becomes an empty suit. Aron Bielski, whom I believe is still alive, will not recognize his brother Asael in this portrayal, while he might recognize the characters of Tuvia and Zus only as more or less approximating their real life counterparts.