Defying the odds...

Rating: 4/10 (8 February 2009)

Defiance is a film that was so desperate to be made that it's surprising it already wasn't. The story follows a group of Belarusian Jews (inhabiting a now-Polish area) who survived World War II by hiding in the forest. Great underdog appeal exists in a picture like this, but not in Edward Zwick's presentation. His new movie is without direction. It never realizes what it wants to be. There are vast periods of survival drama, interrupted by violent sequences. The film quickly returns to its broodiness, leaving the audience with no feeling of satisfaction for either mood. Nechama Tec's book has been converted into a for-the-most-part accurate film adaptation that is as philistine as it is occasionally moving. Zwick's film leaves another director the opportunity direct a better movie.
In 1941, Wehrmacht soldiers were moving through rural areas of Poland and Belorussia to capture remaining Jews. Unlucky persons were killed, or worse, relocated to death camps. Some people survived capture and created living communities in surrounding forests. The Bielski brothers, four young men of one of those hamlets, came to lead the group. The Bielski Partisans saved approximately 1,200 Jewish persons and left behind a lengthy genetic history. The Bielskis also collaborated with Soviet forces on occasion. Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig) was leader of the forest inhabitants, while his brother Zus (Liev Schreiber) worked with the Soviet patrol. Zus eventually left the Soviets and returned to Tuvia's group, which survived until the end of the war.
Defiance is an odd movie. It tries to be a war picture when it shouldn't be. Majority of the screen time is spent constructing temporary shelters and organizing community projects. Wikipedia states that the Bielski Partisans created their own village, complete with hospital, school, and gathering area. In the movie, they build many things but always continue moving. I never got the feeling that they were settled. Later shots depict a pre-constructed village while they wait out a winter period. Watching a bunch of starving people survive in the woods wasn't enough for Universal to agree to this project. Many firefight sequences are added to create a "war movie" label for home viewing sales. We don't get our expected big battle scene until the very end. I was tired of watching by that point. Zwick would have been better served to reduce the running time and focus on one aspect over the other. A direct biopic of Zus would work for a war movie, while a Diary of Anne Frank style would be preferable for Tuvia's part. Zwick focuses on both for mutual diluted effect.
The screenplay inadequately fumbles to the goal line. Much of it is surprisingly insincere. The Bielskis speak a garbled Eastern European English which lacks a specifically Polish, Belorussian or Yiddish accent. I have worked with several people from these areas in my collegian student group and none sound like that. This discrepancy isn't the most egregious, though. Both Tuvia and Zus can communicate with the Soviets, which was impossible. An intellectual type even declares "I wish the Young Socialist Club could see me now, I haven't read a book for months!" He's been in the brigade for several months when he says this. I can't imagine anyone living in constant fear of death cheerily affecting such speech. Gags like that one are spliced frequently to relive the tedium of nothing happening. I wish Zwick would have invented Nazi attacks, or at least made Tuvia's experience more suspenseful. Female characters need only to be protected and lack strong will to survive. Tuvia reluctantly agrees to allow them the use of firearms. One scene near the end shows female militia slowing a Nazi advance. Aside from that, there need be no women in this movie.
Daniel Craig had an unlucky stint in 2008. Both of his Hollywood films were busts. Quantum of Solace is too overwhelming and Defiance is too underwhelming. I left a screening of the latter feeling like I had watched a bad documentary. Bad documentaries use subject to invoke response in audiences without presenting useful information or insight. Defiance, through virtue of its story, demands our sympathy or occasional terror without earning the privilege of such an expectation. The Bielskis saved millions of future Jews from extinction and are deserving of a better motion picture than this one.
** out of *****