A Different Breed of War Film

Rating: 7/10 (11 June 2016)

What with all the stories told from every faction of WWII and how everybody trounced those pesky Nazi Germans, things can get a bit formulaic! Defiance is a war era drama that takes a different stance, in fact it takes two; standing with one foot in the campgrounds of the Russian Partisans and the other in the camps of the Jews who dared to escape into the woods of Belorussia and Poland to survive the Holocaust.
It sports some finely crafted drama, though not perfect. It just does the best with what it has and thankfully it has authenticity and great acting on its side, despite some shortcomings and incidences of overstepping the mark.
Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber play the two older brothers of a slain Jewish Belorussian family who flee with their younger siblings into the woods, chased not only by Nazis but the police forces of their own communities who have sided with the enemy.
One brother goes on to lead the growing number of escaping Jews while the other - ostracised after rising tensions - joins the Partisans.
The story is sometimes sporadic in its delivery of drama and incidence, meaning that one theme is sometimes forgotten for the sake of a bit of action. Don't get me wrong, some of the action is superbly done, but I felt that there were some rushed scenes.
While all very well executed, I feel that Defiance suffered an occasional conflict in direction and style, but most viewers might not even notice this.
Craig and Schreiber's Russian is spot on and at times even seems playfully competitive, which adds much needed chemistry to such an ambitious tale of family. Jamie Bell is also on form.
Overall a fine effort, even though I felt it might actually have had more impact were it half an hour shorter.