Good but haven't we been here before?

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2009)

Tale of Three Jewish brother who flee into the forest when the Nazi's invade.Along the way they end up picking up people who swell their ranks. The film covers their first two years in hiding and as acting as partisans fighting against the Nazi's. Good film is utterly unremarkable in everything except its two lead performances. If you've seen any number of recent world war two films you've seen something similar (I'm convinced that director Zwick stole bits of how he filmed this from the great Russian film Come and See).Indeed it seemed to me that any characters other than those played by Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber were from the Second world War Stack Character Bureau. This isn't a bad film its just a very much run of the mill, I've been here before sort of one. (I have to say that I'm kind of boggled by the way that Zwick's films have been heralded as great. To be sure he's pulling to be the Stanley Kramer of our time by taking on "issues" in his films but at the same time I'm left to ponder if its the issues people are loving rather than the film. I personally think that he's better film maker when he just tells a story like in Legends of the Fall rather than in films like Courage Under Fire, Glory, Blood Diamond and The Siege)