Defiance: Movie Review (2009)

Directed by Edward Zwick, written by Clayton Frohman and Zwick, 136 minutes, rated R.

The new Edward Zwick movie, “Defiance,” is based on the true story of a group of Jewish brothers who witnessed the murder of their family and friends at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. They fled Poland, escaped to the woods of Belarus, and decided to fight back when their numbers grew to more than a thousand as other Jews took to the woods in an effort to save their lives.

Based on Zwick and Clayton Frohman’s screenplay by way of Nechama Tec’s 1993 book, “Defiance” sometimes is so subtle and well done, you admire Zwick for his reserve and tact.

Unfortunately, at other times the movie is so heavy-handed, it can leach into parody, especially in those scenes where food is spare and a piece of bread or a spot of soup is ravaged by the film’s overly eager cast of extras. These folks obviously came from the shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust school of acting, because their performances are so over-cooked, they can be distracting and unintentionally humorous during moments when they should be anything but.

This never is true for the leads. The film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia, Liev Schreiber as Zus and Jamie Bell as the boyish Asael, all brothers who at first planned to escape into the woods alone. Their strategy was simple--wait out the Nazis by surviving in a dense thick of forest. It wouldn’t be easy, but if they banded together, there was a chance they could survive.

Trouble is, hundreds of others literally trickled out of the woodwork (all of whom would eventually form the Bielski Ostriad resistance). With them came promise in numbers but also complications, not the least of which was how the brothers would feed so many people as winter settled in, and also how they could keep so many in hiding, particularly since the Nazis were busy patrolling the areas nearby.

With tensions rising between the more passive Tuvia and the headstrong Zus--Tuvia believes their revenge should be to live while Zus would prefer to kill those who murdered their family--the movie manages a few solid scenes between Craig and Schreiber, with each actor happy to take on the other while ambushing their share of Nazi troops until the plot works to separate them. As Zwick chafes between Tuvia and Zus, what’s left to hold our interest is Bell’s Asael, who apparently is here to flirt with a pretty girl and have a chance at a first kiss.

In the right hands, such a situation could have been profound given the grim circumstances at hand. But Zwick is too unfocused to ground it with weight and meaning. His talented cast came to act and they find pockets to do so amid Eduardo Serra’s fine cinematography and Dan Weil’s beautifully realized production design, but the shallow script proves too sight, the dialogue is stock, and the characters are only casually interesting at best. Worse for the movie? Too many moments of lax direction keep the proceedings from revealing another corner of the Holocaust that deserved excellence in the telling.

Grade: C+

View the trailer here: