After watching so many images of victims trudging helplessly into gas chambers, it is bracing to see a WWII-era movie with European Jewry demonstrating hard-core “Defiance” against Hitler’s Final Solution. A relatively small group of a few hundred kick-butt Belorussian Jews resist capture through armed confrontation, survivalist expertise, and sheer force of will. It’s a heckuva good story, a relatively unknown one up to now. And, as adapted from historian Nechama Tec’s 1993 book “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans,” it happens to be true.
Even given the overcrowded field of films set in or around Nazi Germany lately, a fascinating factual basis and a charismatic trio of male stars as the main characters — including the current, muy macho James Bond — give today’s drama a lift. But, however therapeutic it may be to learn about and root for this handful of resilient insurgents, director-cowriter Ed Zwick’s entry into the Holocaust-related subgenre ultimately plays more as a slick exploitation of that special milieu.
Not unlike the way Zwick tarted up feudal Japan for popcorn entertainment using awesome production values and great white savior Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai,” the technically-proficient but soapy treatment here diminishes for vicarious movie thrills the fierce undertaking of the three Bielski brothers.
By accident, after the rest of their family is killed and the brothers run into other Jews hiding in the woods, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), and Asael (Jamie Bell) end up creating their own little mobile society with its own set of rules and internal conflicts. They lead a motley collection of everyday townsfolk to elude capture by the Nazis and local collaborators in the harsh, freezing forests of Belarus for over two years. They constantly have to move camp, run guerilla raids, duck enemy gunfire, face starvation and disease — enduring anything to live and, even more important than that, to live free.
The performances are undermined by the inconsistent use of the Eastern European accents and Zwick’s emotionally distancing, action-adventure stylings. The authentic Schreiber still stands out, though, playing the most hostile of the three brothers.
But no acting can give this wish-fulfilling distortion proper context. By only showing a minuscule handful who were fighting back, without remembering what was happening to the other millions at the same time, “Defiance” takes a cue from last month’s “Valkyrie.” It turns genocidal history into a roller coaster ride.
Quick Info
“Defiance”
3 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell
Director: Edward Zwick
Rated R for violence and language.
Running Time: 129 minutes
