This week I decided to pick up “Defiance,” the true story of Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Russia who build a village in the forest and save thousands of persecuted Jews while fighting against the Nazi force.

When I picked up “Defiance”, I was pretty excited because I’ve enjoyed some of director Ed Zwick’s previous movies (The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Courage Under Fire), but I became a little nervous when I realized Liev Schreiber (Zus Bielski) and Daniel Craig (Tuvia Bielski) would be sporting Russian accents in this “true story.”  Despite my reservations I was gladly surprised and pleased with the turnout of the film.  Craig and Schreiber do a good job with the accents and generally excel in their roles. I really enjoyed the fact that all of the main characters spoke Russian at times. It drives me nuts when movies speak English in certain regions and times when English was obviously not spoken. I understand that people don’t enjoy reading movies, but I liked the fact that this one mixed it in.

I did have some small issues with some of the characters.  Daniel Craig begins as a ruthless man seeking revenge, but almost as soon as he satisfies that urge he changes his mind and develops all of these morals and values that were completely absent before.  He mentions that he can still see the faces of the people he’s killed, but it’s so quick you might miss it. If that intense moral conflict were drawn out a little more, it might seem a little more plausable that he would be overcome by such a dramatic change of heart when his brother wants to go on his own mission for revenge.  Also, the two brothers share the screen for about the first half of the film, but when they split up, Liev’s story is basically tossed to the side and almost forgotten entirely.  Zwick paints Craig as the more likable brother and the obvious the hero, but there would have been a more enjoyable dynamic if both brothers got their fair share. Zus’ character would have been more nuanced and less predictable had he had been given more time. Instead, the youngest brother, Asael Bielski (Jamie Bell) took over his place, and I found him the most interesting.  There was a really interesting scene that showed Asael getting married, and blended it with Zus attacking and killing more Nazi’s. It was a great contrast and maybe my favorite scene.

Speaking of contrast, I wish Mr. Zwick would have gone into more depth about the clashes within the Jewish class system.  Zus describes how despite their incredible heroism in saving these fellow Jewish people, some still refuse to give up their prejudices, feeling that they’re better then him because of their superior wealth, class, etc.  It was really only mentioned that once, but it would’ve added a level of depth and created a more compelling story.

The wardrobe department deserves some recognition.  The costumes effectively got across the fact that these people had to literally drop everything and run into the woods to survive.  Men in suits and women in nice dresses are not the typical outdoor survival wear, but they had no choice.

With all that being said, I still enjoyed this movie. It was really entertaining and fun to watch. It had its cliche moments; forced love story for our hero, very predictable moments etc. and can we please stop doing the “video game war scene”? You know the scene.  When our hero is getting attacked, and something explodes right by him, and everything goes into slow motion, and there is a ringing like know he can’t hear anything, and then someone yells at them to snap them back to reality. Hasn’t that been in every war movie? It was even in “Tropic Thunder,” which makes fun of this genre!

Anyway, pick this one up.  It’s probably not my favorite Ed Zwick film, but it doesn’t disappoint.

(3.5/5)

Fun fact:  The producers struggled to find a proper shooting location, and when they finally chose remote Lithuania, they realized they were only a few hundred miles from where the real story took place.

Next week I tackle my favorite movie ever, The Jonas Brothers Concert Experience!!!!!! Oh what’s that? My DVD player rejected it? Oh shucks. Oh well, I have it memorized for you.