Movie: Defiance
Director: Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Glory)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber
Imagine you have no means to protect yourself beyond your physical strength. Now, add watching your family die and know that someone is coming after you simply because of your faith. Wouldn’t that be hard? Thought so. Add in the fact you are living in the middle of a forest and you have the true story of the Bielski brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
The tone of the movie is established the second the viewer was introduced, and nothing about the introduction is easy on the viewer. We are shown just how brutal the police were toward Jews in Eastern Europe. Shooting women and children. Stabbing men in the chest and face. Brutal. And the film does an outstanding job at showing how brutal it was.
The initial scene sets the emotional tone because the Bielski’s parents are kill and the need for revenge becomes self-evident. The brothers take revenge on those who killed their parents and plan on going on their way, but they find they more people who need help and decided to stick around. A sense of moral obligation seems to set in Tuvia, the character played by Daniel Craig, but Zus played by Liev Schreiber doesn’t share the same feeling. He wants to fight, to move on, so the two split. Craig is left to oversee the Jews in the woods, Schreiber join the Russians to fight.
In a number of ways, the movie is a moral paradox. Can the person inside of you do what it needs to do in order to survive? The experiences these individuals face will either empower them to act or scare them to the point of inaction. The movie also explorers the concept of love. Can love grow out of necessity?
Zwick captured the setting of an Eastern European forest during that period – just like he managed to capture the period during both The Last Samurai and Glory. The greens and blue added during the beginning and middle of the picture show, I believe, the tone of the characters. They were down, there were depressed, or “blue” and the film reflects that feeling. When the characters find their new world, it’s sunny and flush with warm colors.
As for the movie technicals. There was no groundbreaking camera work in this film, yet the film was shots in the movie are clear and indicative of a A+ movie. The music/score add a lot of emotion for the viewer, and was done so masterfully.
I’m a sucker for period pieces – I’ve always said it – so movies like this always draw my attention. This is no Saving Private Ryan but it is a SOLID movie. Both Craig and Liev are at the top of their game, and that is reason enough to see this movie. Add in a solid story and questions about life and the movie delivers an experience most lack these days – entertainment, a story and a point – and you have a strong move regardless of the small downfalls that may exist within the experience.
Rating: 7.5/10
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