"Defiance" had potential to be a truly gripping and emotional film, but its lack of depth and less than impressive technical production caused it to fall a bit flat.-Analysis of Notable Work- *Writing/Directing: The story is one of survival and selflessness. It has the workings of a masterpiece, but it felt more as if it was trying to fill all the check-boxes for cliches in a WWII/Holocaust film. The brothers are at odds half way through the film, there is an old man who says it is hopeless (he is proven wrong), there is a weak character who shows strength in the time of need, etc. This wouldn't be a problem on its own, but each of these moments feel forced, and that is why they fail. Edward Zwick delivers moments of greatness, but much of his direction seems to lead this film into areas that have already been well-explored. *Cinematography/Editing: Eduardo Serra puts in average work in this film, enough to get the point across. The camera placement and movement makes us feel like we are in the moment for most of the film, yet other times it feels out of place and as if there was no real goal for telling a certain part of the story visually. There are too many close-ups in this film, which actually takes power away from the characters because it makes the close-ups feel unimportant. The color palette works well; it appears cold and washed-out which adds to the feeling of death and hopelessness the Jews must have felt. The editing is effective and simple. It has its ups and downs. At times there are too many shots of people being hit by bullets that it loses its weight in the storytelling. But overall, the pacing is even and serves the story well. *Dialogue/Acting: There are moments of brilliance and power in some dialogue and monologue scenes. Some characters give inspiring speeches and some scenes feature dramatic face-offs. However, much of the dialogue written for the supporting cast and extras is rather clunky. The delivery of the extras and supporters does not help matters. When it is brought to the audience's attention that the people on screen are, in fact, actors then it takes away the power of the film. A great film can have the audience convinced throughout the entire film that the characters are authentic people. Liev Schreiber and Daniel Craig deliver adequate performances, but nothing more. They hold the film above water, but do not make it soar. *Music/Sound: The music is subtle for much of the film, but it delivers power to the necessary scenes. It does not try to gain the audiences attention, and it serves the film well by doing this. The sound design is one of the strengths of the film. It provides a sense of realism all the way through, apart from maybe one or two scenes. *Production Design/Special Effects: The costume design and set pieces/props feel authentic and serve the story well. It is easy to get wrapped up in the feel of the 1940s while watching this film. The practical effects are impressive and another of the film's strong points. The visual effects/CGI are less powerful and end up hurting the film. One of the most poorly done parts of the film is when the German planes come through to bomb the Jewish refugees. This scene should terrify us, but it more-so looks laughable.*Conclusion: "Defiance" delivers an impressive story, but not the best way it could have. The end result is worth watching, but not life-altering.

I was an ignorant teen when this movie came out, but little did I know 10 years later I would love it! I can't believe I hadn't seen it until today. What a great story and cast. I would recommend this to anyone! This is like the true story version of Red Dawn, but with much more heart!

Is Edward Zwick the dullest filmmaker in America? He's certainly one of the most infuriating--time and again discovering fascinating stories buried in the corners of history, only to completely botch their revelation. Zwick movies invariably balloon into lumbering white elephants, embalmed in the icky molasses of awards-season prestige and corny Hollywood contrivances.The Last Samurai could've been an absorbing take on ancient tradition colliding with a modern world, but instead devolved into a lovingly photographed tribute to the wind blowing through Tom Cruise's hair in slow motion.Blood Diamond had all the ingredients of a gripping, topical thriller, but instead played out as a morbid procession of Oscar clips, climaxing with the preposterous sight of a gutshot Leonardo DiCaprio making not one but two weepy farewell phone calls while in the middle of a gunfight.There's a specific sort of turgidness to an Edward Zwick film, an oatmeal blandness evident since his feature debut, 23 years ago, when he distorted David Mamet's scathing play Sexual Perversity in Chicago into a sitcom-like vehicle for Rob Lowe and Demi Moore called About Last Night ...There's obviously no material that this man can't flatten with his tedious middlebrow sensibility.Zwick does it again with Defiance, making a cheesy mess out of the captivating, little-known tale of the Bielski otriad. In 1941, four hard-drinking, rough-hewn criminal brothers headed deep into the Belarusian forest, building a kibbutz where they and fellow Jews could hide from Hitler's goons and wait out the war. The Bielski brothers saved hundreds of lives, but these wondrous facts don't provide enough nobility for Zwick. This is such a damned good story, he's determined to oversell it.Daniel Craig--the blonde-haired, blue-eyed 007 who apparently became an honorary Jew after Stephen Spielberg cast him in Munich--stars as Tuvia Bielski, and we can tell right away he's supposed to be the hero because he makes gaseous proclamations from atop a white horse, his every utterance underscored by a martial bleat from of composer James Newton Howard's trumpets. The rest of the people in the movie are always seen gazing upward at him in slackjawed awe.Well, everybody except for Zus, Tuvia's hot-headed little brother, played with a swarthy intensity by Liev Schreiber. Zus just wants to kill as many Germans as he can, but Tuvia insists that "living will be our revenge." These two have many tiresome parable-inflected arguments that play like bad knockoffs of the Talmudic debates Tony Kushner wrote for Munich.Meanwhile, the third brother, Asael (Jamie Bell), sheepishly stands off to the side, presumably wondering the same thing as the audience: What casting director in their right mind thought James Bond, Liev Schreiber and Billy Elliot could pass for brothers? Shot by cinematographer Eduardo Serra in that same digitally tweaked, washed-out color palate that's become the cliché for WWII movies since Saving Private Ryan, Defiance ignores what's most interesting about its own story in favor of a ton of stock scenes we've already seen; there are no surprises here. When the saintly elderly Hasidic comic abruptly coughs mid-quip, everybody knows what's going to happen to him within the next 10 minutes. There's even a gooey romance between Craig and Alexa Davalos, which arrives out of left field and seems to be motivated by a producer's decree that every big-budget Hollywood film must have a romance in there somewhere.Still hungry for vengeance, Schreiber's Zus takes off to fight with the Russians. Zwick and his co-screenwriter Clayton Frohman take a couple of jabs at the irony of Jews enlisting alongside a bunch of virulent Anti-Semites, but as is the case with any potentially interesting idea in Defiance, this one takes a back seat to the plot mechanics of a risibly inauthentic rescue sequence.By the time estranged brother Zus rides in like Han Solo to save Moses Skywalker's butt at the exact moment when things look hopeless, Zwick's done it again. He's made a true story feel awfully false.

During WW2, the Bielski family led a group of Russian Jews into the woods in an effort to save as many people as possible. Daniel Craig is excellent as the leader Tuvia, who is maybe not smart, but is street wise and tough. His brother Zus, played by Liv Schreiber, is bigger, tougher, but more of a joker. He's also more of a pure fighter. There are 2 other Bielski younger sons as well.The movie constantly keeps you guessing what will happen next - will the Germans find them. If they find them, what happens. How can so many people survive with no food or shelter. The theme of the movie is to show you that some Jews fought back and did not passively go to their deaths. You can feel the anger of how many deaths they had to deal with when they get their hands on Germans. There is a love interest or two, but those seem to play minor roles. It's mostly all about survival, and brother vs brother, and how the whole Bielski family handles the issues. You should check out the special features interviews with relatives of the real people. Makes you realize that perhaps your troubles pale in comparison to what the survivors had to endure.Defiance is well acted, captivating, and well choreographed. Don't miss this terrific movie. Enjoy.