Defiance (2008)

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1. 

   dombrewer

   There's comes a point in Edward Zwick's latest in a line of epic, beautifully shot forays into muddy warfare when you realise you are watching a load of nonsense, even though it's billed as a true story. You just know, without having to look up what actually happened that aside from character names that the majority of the action and incident is just tumbling randomly out of the mind of a screenwriter, filling in the blanks of characters and events now long lost in the woods. So it proves.
   
   The Bielski brothers did indeed hide out in the Belarussian forests from the advancing Nazi forces, and formed a partisan unit that survived on its wits for two years and saved the lives of over a 1000 Jews who travelled, lived and fought with them. Those facts are given a Hollywood pong in this glossy, over long, overly earnest, blockbuster. The best thing is the cinematography, particularly in the winter sections - the sunlight glinting off snow through the trees is gorgeous. The biggest problem without a doubt is the casting of Daniel Craig; not only does he blend in effortlessly with the wooden scenery, his accent is truly embarrassing. Many of the accents are, as well as being inconsistent with each other - Liev Schreiber sounds the most convincing, Jamie Bell does his best. Allan Corduner looks and sounds like he's just stumbled in from a stage production of "Fiddler on the Roof".
   The accented English is dispensed with when the characters speak to the Russians in the film, further confusing and distancing the audience from reality. As soon as the "jewish" accents come out again it sounds ridiculous.
   
   There are more exciting WW2 resistance films, and there are a more historically accurate ones too. For a genuinely thrilling (fictional, based on true events) account of partisan groups during the second world war I'd highly recommend you read Primo Levi's stunning novel "If Not Now, When" and give this a miss. 11 years ago
2. 

   HEMA

   Knowing the plot outline, I expected the introductory text to continue
   "Belarusia is entirely occupied by the Germans. Well not entirely! One small village of indomitable Jews still holds out against the invaders."
   
   But alas...Decent film otherwise, shame about the language and historical inaccuracies. 11 years 4 months ago
3. 

   chunkylefunga

   Sadly forgetable. 7 years 2 months ago

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