Defiance

Will Leitch wrote a pretty good review of the film that I think gives a decent overview of its strengths and weaknesses. As for me I found it to be a solidly done, solidly acted, entertaining film, but really its that word 'solid' that sums up my biggest problem with the movie: given the story the makers had to work with it should have been a great film not just a good one. The true story Bielski partisans, and their efforts to fight the Nazi's while building a community of Jews in the Polish woods is an amazing one, and would be compelling as a community theatre production, let alone a major Hollywood film. That's why its so frustrating that Defiance is merely adequate and not transcendent. When watching a film based on true events it shouldbe able to stand on its own regardless of the veracity of the story. I should care about its characters and be engaged on a high level even if it were fictional. Unfortunately in this case I think if I didn't know that the story was a true one the film would have just come off as an entertaining B-movie about Jews fighting Nazi's. Like leitch points out Ed Zwick shoots it completely uncynically, which while not necessarily a bad thing, leads to some cringe inducing moments (Daniel Craig really needs to give his big speech while riding a white stallion - really?). Also I would have liked more emphasis placed on the actual workings of the community they built up and not just have it rushed through a montage sequence and some postscript at the end of the film. Its this part of the story that was the most compelling, and not the action scenes that I'm sure were emphasized at the studio's request.

Looking at what I just wrote I sound more negative than I intended. This really isn't a bad film, and I'll probably go and read the book it was based on to learn more about the actual facts of the story. I just wish that it had been great instead of merely good. At the least it's the best of the WWII films I've seen over the past month or so, and I would recommend it over Valkyrie and most definitely the Reader (about which I'm becoming more annoyed by the day by the best picture nomination).