Blu Ray Disks: Defiance [Blu-ray]

Defiance [Blu-ray] Review

It is 1941. Nazi Germany has invaded Soviet Russia, straight through the Soviet Republic of Belorussia. Three Jewish brothers, Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell), take refuge in the nearby forests. They are joined, more or less by accident, by other members of their Jewish community. It falls to the three brothers to take charge and defy the odds to save the lives of their fellow refugees.

Such is the premise of 2009's "Defiance", which shines a light on a obscure corner of World War Two's Eastern Front. Trapped behind the German lines, the Bielski group must battle lack of food and shelter, a harsh winter, and the vicious tactics of the German Army. They get little help from the local Soviet partisan group, which regards them with suspicion.

The narrative proceeds on parallel tracks. The otherwise ordinary Bielski brothers must grow, painfully, into leaders, while their fellow refugees struggle to maintain their sense of community under the most difficult of conditions. The interactions between the brothers ring true, thanks to some solid acting. Some of the best moments of the movie are the efforts of the people of the forest to fashion a new, if precarious, life for themselves in the midst of war.

"Defiance" narrates some painful events that may be difficult to watch. The partisan battle may be unknown to the average viewer, who is encouraged to explore the extra features explaining the history behind the movie. "Defiance" is very highly recommended to fans of the World War Two movie genre as something new and special.

Defiance [Blu-ray] Overview

Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-JUN-2009
Media Type: Blu-Ray

Defiance [Blu-ray] Specifications

Three ferociously committed actors fill the roles of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans who escaped into the forests of Eastern Europe during the Second World War. Daniel Craig (taking a break from 007 duty) is Tuvia, the leader of a group of refugees who eventually number over a thousand; Liev Schreiber is Zus, the antagonistic warrior; and Jamie Bell is Asael, a peacemaker no less devoted to the survival of the community. The three performers give life to director Edward Zwick's account of this little-known chapter of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, which otherwise plays more like a history lesson than a full-blooded movie. The film's best achievement is its strong location work, in Lithuania--as the community makes its home in the forest, the landscape becomes an important player in the drama at hand, and the changing of the seasons is charted with bone-chilling detail. Schreiber manages to get a little wry humor into this otherwise sober enterprise, and Daniel Craig creates an unusual character: a sort of anti-Bond, a hero whose body is all too fallible and whose decision-making is sometimes hesitant or morally compromised. It's a rare hero in a World War II movie that tends to withdraw from scenes rather than stride into them, but that's what Craig does. More than likely, the movie's main achievement will be sending the curious to read the histories of the Bielski brothers and why they matter in the chronicles of the Holocaust. --Robert Horton

Stills from Defiance (Click for larger image)