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Directed by Edward Zwick’s
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Defiance Somehow it’s easy to be glib about Edward Zwick’s films – “Glory,” “Blood Diamond,” “Courage Under Fire” – by mentioning that every few minutes he pounds you with another didactic lesson about what you’re watching. But I’m not going to join the crowd. “Defiance” is a heretofore little-known story of the Holocaust that a) is astounding; b) is inspiring, and c) is true. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in the
summer of 1941 through what’s now Belorussia, they and their Russian
allies – those who’d supported or participated in pogroms against
the Jews. They rounded up every
Jew they could find, either killing them there or shipping them to
concentration camps. One family
of brothers, the Bielskis, who evidently had a a reputation as smugglers and
thieves, ran to the Belorussian forest when their parents were killed. The oldest was Tuvia
(Daniel Craig), the next was Zus (Liev Schreiber), the third was Asael (Jamie Bell).
Soon they took in other Jews who had managed to escape from the Nazis,
and a kind of community grew in the forest. Tuvia is the leader, Zus is more the hothead – I was reminded of the
relationship between Michael and Sonny in “The Godfather.” But Zwick
has given Tuvia and Zus
some wonderful scenes of brotherly conflict and love that add complexity to
his story; this is the best work I’ve seen from Liev
Schreiber since “A Walk on the Moon,” and Daniel Craig, who tends
to pose more than act, has a role as the leader of the group that is
perfectly suited for him. Their little community in the forest is constantly
pursued by the Germans, and yet they must come out to get food from the
farmers nearby. No one will
simply give it to them, and so everyone must contribute their jewelry, their
watches, whatever they may have in order to buy the food; they are Jews,
after all. The group fights, little by little picking up arms
and ammunition from the Germans they kill. Zus goes off
to join a Russian Partisan brigade.
There are conflicts, the men take what are
called ‘forest wives’ for the duration, although Asrael does find someone to marry. The story of “Defiance” is so
unexpected, coming sixty years after the war, that it has a greater impact
than had it been known at the time.
Although Zwick has not made any mistakes in
directing or writing, he somehow makes a great story seem just a bit
underwhelming. There is in fact a
truly great film lurking somewhere in “Defiance;” but he
hasn’t quite let it out. |