Defiance (2008)
Country: US
Technical: col 137m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Jodhi May
Synopsis:
Belorussian Jews hide out in the forest during the Nazi occupation and fight a partisan-style struggle for survival.
Review:
Another of the director's fond portraits of threatened minorities making their own last stand against dark forces, only this time with an uncharacteristically - and, for this subgenre, controversially - upbeat outcome. The production is as handsome as ever, though this again is a mixed blessing given the subject matter; and far from being the cruel and perilous place of banishment common to folklore, the forest is a kind of benign refuge, affording shelter, fuel and sustenance (the mechanics of the victualling are never quite adumbrated satisfactorily). This is all the understandable by-product of making a commercial film out of such unsavoury ingredients as starvation, lack of sanitation and terrorism, all of which are softened for the big screen. What we are left with as an old tale of brothers falling out and coming back together, of the worm turning and rubbing the oppressor's nose in the mire. That it is all apparently true excuses some of the glaring narrative lacunae, and it builds to a satisfying action climax, but as a war film it is less satisfying than Come and See, say, with which it shares its setting and some of its scenes. (Shot on location in Lithuania and with Russian and German dialogue, though the Jews speak English, another marketing compromise permitting the use of international actors.)
Country: US
Technical: col 137m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Jodhi May
Synopsis:
Belorussian Jews hide out in the forest during the Nazi occupation and fight a partisan-style struggle for survival.
Review:
Another of the director's fond portraits of threatened minorities making their own last stand against dark forces, only this time with an uncharacteristically - and, for this subgenre, controversially - upbeat outcome. The production is as handsome as ever, though this again is a mixed blessing given the subject matter; and far from being the cruel and perilous place of banishment common to folklore, the forest is a kind of benign refuge, affording shelter, fuel and sustenance (the mechanics of the victualling are never quite adumbrated satisfactorily). This is all the understandable by-product of making a commercial film out of such unsavoury ingredients as starvation, lack of sanitation and terrorism, all of which are softened for the big screen. What we are left with as an old tale of brothers falling out and coming back together, of the worm turning and rubbing the oppressor's nose in the mire. That it is all apparently true excuses some of the glaring narrative lacunae, and it builds to a satisfying action climax, but as a war film it is less satisfying than Come and See, say, with which it shares its setting and some of its scenes. (Shot on location in Lithuania and with Russian and German dialogue, though the Jews speak English, another marketing compromise permitting the use of international actors.)
Country: US
Technical: col 137m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Jodhi May
Synopsis:
Belorussian Jews hide out in the forest during the Nazi occupation and fight a partisan-style struggle for survival.
Review:
Another of the director's fond portraits of threatened minorities making their own last stand against dark forces, only this time with an uncharacteristically - and, for this subgenre, controversially - upbeat outcome. The production is as handsome as ever, though this again is a mixed blessing given the subject matter; and far from being the cruel and perilous place of banishment common to folklore, the forest is a kind of benign refuge, affording shelter, fuel and sustenance (the mechanics of the victualling are never quite adumbrated satisfactorily). This is all the understandable by-product of making a commercial film out of such unsavoury ingredients as starvation, lack of sanitation and terrorism, all of which are softened for the big screen. What we are left with as an old tale of brothers falling out and coming back together, of the worm turning and rubbing the oppressor's nose in the mire. That it is all apparently true excuses some of the glaring narrative lacunae, and it builds to a satisfying action climax, but as a war film it is less satisfying than Come and See, say, with which it shares its setting and some of its scenes. (Shot on location in Lithuania and with Russian and German dialogue, though the Jews speak English, another marketing compromise permitting the use of international actors.)