Movie Review: Defiance

When Defiance was first released in theaters I was interested in seeing it but it got sucked into the vortex of other new Holocaust movies. Between Tom Cruise playing a one eyed hero in Valykerie and the maudlin and manipulative “Boy In The Striped Pajamas, I ended up passing on all three.  So finally I Netflix cherry picked what I thought was the best of the bunch, Defiance.  It’s the true story of a Polish family with three brothers who in 1939 fled and hid out deep in the woods to escape the Nazi invasion. Initially they form a small group but soon their numbers swell as the Bielski brothers take in a huge population of Polish Jews fleeing from the approaching Nazis.  Their expanding community includes the elderly, women and children and the two oldest brothers played by Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber disagree on decision to take in so many.  It’s clear that it will be a near impossible task to forage for food and secure weapons in order to survive and protect themselves. Schreiber is unexpectedly cast as the “bad” rebellious brother and he’s great.  Craig is also good but at times his accent slips from polish immigrant to British aristocrat, but after all he is James Bond.  Overall it’s a deeply moving movie and an amazing true story of survival.