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DEFIANCE

Starring: Daniel Craig, Live Schreiber, and Jamie Bell

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Rated R for violence and language

By John Delia

Defiance is like a good book, hard to put down until the very last page is read. With an extraordinary true story, excellent acting, faultless direction, and flawless cinematography this film should not be missed. To honor the film in the same sentence with Schindler’s List shows how much I was moved by the whole experience.
Based on an extraordinary true story, Defiance is an epic tale of family, honor, vengeance and salvation in World War II. The film opens in the year 1941with Jews of Eastern Europe being massacred by the thousands. Managing to escape certain death, three brothers take refuge in the dense surrounding woods they have known since childhood. There they begin their desperate battle against the Nazis. Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Schreiber) and Asel (Bell) are the brothers who turn a primitive struggle to survive into something far more consequential – a way to avenge the deaths of their loved ones by saving thousands of others.
Craig ups his value as an actor tremendously with this performance as the leader of the community of terrified Jews escaping from the clutches of the Germans while fending off local police that are hunting them for bounty. In support, Schreiber shows his amazing strength as an actor breathing realism into the enraged Zus who wants revenge for the loss of his wife and child. I especially liked the scene between Craig and Schreiber, who are at odds with each other on how they should defend themselves, which ends up in a fistfight. The scene was well choreographed and believable.
Direction by Zwick (Blood Diamond) is top notch and faultless. Shooting the film in the woods for the long duration, coping with the lighting and weather, special effects explosions, large groups of actors and a script that had to be filmed with a delicate hand was accomplished brilliantly. His depiction of the anti-Semitism, degradation of the Jews and their resistance gave me chills.
There is a lot of violence involving war, graphic brutality, language and a brief sexual inference in the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: One of the best films of the year, Defiance should not be missed (5 of 5 Palm Trees)