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What’s the Story?

Reviewed byRenee Schonfeld
At the height of the Nazi occupation of Poland, three Jewish brothers find their family slaughtered and other Jews being rounded up in the countryside -- with mass killings or extermination camps their sure fate. The brothers escape into the dense Belarussian forest; on the way, eldest brother Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig) comes to the rescue of a small group of terrified Jews on the run. The refugees follow the brothers into the forest, against the better judgment of volatile middle brother Zus (Liev Schreiber), who's certain that their presence will make them all more vulnerable. With Tuvia's help, more and more displaced Jews find their way to the constantly moving Bielski encampment, and a fragile community is established. Some of the able-bodied join forces with the Russian resistance, while others remain with Tuvia, fighting the Nazis and disrupting their brutal purpose. Lives are lost; relationships are built; bravery and sacrifice are rewarded.

Is It Any Good?

3

Edward Zwick wants to make passionate movies. DEFIANCE is no exception. The story of a Jewish arm of the Resistance hasn't been told before, not like this. The film is exciting, shot with skill and a singular ability to show the harrowing savagery and heroic behavior that lived and breathed in the early 1940s.

Defiance is less successful when it zeroes in on the stories of the individual people who make up the refugee community. Then the filmmakers rely on certain stereotypes: the intellectual chess players, the leering hothead, the sibling rivalry. Still, it's well worth seeing, if only as an important reminder of where the world has been and how much care must be taken never to return there.

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