DVD Release Date: 6/2/2009 Running Time: 136 minutes
Rated R for violence and language
World War II has long been a source of inspiration for movie studios. The “last great war,” as it has been known, was full of dramatic moments and inspiring stories, and Hollywood has long sought to capture those stories for audiences to digest. In particular the subject of the Nazi war machine and the various groups that stood up to them have been a powerful source of material, bringing to life such movies as Schindler’s List, The Pianist, The Great EscapeStalag 17 and more. Last winter brought a new host of Nazi films starting with November’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Following in quick succession were Stephen Daldry’s The Reader and Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise, both of which found high levels of public awareness. Amidst these films another found its way to theaters, a previously unsung-by-Hollywood story of the Jewish resistance against the German war machine. Directed by Edward Zwick and starring Daniel Craig, Live Schreiber and Jamie Bell, Defiance opened to relatively little fanfare in limited release before getting a wider release in January. Audiences largely passed the film by, perhaps weary of the Nazi theme and more interested in the Oscar race that was building up between The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire and the not-yet-passed over The Dark Knight. After a decent yet unspectacular run in theaters, the film is now released on DVD, hoping to attract viewers that may not have had a chance to see it on the big screen.
The Movie
The film stars Craig, Schreiber and Bell as Tuvia, Alexander "Zus" and Asael Bielski, three Jewish brothers in 1941 Belorussia who suffer a terrible loss when Nazi forces take over a small village and take control of all the residents. Citizens are shot in cold blood while a Nazi soldier films the whole event, and the brothers' father is among those dead. When the trio reunites in the woods of the vicinity, they decide to get revenge for the elimination of their village. Their acts result in a collective of sorts being born in those woods, as persecuted Jews come together and fall under the Bielski’s protection and guidance. The group becomes a resistance force within the woods and Tuvia, the eldest brother, is looked upon as the leader. Where he takes a no-nonsense, businesslike approach to the whole affair and has a more balanced approach, Zus is more hot-headed and simply wants to strike back at the German forces that killed his father as well as his wife and child. This ideological conflict between the two brothers becomes the crux of the moral conflict that drives the film forward, not to mention the rigors and difficulties of living within the woods during ever-colder days, little food and sickness…not to mention the German forces that are hunting them down.
Defiance was written by Edward Zwick and Clayton Frohman, based off the 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by University of Connecticut sociology professor Nechama Tec. In adapting the work to the screen, Zwick and Frohman have created a story that is powerful and moving without white-washing the facts terribly much. The script gives a moment, albeit a brief one, to allude to the Bielskis less-than-stellar reputation before the war, but at the same time it is this experience that aids them as they take the fight to the Nazis and defend the community that has grown up around them. Zwick and Frohman leave certain more controversial—and highly disputed to the point of weak credibility, it is worth mentioning—elements of the story out, including an alleged involvement in the May 1943 massacre of Polish resistance members by Soviet forces. Zwick’s story is quite honoring of the Bielskis for what they did for the Jewish people under their guardianship, but it doesn’t portray them as saints but simply as people who felt a responsibility and desperate need to fight back and used the tools at their disposal to do so. There are a few other historical inaccuracies, as with any picture based on fact, but ultimately this is not a documentary but a film based on a real-life event and the goal should be to entertain and bring forth a message; it is difficult to do that when presenting every fact possible. In crafting a worthy story, Zwick and Frohman succeed.
In casting his film, Zwick certainly assembled a stellar group of actors to portray the members of the Bielski partisans. Foremost are the three brothers portrayed by Daniel Craig, Live Schreiber and Jamie Bell. Bell is quite good as Asael, showing that the glimpses of talent he’s shown in films such as Jumper and Flags of Our Fathers were far from flukes. He portrays the more timid of the three brothers, but there is a powerful resilience underneath that timidity and Bell brings that quality out quite nicely to keep him from being overshadowed by the two bigger-name leads. Speaking of which, they are excellent as well. Daniel Craig is an ingeniously talented actor who has yet to find that film that can break him out of the Bond stereotype before he’s permanently locked in. Tuvia Bielski appears to have contributed quite a bit toward that however, as Craig gives a remarkable performance. It is no surprise that he manages the action with ease, and yet he also makes her performance count for something quite extraordinary during the less explosive moments of the film.
As good as Craig and Bell are however, the most impressive performance here easily goes to Live Schreiber. One who has seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine will see some of the elements that he brought to the role of Sabretooth on display here as Zus; however, Zus is an entirely different kind of creature, no pun intended. As the aggressor in this film, it is Schreiber’s job to really make the conflict work. Without a strong element of sympathy for the character it would be entirely too easy for audiences to reject his motives out of hand and side too quickly with Tuvia, which that would render the moral conflict of the plot moot and undermine much of the film’s themes. Schreiber is quite adeptly able to manage the simmering rage that Zus rightly feels toward those who destroyed his family without sacrificing what makes us care about him at the same time. The character is much more complex than he seems at first glance, and it is absolutely to the talented actor’s credit that we see this, letting the debate between the brothers’ stances carry on. In supporting roles, Alexa Davalos and Iben Hjejle provide solid performances as Tuvia and Zus’s love interests, though their parts seem shorted somewhat due to the need to keep the film moving forward and not get bogged down.
Audiences familiar with Zwick’s work as a director will not be surprised at the places where he excels here. Zwick’s work includes 1989’s Glory, 1996’s Courage Under Fire, 2003’s The Last Samurai and 2006’s Blood Diamond, leaving no doubt as to his capability with action scenes and moral conflict. Both elements are handled quite ably here, as he choreographs some very impressive-looking action scenes that are impressively shot by cinematographer Eduardo Serra. The film is visually stunning with a lot of beautiful shots of the forest, the only flaw with the look of the film is Zwick’s occasional tendency to let the Hollywood “look” take over when a more understated feel may have been the better choice. He also allows some clichés to come through in the script and editing process, including a few pieces of Hollywood-esque dialogue that seem to be out of place in the otherwise natural-sounding lines. This is certainly not a perfect film, nor is it Zwick’s best—that honor would most likely fall to Blood Diamonds—but nonetheless it is a powerful story that deserves to be told, and if it doesn’t get the absolute best telling we could have possibly seen, it at least gets a very good one that strives to be worthy of the tale entrusted to it.
Film Rating: 7.5
The Video
Defiance is presented in the film’s original 1.78:1 widescreen ratio, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The video transfer is quite nice as it captures Serra’s cinematography in excellent detail. The color palette is muted and there are elements of grain, but this is a stylistic choice in order to provide the appropriate period look and not a flaw of the DVD. The greens of the forest have an appropriately frigid look to them, allowing the film to present the feel of the encroaching winter quite well. Browns and grays stand side-by-side with those bluish greens to create a look that ultimately ends up being stronger for the limited palette. Black levels are fleshed out and detail as excellently captured. The film occasionally gets a bit visually dark and it makes for a harder movie to correctly capture the delineation, but it does a very admirable job of working with the stylistic choices and as flaws go this is quite minor. All in all the film looks impressive and there are few complaints that could be mustered up regarding the transfer, and even those would be more or less nitpicks.
Video Rating: 8.5
The Audio
Paramount Vantage has presented the film’s audio track with the industry-standard 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, available here in English, French and Spanish. The film sounds nice, with a good balance between the dialogue, score and battle sequence effects. The majority of the track focuses on the front channels although this is not to say the rear channels are completely ignored; it simply seems as if, considering the outdoor motif of the film, the ambient sounds could have been a bit more immersive. This is overall a quieter film than one might expect from a war film but considering the story’s focus on characters over action this is to be expected. It’s a reserved audio experience for the most part and it works for what it is trying to convey, though perhaps a more robust experience may have worked just as well or better.
Audio Rating: 7.5
The Packaging
Paramount has dressed Defiance in a standard snap case that features Daniel Craig on the cover with a machine gun in his hand, making no secret about how they saw the marketing plan for this film. Still, it’s an effective enough image and is better than the “floating head” layout that is so common these days. The DVD itself gets the standard “silver title against a gray background” that tends to be used when a studio can’t think of a better image to put on a DVD, which is disappointing as it makes it indistinguishable from a host of other DVD’s in one’s collection outside of the case. The menus feature either Craig or Schreiber in still-frame forest action poses, with the main menu featuring a brief segment of the score. All in all, it’s a fairly generic presentation of a very good film.
Packaging Rating: 5.0
Special Features
Commentary by Director Edward Zwick: Zwick provides a decent enough commentary track here as he talks about his film, although he probably would have done well with someone else to play off of. He talks about the experience filming within Lithuania and the cast at length while also hitting on the real-life background of the story, the cinematography, the music and the framing of the action sequences. Zwick comes off as a bit stilted from time to time and he talks perhaps a bit too proudly of his film at others, but this is certainly not a bad commentary and there are several good points of interest for those interested in delving further into the movie.
Defiance: Return to the Forest: The Making of Defiance: (26:05) This making-of featurette has several members of the cast and crew discussing the production including Craig, Zwick, Schreiber, Bell, Feuerstein, Frohman, producer Pieter Jan Brugge, special effects coordinator Neil Corbould and more. Craig notes that he wasn’t familiar with the story of the Bielskis before coming on-board because, as he states, “it’s not the story that we’re told.” Much of the information presented here is discussed by Zwick in the commentary, but it’s an excellent making-of for those who don’t listen to commentary tracks. Frohman talks about the genesis of the project in coming across Zus Bielski’s obituary, which inspired him to learn more and then he came across the novel. There’s a nice bit early on with Jan Brugge where he laments the fact that it’s tough to find projects that aren’t Hollywood cookie-cutter scripts but still have emotional resonance. There are times where it skirts the edge of being a bit congratulatory toward the cast, but it always comes back to the cast and crew’s reverence for the project and their respect for the story. Even the discussion of the community as a character of its own in the film, which seems almost like a stock statement these days, seems very real and not just said for promotional reasons. One of the most striking interview bits comes from Alexa Davalos, who seems honestly emotional when she talks about Lilka and Tuvia. One bit that is particularly interesting involves the actress’s use of lipstick, where make-up artist Trefor Proud notes that it is historically accurate that the women wore it, even in such situations during the World War II era. The featurette covers several aspects of the production and is quite nice as a making-of.
Children of the Otriad: (13:42) This exceptional little short has the descendants of the Bielski brothers—Tuvia’s children Michael, Robert and Ruth Bielski and granddaughter Sharon Rennert, as well as Zus Bielski’s son Zvi—talking about the real people behind the characters. Zwick and Frohman add some commentary interspersed, but mostly this is the children’s (and grandchild’s) tale to tell and they do so quite well. There are a lot of archival photos of the Bielski brothers, and it’s nice to see them with the images we have of them via Craig, Schreiber and Bell already in mind. Tuvia’s children talk frankly about their mother’s problems after the fact and how much the issue clouded her life throughout. To be fair, they do whitewash things a bit but these are not Bielski scholars, they are the children of the film’s subjects and one can’t particularly expect perfect objectivity on the matter. The short concludes with the children discussing their visit to the set and discussions with Zwick about the brothers, and why they felt the need to see the story told.
Bielski's Partisan Survivors: (1:58) This remarkably short feature simply shows pictures of the surviving members of the Bielski partisans, as photographed by Zwick in November of 2008. There are no names associated with the pictures but considering the risk that might come into play from extremist groups this can be expected, and it is a lovely way to honor them. Zwick is a fairly decent photographer too, it bears mentioning.
Previews: (5:38) In addition to being available among the special features, these previews play as soon as the DVD is inserted. They consist of the first Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Revolutionary Road on DVD.
Special Features Rating: 7.5
The 411: In creating Defiance, Edward Zwick has crafted a story that certainly stands alongside some his previous efforts such as Glory and The Last Samurai, even if it is not quite his best work. The story of Jewish people who stood up against the Nazis exterminating them has been long-ignored by Hollywood and even historians, and that the story is being told is an accomplishment in and of itself. Featuring strong performances from the entire cast--especially Daniel Craig as Tuvia and Liev Schreiber as Zus--sharp action and a powerful message, the film bogs down occasionally with the need to sink into Hollywood cliché but never sinks. A strong technical effort in bringing the movie to DVD and some good special features make this an excellent choice to check out, and not a bad choice at all to add to one's collection.
