Defiance (2008)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 178
Fresh: 101 | Rotten: 77
Professionally made but artistically uninspired, Ed Zwick's story of Jews surviving WWII in the Belarus forest lacks the emotional punch of the actual history.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 19
Professionally made but artistically uninspired, Ed Zwick's story of Jews surviving WWII in the Belarus forest lacks the emotional punch of the actual history.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 242,417
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Movie Info
Inspired by a true story, director Edward Zwick's epic World War II drama Defiance tells the tale of three Jewish Eastern European brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell) who narrowly escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis, subsequently vowing to avenge the deaths of their loves ones by launching a desperate battle against the forces that seek to exterminate their entire race. The year is 1941, and the setting is Nazi-occupied Belarus. The Final Solution is in full
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Cast
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Daniel Craig
Tuvia Bielski -
Liev Schreiber
Zus Bielski -
Jamie Bell
Asael Bielski -
Alexa Davalos
Lilka Ticktin -
Alan Corduner
Shimon Haretz -
Mark Feuerstein
Isaac Malbin -
Tomas Arana
Ben Zion Gulkowitz -
Jodhi May
Tamara Skidelsky -
Kate Fahy
Riva Reich -
Iddo Goldberg
Yitzhak Shulman -
Iben Hjejle
Bella -
Martin Hancock
Peretz Shorshaty -
Ravil Isyanov
Viktor Panchenko -
Jacek Koman
Konstanty "Koscik" Kozl... -
George MacKay
Aron Bielski -
Jody O'neill
Lazar -
Sam Spruell
Arkady Lubczanski -
Mia Wasikowska
Chaya Dziencielsky -
Mark Margolis
Jewish Elder -
Markus von Lingen
German SS Scout -
Rolandas Boravskis
Gramov
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Defiance Trailer & Photos
All Critics (186) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (106) | Rotten (79) | DVD (15)
The way Zwick force-feeds his audience emotion becomes laborious.
Top CriticI felt like these characters were prototypes and not people.
As a piece of historical redress, a great service has been done in bringing this narrative to the screen.
It's understandable and laudable that they desire not to sensationalize the Bielskis, and they've made a worthy film. But their understated approach makes the struggle seem less urgent than it must surely have been.
Ultimately, the film celebrates and memorializes the survival of something unthinkable, and a group of people for whom defiance meant, at heart, that they would push against the growing darkness and carry on.
It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a gripping 137-minute epic about people standing around under the trees.
Zwick does not deal in gratuitous grotesquery or far-fetched metaphor. "Operatic" and "surreal" are not in his vocabulary.
For all its pomp and ruminating, Defiance isn't really interested in drama. It really just wants to entertain us. But it's not any better at that.
Defiance is heavy-handed, but emotionally compelling, engaging and inspiring throughout.
Director Edward Zwick does a fine job presenting the challenges of reality without falling into nostalgia or easy Hollywood heroes.
succumbing to Hollywood cliches at the expense of historical truth
Un drama bélico eficaz que rescata la heroicidad de los hermanos Bielski, protagonistas de un episodio poco conocido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
This is not an easy film to watch, as it describes the horrors of war with neither sympathetic nor maudlin touches.
In addition to blowing bunker-sized holes in the concept of Jewish timidity during the Holocaust, it's also a darn good bit of period storytelling.
Doesn't quite live up to its great story. But this well-made, solidly conventional movie will almost certainly send you scurrying to find out more about its little-known heroes.
Defiance is overly long and somewhat disjointed, dragging through an interminable second act that seriously impedes the film's flow and hurts the inspired performances.
The tone is desaturated gravity, the action is smudged, the Old Testament parables subtle as anvils
An engaging and inspirational story about the spirit of survival, bravery and brotherhood.
Audience Reviews for Defiance
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Tuvia Bielski: We may be hunted like animals, but we will not become animals.
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- Shimon Haretz: If you save a life you must take responsibility for it.
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- Tuvia Bielski: Everyday of freedom is an act of faith.
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- Shimon Haretz: I almost lost my faith, but you were sent by God to save us.
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- Asael Bielski: As long as I am leader you will obey me.
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- Shimon Haretz: Yes. You annoy me, therefore I exist.
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Latest News on Defiance
June 1, 2009:
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Foreign Titles
- Les Insurgés (FR)
- Resistencia (ES)
