one of my absolute favorites!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

One rarely sees a film that deals with an important historical subject and does it by crafting a film of perfection in all respects (script, acting, directing , cinematography etc.). I was reduced to tears in many places in this film Not only does it deal with the historical stuff impeccably, but raises all sorts of philosophical and anthropological issues about the nature of a human society. These unfortunates have to start a new society 'from scratch' , as it were, and the film shows how a modern, displaced group of people actually did it. Every important topic is covered; how can people 'start' a society, how do they pick their leaders (if they do), what kinds of challenges do they and that leader face in making it work etc. This is a film that not only all film fans need to see but should be made mandatory viewing in all academic classes on these kinds of subjects. Best of all, perhaps, is that it worked ! Despite all seemingly insurmountable obstacles, many survived to live in a post Nazi world !

What is most impressive about this film, and something one keeps thinking while watching it, is that most of this was actually undertaken by the people portrayed and specifically by these 4 shunned Polish country brothers. This kind of reminder of the lengths that some people are able to go to defend and provide for others is why this film is a worthy addition to the human story of WW II. James Bond does an excellent job as does Jamie Ball.

Defiance is a well meaning but bloated film that wants to depicts Jews more than just as passive victims in eastern Europe during World War 2.Based on true facts of the Bielski brothers, Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig) is almost Moses like as he leads a band of Jews in the forest of Belarus to survival. He take in fleeing Jews, builds a society with rules of fairness so they do not live like animals. Fight any advancing militia and stave off hunger and disease.His quick tempered brother Zus (Liev Schreiber) wants to take the fight to the Nazis and the collaborators and has little time to help fleeing Jews to survive. He sides with the Russians even though he knows that they too are anti semites.Director Edward Zwick has to keep this two narrative strands going but the film is too disjointed and trite. The third brother Asael (Jamie Bell) is wasted as the one who has choose between his brothers and falls in love with one of the beautiful girls in the woods which causes friction with a rival who throws a challenge to Tuvia's authority.The film is hackneyed, dreary and not even that interesting. The actors speak Russian and then shift to English with heavy accents. The film needed a lightness of touch and maybe even some humour to counterbalance the grimness.

What director Edward Zwick did for African-Americans during the American Civil in his movie "Glory," he does for Jewish refugees in his World War II combat epic "Defiance." Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell play three heroic Jewish brothers who fled from Nazi-held Poland into the Belarussian forest, marched hundreds of Jews into the wilderness, built a camp, and hid them from Hitler's murderous troops. Naturally, the Brothers Bielski clashed among themselves, and Zus (Live Schreiber) went off and fought with the Soviets, while Tuvia acted like Moses and provided food, water, and camaraderie for these exiled Jews. Unfortunately, no matter how stirring the combat scenes are, "Defiance" is a conventional World War II movie that benefits immeasurably from a true story. Zwick and "Under Fire" scenarist Clayton Frohman adapted Nechama Tec's non-fictional account "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans." After Zus joins the Soviets, he discovers the latent anti-Semitism within the ranks. Meantime, Tuvia learns about the price of leadership. He has to orchestrate the large population that he conceals in the wood and feed them. Tuvia orders that the women be trained to handle firearms. He dispatches food patrols and monitors the Nazis, but disputes break out when the fighters who found the food insist on having greater shares. The problem with "Defiance" is that Zwick relies on clichés galore when this compelling narrative could have sacrificed most of the clichés. The logistics of trooping around these Jewish refugees are colossal. At one point, a Jewish man tells them that they cannot do the impossible, and Asael Bielski reminds them that they have already done the impossible. The combat scenes are staged vividly by Zwick and lenser Eduardo Serra. World War II fanatics will enjoy this above-average yarn.