Defiance

This movie has a theme that doesn’t allow people to say bad things about it. It is just kind of a rule. But to tell you the truth the movie isn’t that good. There are parts that are shocking but that’s about it.

Defiance is a movie about a group of Jewish people hiding from Nazi death squads in the Belarussian forest. They have to deal with being hunted, the dangers of the forest, unforgiving weather, and the threat of starvation. It stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber. That sounds like it would be an intense, encompassing film but you would be wrong. There is good acting and it is based on a true story that is compelling in itself but the film isn’t put together well. I don’t know if this is the fault of the director or the editor.

They try to pick too many people to focus on and thus not developing any character properly. Also a lot of the movie seems disjointed. It jumps from place to place with no real feel for the movement of time. Many of the relationships seem forced as well. A man meets a woman, they look at each other, and they are in love. And then there are seemingly random placed points of violence. But the rest of the movie just seems dragged out. It is only 2 hours long but it felt like I was sitting there forever. I really don’t know how I would improve the movie but it definitely needs something.

I can’t say the movie is garbage. It tells a story that needs to be told. But it just isn’t told well. It wasn’t at a high level of film making that I was expecting.

Tra