Defiantly Formulaic
Defiance a victim of its own mediocrity

By Frank Ruggiero

When considering Holocaust movies, the words “romantic comedy” seldom come to mind.

Yet, somehow they manage to make an appearance in Defiance, a World War II action-drama that suffers from a formulaic case of the Hollywood treatment.

Directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, Glory), the film is based on the true story of the Bielski partisans, a group of Jewish resistance fighters and non-combatants who sought refuge from Nazi forces in the Belarussian forest.

Led by the Bielski brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig, Quantum of Solace, Layer Cake), Zus (Liev Schreiber, Love in the Time of Cholera, Scream) and Asael (Billy Elliot, Jumper), whose family was slaughtered by the Nazi sympathizing police, a group of approximately 1,200 Jewish refugees managed to evade capture and establish new lives in a forest community.

Having fled into the forest following the attack on their village in 1941, the Bielskis first seek revenge for their lost loved ones, their small brigade targeting Nazis and collaborators, such as volunteer policemen and area residents who reported their Jewish neighbors to authorities.

In the process, however, they continuously encounter fellow refugees, whom are taken into their care. Tuvia, having previously served in the Polish Army, agrees to protect those who seek their aid, and the brothers’ efforts grow into an effective partisan brigade.

With regular missions to recover food from nearby highways and villages, the refugees build a fully operational camp site, complete with shelter, simple manufacturing and repair operations, to assist Soviet resistance fighters and the Bielski partisans’ own efforts. Eventually, the village even had its own school, bakery and medical clinic.

That, at least, is history. What Defiance presents are those key points, surrounded by fluff and shoddy screenwriting, including inane attempts at comic relief and an uncomfortably long run time.

Its strength should be the story, one that is seldom presented in Holocaust films, one in which the persecuted fight back. Based on “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans” by Nechama Tec and adapted for screen by Zwick and Clayton Frohman (The Delinquents, Under Fire), the subject matter is fascinating, casting light on a little known part of World War II history, weighing the moral dilemma between violence and non-violence, and telling the remarkable story of ordinary people who overcome the ultimate adversity in an unfathomably dire situation.

Unfortunately, the finished product bears nary a shred of the emotion that must have filled those woods, instead resorting to formulaically safe and sound plot devices, many for the sake of attempted comedy, such as a bumbling sentry and romantic subplots padded with lighthearted comedy.

One-dimensional characters abound, just teetering on the border of ethnic stereotype, while tired plot devices offer a predictable storyline that drags longer than some of Craig’s intense glares. Despite the material, though, Craig and Schreiber deliver decent, yet far from memorable, performances; the supporting cast even less so, particularly the near absence of the fourth Bielski brother, Aron (George MacKay, Peter Pan).

Where Defiance is short on character, however, it is strong in budget. Its battle sequences are well shot and intense, though their infrequency falls so short as to categorize Defiance as more drama than action. Unfortunately, without solid writing and characters on which to depend, the drama just doesn’t cut it.

In the right hands, Defiance could have been a World War II epic with emotion, mood and style comparable to Saving Private Ryan and Das Boot, but in the end becomes a victim of its own mediocrity.

On a positive note, the film’s score by James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight, King Kong) was nominated for best original score in this year’s Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

Defiance is rated R for violence and language. It is playing at the DragonFly Theater and Pub. For show times and more information, visit www.dragonflytheater.com on the Web.