Non member Defiance Reviews

Visit here to read and post all the latest Daniel Craig-related news, TV/VCR(DVD) alerts, etc.

Moderator: Germangirl

Thelma
Posts: 2827
Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:46 pm
Location: France

Post by Thelma »

Aragorn wrote:
Thelma wrote:
Aragorn wrote:The more reviews I read, the more I long to see this movie...
It is worth the wait :wink:
Yeah, only too bad I have to wait 2,5 months....Too long for me :P
Long time,yes :?
Thelma
Posts: 2827
Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:46 pm
Location: France

Post by Thelma »

Defiance-Movie Review

Defiance is a film about the will to live, revenge and moral conflict set in the midst of the slaughter of Jews in 1941. Based on the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Dr. Nechama Tec, director Edward Zwick crafts an emotional and heart wrenching tale of three Jewish brothers who struggle to avenge the murders of their loved ones while searching their souls for their own identity.
“ What I’m saying is we are not thieves or murderers, we may be hunted like animals but we will not become animals.“
Tuvia Bielski, played by Daniel Craig leads his two younger brothers into the woods after Hitler’s SS troops murder their parents with that battle cry as his moral guide. Tuvia’s brother Zus, played masterfully by Liev Schreiber, is filled with understandable hatred and seeks an “ eye for an eye “ type of revenge not only for the murder of the brothers parents, but his wife and children too. This sets up a rivalry and bitter fued between he and his older brother.
The youngest brother, Asael, is played by Jamie Bell, whose initial claim to fame was the starring role in the British film, Billy Elliot. His acting ability is stellar, as you watch his character develop from a niave young boy into a hardened fighter who offers a much needed crutch to his embattled big brother Tuvia.
After the bothers flee into the woods from the bloody scene of their parents murders, they find out that thousands of other Jews are being slain by the Nazis.
Tuvia begins bringing other Jews from the ghetto in Belarus into the woods, and scrapes together food and primitive shelter. But as the numbers of Jews
needing care and a place to hide grows, so does the rivalry between Tuvia and Zus.
The two older brothers confront each other’s motives and methods for avenging their loved ones deaths, and the deaths of all the Jews who suffered at the
hands of Hitler’s SS troops. Zus is a born fighter, fearless and out for blood, while Tuvia is more concerned with the moral high ground even though his hatred of the Naziz simmers just below the surface.
Zus and Tuvia engage in a brutal fight, resulting in Zus leaving his brothers and the “ Beliski Otriad.“ He and a few others who were unhappy about Tuvia’s
lack of thirst for blood join a Russian Army contingent that was fighting in the area.
Tuvia’s authority begins to be questioned as winter sets in, and many of the Jews, who have builts make-shift huts and raid local farms for food, lose faith in his leadership.
The acting is superb. The film was shot in Lithuania. The action in battle scenes is realistic to a fault. Altough the pacinig is off just a bit, this film is a mastserpiece.
The plight of German and other Eastern Block Jews is well known. But this film-based in reality-is yet another reminder of the suffering and inhumane treatment of a people whose lives and souls were stolen by Hitler.
Zwick’s use of metaphors for the realities of life and death, salvation and vengence bring a vivid awareness to the story. When young Asael Beliski is married to a woman who came to hide with them, the director effectively intercuts the wedding scene with a bloody battle where Jews were slaughtered not far away. The imagery brings home the recurring theme of finding hope in the midst of hopelessness, and new life among death and carnage.
The chemistry between Craig and Schreiber works. By the end of the film, you get that rare feeling that both Craig and Schreiber have melted into their characters with convincing dialouge and acting.
At times, the pacing of the film lags, and a few of the Jewish characters are portrayed in a sterotypical manner. But overall, Zwick’s film is right on.
The Beliski’s actually saved more than 1200 Jews from perish, living in the woods, avoiding and outsmarting the Nazis for four long years.
This is a movie that is worth the price of the ticket.
I give it five Peacocks out of 5.

http://www.turnto10.com/jar/entertainme ... view/9106/
Germangirl
Moderator
Posts: 47065
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:05 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Germangirl »

Thelma wrote:Defiance-Movie Review

This is a movie that is worth the price of the ticket.
I give it five Peacocks out of 5.
Thanks Thelma. Reading good ones just is so much more satisfying :D
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

Image
plaka
Posts: 455
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:17 am
Location: London UK

Post by plaka »

Jewish refugees show grit in acts of "Defiance"
Edward Zwick's movie "Defiance," starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell, tells a little-known story of courage and persistence in the face of the Holocaust. Review by Moira Macdonald.
By Moira Macdonald

Seattle Times movie critic

Movie review
"Defiance," with Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos, Allan Corduner, Mark Feuerstein, Jodhi May. Directed by Edward Zwick, from a screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick, based on the book "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans" by Nechama Tec. 137 minutes. Rated R for violence and language. Several theaters.
Edward Zwick's "Defiance" achieves something increasingly rare among World War II movies: It tells us a story that most of us, in all likelihood, didn't know.

In 1941, three Jewish brothers fled Nazi attack by retreating to the woods near their farm in what's now Belarus. In the forest, they met other refugees and vowed to create a community of safe haven. Armed and ready to defend their settlement to the death, the brothers made frequent, dangerous forays into the nearby ghettos to rescue fellow Jews. Their community in the woods, built on the principle of all residents doing their share, grew to more than 1,000 members. People met and married, babies were born, the cycle of life went on.

Though not without a bit of Hollywood gloss (Alexa Davalos, as the camp love interest of one of the brothers, looks impossibly glamorous for a refugee living in the woods), Zwick's movie respectfully and movingly tells the Bielski brothers' story.

Daniel Craig, displaying the iciness that makes him so effective as Bond, is oldest brother Tuvia, a man conflicted about being a leader. Liev Schreiber is middle brother Zus, a firebrand motivated by vengeance and frequently angered by Tuvia's decisions. Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot") plays the youngest, Asael. In the course of the movie, Asael grows from a teenager to a man in that heartbreaking way Bell has of seeming utterly without artifice, opening to the camera as if it could see his heart.

Cinematographer Eduardo Serra ("Girl with a Pearl Earring," "The Wings of the Dove") beautifully captures the shifting, crisp colors of the forest seasons, and the occasional bright invasion of something not from nature: In one scene, yellow-star badges are seen abandoned in a limp pile in the mud.

But Zwick's film is tough-minded where it needs to be; there are moments of startling violence, particularly in one murder of a German soldier. And the Bielski brothers don't always behave admirably, or even in a brotherly way; they are strong personalities who sometimes clash like stones thrown together.

Over the course of the several years covered in "Defiance," you see the characters fading (food was scarce, and the cold bitter), but the strength of the community doesn't waver. A wedding takes place, with a chuppah erected under the fluttering snowflakes; a man wanders about discussing Descartes, as if it were his most pressing concern.

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. "Our revenge," Tuvia says quietly, "is to live."

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725

or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/m ... iance.html
User avatar
calypso
Posts: 17284
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:55 pm
Location: Knitting willy warmers for Daniel's pickle!

Post by calypso »

http://movies.msn.com/movies/hitlist/01 ... ?GT1=28101

In Judd Apatow's hilarious "Knocked Up," the soon-to-be reluctant father played by Seth Rogen is with his friends at a bar praising the movie "Munich." "It was "[expletive] mind-blowing," Rogen's character states, to which his friends enthusiastically cheer, "Munich!"

He continues with, "That movie has Eric Bana kicking [expletive] ass. Every movie with Jews, we're the ones getting killed. 'Munich' flips it on its ear. We're capping. If any of us get laid tonight, it's because of Eric Bana and 'Munich.'"

Obviously this is a comedic moment, but the sentiment is certainly heartfelt. Why aren't more movies like "Munich" made? I'm not here to make an inappropriate joke (I'll leave that to Ricky Gervais -- see earlier), but we can now add the other "Munich" star, Daniel Craig, to Rogen's potential success with women. In Edward Zwick's "Defiance," the Bond superstar gives a compelling, powerful performance as the Jewish leader of the Beilski brothers -- Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell) and Aron (George MacKay) -- who lived in the woods of Belarus during 1941, refusing deportation and battling any Nazi who crossed their path.

Despite initial resistance about making another Holocaust movie, director Zwick was intrigued by these real-life brothers and thought this story needed to be told. Amid a few months of movies about Nazis and the Holocaust ("The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," "The Reader," "Valkyrie," "The Unborn"), the solid, almost conservatively old-fashioned "Defiance" (adapted from Nechama Tec's 1993 book) is interesting because of Craig's action-packed, soulful, nuanced performance. Though the "genre" has been hit with much criticism (Art Spiegelman has coined these movies as "Holo-kitsch"), there's something vigorous and genuine about "Defiance," largely thanks to Craig. He is a wonderful face actor who mixes a stoic, menacing stare with mournful, touching emotion, making him especially effective at playing a someone who wants to save Jews while killng as few people as possible. He's fascinating and exciting to watch and he effortlessly pulls off potentially trite declarations. "Defiance" once again reminds the viewer how powerful Craig is at delivering what is considered an "important" movie performance. When working at his highest potential, he rates among the best of his kind, which includes Bogart and McQueen -- names I don't throw around lightly.
Last edited by calypso on Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ImageImage
Daskedusken
Posts: 14137
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
Location: Always heading somewhere

Post by Daskedusken »

Thanks for the new reviews
"Love anyway. Live anyway. Choose to part of this anyway”
Thelma
Posts: 2827
Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:46 pm
Location: France

Post by Thelma »

calypso wrote:"Defiance" once again reminds the viewer how powerful Craig is at delivering what is considered an "important" movie performance. When working at his highest potential, he rates among the best of his kind, which includes Bogart and McQueen -- names I don't throw around lightly.
Love that. Thank you :D
Germangirl
Moderator
Posts: 47065
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:05 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Germangirl »

Image
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

Image
Daskedusken
Posts: 14137
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
Location: Always heading somewhere

Post by Daskedusken »

Thelma wrote:
calypso wrote:"Defiance" once again reminds the viewer how powerful Craig is at delivering what is considered an "important" movie performance. When working at his highest potential, he rates among the best of his kind, which includes Bogart and McQueen -- names I don't throw around lightly.
Love that. Thank you :D
Fantastic lovely.
"Love anyway. Live anyway. Choose to part of this anyway”
cornell01
Posts: 786
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:33 pm

Post by cornell01 »

wrong place for my reaction. moved to Movie Roles topic
advicky
Posts: 1738
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:37 pm

Post by advicky »

Defiance, Hotel For Dogs and Paul Blart: Mall Cop

DEFIANCE (Three Stars)
U.S.; Ed Zwick

Ed Zwick's Defiance, based on a true-life story about Jewish partisans -- who carve out a community-in-hiding in a Belorussian forest during World War 2 -- is fairly unique among World War 2 movies, in presenting Holocaust-era Jews not as tragic victims and survivors, but as heroes and heroines who fight back and persevere against Nazis and anti-Semites.

It's well-made, in much the same vein as Zwick's Civil War epic Glory and I enjoyed it. [SPOILER ALERT] I especially enjoyed seeing Liev Schreiber, in his intensely macho performance as Zus, one of the Bielski brothers, roar to the rescue, at one point, of leader/brother Tuvia (Daniel Craig). Schreiber and Craig, both excellent here, are playing the kind of full-bore movie hero parts that, in a different kind of movie decades ago, might have gone to Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper -- and I don't mean that in a mocking way. (Nor am I talking about Vera Cruz.) Believable heroism and self-sacrifice -- even believable stubbornness, in Tuvia's case -- can be thrilling things in a movie like this, and Defiance gives both stars good roles and a strong arena, as it also does for Jamie Bell, playing Asael, the youngest brother.

Defiance has received mixed reviews. Variety's Todd McCarthy, who is usually right on the money, compared it unfavorably to the superb Belorussian sagas of Russian directors Larisa Shepitko (The Ascent) and Elem Klimov (Come and See). But that seems a little unfair. The Ascent and Come and See are two of the greatest, and most unjustly neglected, war films in movie history. Should you knock a good new newspaper movie by comparing it to Citizen Kane? Defiance is a good, and unusual, World War 2 movie, and it deserves its audience.


http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists ... 90115.html






Image
Germangirl
Moderator
Posts: 47065
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:05 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Germangirl »

Local Seniors' Story Dramatized In New Daniel Craig Movie
Friday January 16, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff

"You can't describe it. It's impossible."

Gitel Morrison is referring to the two years she spent with her family hiding from the Nazis in a forest of what is now Belarus. She was just 12. Her brother, Simon Zelcovitch, was only four back in 1942 when they fled from their Polish town.
It sounds like the plot of a movie. And now it is one --- starring Daniel Craig of 007 fame.
The siblings saw the preview of "Defiance" two weeks ago. Zeldovich took his two adult sons.
"They were very quiet," he notes, before being overwhelmed by emotion.
Craig plays the main character, Tuvia Bielski, who helped build the community in the forest and protect the mainly polish Jews who lived there.
"He was such a good person that he never, never told anybody to go away, to go, he doesn't want them," Morrison said of Bielski.
Defiance hit theatres on Friday.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31082.aspx

Defiance Review: The Oppressed Fight Back

January 16, 2009

Daniel Craig sets away from Agent 007 in Defiance, a story about Nazi exploitation of a rural area of Eastern Europe known as Bellorussia and the subsequent uprising that takes shape as a result. In the film, two jewish brothers, Tuvia Bielski (Craig) and Zus Tuvia (Liev Schreiber) make their way home in the countryside to witness events unfold that change their lives forever. Before long, they've become leaders in a resistance movement to fight the Nazis for their survival.
The acting in Defiance is intense and real. Craig and Schreiber deliver a convincing account of a life on the run and in danger where situations get the better of them. You feel for them, even when their characters make the wrong decisions. The film is jarringly realistic in it's portrayal of the Nazi occupation. The violence is not sensationalized like in some war time movies but it is quick and brutal and does not dwell on the casualties or show too much which mimics the pace of the movie.
Director Edward Zwick portrays hardship in an honest manner and doesn't disguise the fact that sometimes the good guys give in to temptation and resort to unethical acts to satisfy their needs. It is a story of survival so sometimes situations becomes ugly; it also about war and the portrait painted here is one of reality, where sometimes both sides lose, and lose greatly. Additionally, it is a breath of fresh air to see the Jewish people fight since many other films of this genre depict them as victims. History tells us there were Jewish arms of resistance that fought oppression so Defiance is a satisfying way to see that in action.
Though the movie does a stellar job telling the story of these two brothers and their exemplary heroism, there's an aspect to the film which throws it off. Avid film goers and casual movie goers may see the film and the archetypal characters as something that's been done before which in all honesty it pretty much is despite it being told from a fresh angle. The familiarity comes in the form of it having a used wartime melodrama with supporting characters that seem to come from a piece of fiction rather than historical account. It is still a story that should be told and is worth telling but for some may just need to be a rental.
Seeing this coupled with the recently released Valkryie is a good way to gain some fascinating knowledge as well as some of the lesser known heroes of the World War II era. Regardless of how many movies there exist about World War II and how we seem to have an inundation of them, there can be no wrong in maintaining public knowledge of these horrific times. If not for acting as a reminder of darker times, Defiance and movies like it plead for sake of sanity, lest history repeat itself.
- Chris Walsh- http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Defiance_ ... _Back/4128

'Defiance': Fighting Back, With Chutzpah

It's impossible to watch "Defiance" without experiencing a vicarious thrill of resistance and revenge. Edward Zwick's often-stirring movie dramatizes the true story of Zus and Tuvia Bielski (Liev Schreiber and Daniel Craig), Polish Jews who eluded their Nazi captors during World War II in what is now Belarus. With a younger brother, the Bielskis helped their fellow Jews escape the German SS and their collaborators by hiding in a forest and joining forces with the Red Army.
"Defiance" chronicles the beginning of the Bielskis' two-year sojourn, when Tuvia and Zus disagreed over tactics, with the former building a proto-kibbutz in the woods and the latter fighting more actively with the Soviets. With its internal arguments over ethics and its old-fashioned adventure story of men fighting for their own survival, "Defiance" bears an interesting, if conventional, resemblance to "Che," the story of another two-year journey that also opens today.
Zwick ("Glory," "The Last Samurai") has perfected the art of marrying bombastic action, aestheticized violence and historical import, and he effectively marshals all three to bring this little-known and genuinely amazing story to life. He's helped enormously by his two lead actors, who tackle their respective roles with gusto and muscularity. As Tuvia, who's sort of a cross between Moses and Henry V at Agincourt, Craig takes what could be a too-good-to-be-true character and scruffs him up a little, giving him a slightly thuggish scowl. Schreiber seems born to play the more pugnacious Zus, whose previous life as a local ne'er-do-well may not be entirely spelled out but is made perfectly clear nonetheless. These two charismatic leads are joined by an able supporting cast that includes Jamie Bell as young Asael Bielski and the wonderful Mia Wasikowska (the young gymnast
If "Defiance" has its share of movie moments (too-perfect lighting, too-eloquent speeches, too-tidy fight scenes) that's because Zwick knows how to bring mainstream Hollywood values to bear on what could be forgotten or marginalized histories. Here, viewers are treated to the cathartic pleasures of watching a band of Jewish outlaws not only gun down their Nazi oppressors, but also survive to build something, in this case a community that went on to create its own hospital, theater and synagogue in the woods. "Defiance" gives voice to the enduring truth that one isn't defined by oppression but by one's response to it. The Bielskis also embody a slightly more ambiguous fact that, for righteousness to prevail, sometimes it helps to have a little larceny in your heart.
Defiance (137 minutes, in Russian, Yiddish and English with subtitles, at area theaters) is rated R for violence and profanity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews


Craig brings an understated tone to 'Defiance'

By Caren Ostrow - Correspondent
Published: Fri, Jan. 16, 2009 05:07AM
Modified Fri, Jan. 16, 2009 07:27AM

Based on a true story, "Defiance" is about as far from the suave, high-tech James Bond character that its star Daniel Craig can get. Yet, because it is spellbinding in its sheer brutality, unflinching in its courage and enduring in its hope, the extraordinary struggle will leave you both shaken and stirred.
A solid, understated, yet dazzling Craig stars as Tuvia Bielski, one of three Polish brothers who led hundreds of Jews to escape the Nazis in 1941. The three narrowly avoid the fate of their parents and together with a small group of followers seek cover in the deep woods they frolicked in as children. As word spreads of their bravery, they are joined by others hoping to escape capture and certain slaughter.
Trying to stay one step ahead of the encroaching German officers who are rewarded for every Jew they successfully "hunt," the motley assortment at first stays with sympathetic landowners, one of whom wonders aloud: "Why is it so hard being friends with a Jew?"

Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski in 'Defiance.'


As more Jews learn of their daring trek for survival, they join Tuvia's "troops" and form a self-sustaining, nomadic, caring community. Constantly on the move, they must forage for food, and to withstand the bitter Belarus winter, they build shelters using the most primitive of tools.
After losing family that were supposedly safe, Tuvia's younger brother Zus (a brooding yet powerful Liev Schreiber) becomes enraged and eager to fight. Unable to ignore the tactics of the "Final Solution," he seeks revenge through barbaric means. Cool and clear-headed, his wise older brother, now reluctant leader of their group, tries to reason with him: "We may be hunted like animals, but we will not become animals," Tuvia says.
Zus soon leaves to join the Russians, who despite their anti-Semitism, he is convinced, also aim to defeat the Third Reich. Meanwhile, Tuvia's burgeoning army of families and stragglers subsist on what they can find or steal and steadily accumulate weapons, supplies, clothing and most important, bullets.
As their numbers increase, so does their resolve. Valuables are collected and bartered for items deemed useful to the common good. Skills or talent are taken advantage of, again, to benefit everyone. Armed only with a sense of righteousness and nerves of steel, the downtrodden manage to keep even the frailest among them alive, remaining ever-mindful of the chilling indifference that surrounds them.
The performances are both raw and remarkable. The juxtaposition of a traditional Jewish wedding replete with a rabbi, canopy, music and dancing, and a jarring, bloody ambush of an armed truckload of SS soldiers only reinforces their faith in the face of unrelenting danger and unspeakable evil.
A touching yet sweeping epic, the incredible story serves as both a compelling admonition of "never again" and an unsettling, timely warning against the tyranny of the majority. Along with the horrors and heroics we see the humanity of disbelief and the insatiable instinct for self-preservation.
Despite the machinelike efficiency of their enemy, the refugees' unwavering will to fight and their ability to protect the weak, all while in hiding, is nothing short of astonishing. And between the palpable fear and senseless violence, Tuvia reminds us all of their very basic mission: "Our revenge is to live."
http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1367750.html
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

Image
Daskedusken
Posts: 14137
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
Location: Always heading somewhere

Post by Daskedusken »

Thanks for posting this.
"Love anyway. Live anyway. Choose to part of this anyway”
Laredo
Posts: 6859
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:18 pm
Location: FL . have broadband now YEAh !

Post by Laredo »

Baltimoresun.com had a good review o the movie .

Where do we put our personal reviews ? I put mine in another Defience thread .
Image
User avatar
Dunda
Administrator
Posts: 22947
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:08 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Dunda »

laredo wrote:Baltimoresun.com had a good review o the movie .

Where do we put our personal reviews ? I put mine in another Defience thread .

I would say personal reviews in Definace in the movie section :wink:
Image

Visit the forum at www.dedicatedtodaniel.com
Post Reply