I really hope it's gonna win. This OST is just powerful, so moving. I can't stop listen to it.Zibzabzut wrote:Defiance's movie score was just nominated for a Golden Globe, which is awesome!
DC in Ed Zwick's DEFIANCE
Moderator: Germangirl
Defiance
Written by: Kevin McHugh
Published: Tue 16 Dec 2008
5/5
This true story offers a fresh take on the war genre as we learn of three Jewish brothers who save hundreds of their countrymen from the Nazis during World War Two.
The Bielski brothers, played by Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber (in what must surely be an Oscar nominated role) are forced to take refuge in the Belorussian forests when their parents are murdered by the Germans. Deep in the woods, they build a community that grows in numbers every day. As Tuvia (Craig) becomes the natural commander of the refugee group, he trains them to become skilled partisan fighters in order to survive, and in return, they teach him the importance of community.
A war movie that not only gives you plenty of bang for your buck, some amazing action sequences and stirring performances, it’s also a haunting, thought-provoking movie guaranteed to have you re-evaluating long after the credits have rolled.
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/44588-defiance
Written by: Kevin McHugh
Published: Tue 16 Dec 2008
5/5
This true story offers a fresh take on the war genre as we learn of three Jewish brothers who save hundreds of their countrymen from the Nazis during World War Two.
The Bielski brothers, played by Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber (in what must surely be an Oscar nominated role) are forced to take refuge in the Belorussian forests when their parents are murdered by the Germans. Deep in the woods, they build a community that grows in numbers every day. As Tuvia (Craig) becomes the natural commander of the refugee group, he trains them to become skilled partisan fighters in order to survive, and in return, they teach him the importance of community.
A war movie that not only gives you plenty of bang for your buck, some amazing action sequences and stirring performances, it’s also a haunting, thought-provoking movie guaranteed to have you re-evaluating long after the credits have rolled.
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/44588-defiance
Re: damn
yea, nice, and being a good investigative reporter as Matt seems to think he is , why wasnt that brought up? that there was a previous movie made about it...and the many attempts on hitler and this is maybe why hitler executed his top men almost every year. instead we viewed tom dancing in Risky Business. and it really wasnt an intellegence in the room at all that day. why did Matt treat Tom like the Greatest American Artist, and treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood? aaahhh. too much caffeine. ~glaredo wrote:Guinness wrote:i just watched idiot Tom Cruise with that idiot from the today show here in the states. cant write his name, my blood boils-i just watch him to see him interviewing style with everyone. anyway...he was talking with tom and Valkerie... i want daniel to promote his very IMPORTANT movie more in the states. Valkerie is just as important, but damn it-Tom is such a fake actor it drives me nuts! Defiance is hard core drama with real life woods and real life actors who know how to do it! okay. sorry. done.
I like Matt , and they both behaved , but Tom never heard of this guy before ...they made a tv movie about this in the early 90s with Brad Davis ( from MIDNIGHT EXPRESS ) as the guy . It was pretty good as I recall .
one of them . I have liked him in a few things , ths just doesn't seem like a good fit .
Heroes of the Holocaust
by Sara Vilkomerson
“This story is amazing in its own right … apart from being a Holocaust story. That’s important, I think,” said director Edward Zwick recently, sitting on the sunny rooftop of the Gramercy Park Hotel. The 56-year-old director was in town to discuss his latest film, Defiance, the incredible true story of the Bielski brothers, who hid in the forests of Belarus during World War II, fighting off the Nazis, and were responsible for saving over 1,200 Jewish lives. The movie, which stars Mr. James Bond, Daniel Craig; new daddy Liev Schrieber; and little Billy Elliot (all grown up!), Jamie Bell, opens at the Ziegfeld on Dec. 31 before opening nationwide on Jan. 16.
The previous evening, Mr. Zwick had screened the film for relatives of the Bielskis, in addition to other Holocaust survivors and their families, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City. It was an emotional two hours, punctuated with audible sniffling, and cheers during the courageous battle scenes. One of the more striking things about seeing any film set during that horrific period is the realization that, in the grand scheme of things, 1941 just wasn’t that long ago. With that in mind, Mr. Zwick spent the day taking portrait photographs of the survivors. “These people that I was with yesterday, they are in the 11th hour,” he said. “I was very close to my grandfather, and after he died, I didn’t realize how much I missed that sound, that shtetl accent. Within 5 or 10 years, that sound will be gone, as well as any living witness.” He paused. “That’s the thing about Jews, is that memory and the repetition of memory is central to the culture. That’s what the Passover Seder is: the retelling. I think that oral tradition has been accountable for the survival of these people.”
The film was a hard one to make, both emotionally and physically, with the cast and crew spending five long, cold months in Lithuanian forests. “The interesting thing about it was that when you are in a hard place, the company tends to bond,” Mr. Zwick said. “We were all sort of there for one another.” The dashing Mr. Craig (playing a Jew for the second time!) was an actor Mr. Zwick had met when casting his last movie, Blood Diamond. “I liked him, but the studio was basically like, ‘Who’s he?’” (Needless to say, this was before Mr. Craig was a.k.a. James Bond.) “Or they said, yeah, you can make it—we’ll give you 12 dollars,” Mr. Zwick laughed. About a year later, on his way to Africa to shoot Blood Diamond (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly), Mr. Zwick found himself on the same flight to England as Mr. Craig. They had a nice conversation, and by the end of the flight, Mr. Zwick had him firmly in mind for when he finished the Defiance script. “Daniel is a wonderful fellow. He’s a working-class actor who happens to be a big movie star now. Five minutes into this [Defiance], you forget all about James Bond.”
Like many of the director’s past films (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai), Defiance is big and beautiful, almost old-fashionedly so, unafraid to nudge at your emotions.
“A lot of people find fault with that,” said Mr. Zwick. “I think we go to the movies to cathart and be transported, but there are some people who are suspicious of that,” he said. “I think there’s been a tilt in modern criticism that feels that any kind of emotionality is by nature manipulative and that that’s exploitive in some way. It’s how the theater began, it was its purpose … and I am unapologetic. I think there’s a certain admiration for things that are more flinty and unsentimental, defiantly unsentimental. I’m not sure people understand that to reach genuine deep feeling, when earned, is extremely difficult.”
Surprisingly, Defiance also has sprinkled moments of grim humor. “People ask about that and my response is always, well, they’re Jews,” said the (obviously) Jewish director with a grin. “They’re funny and they’re dark—the darker the humor, the better.” The Illinois-raised Mr. Zwick, who was educated at both Harvard and the American Film Institute, now resides in Santa Monica with his family. Did working on this film make him feel more connected to his faith? “Faith … and the Holocaust is a very tricky subject,” he said. “Connected to a people and a tradition, yes, certainly. It’s one thing to try to reckon the immensity of the Holocaust from afar, it’s quite another to be up close in any way and come to understand just what it was.” He paused. “Vilnius [in Lithuania] is this beautiful city, but it’s been cleansed … and it’s ghoulish, and then you think about how many other cities that this has happened and one just can’t help but feel … there but for the grace of God.”
http://www.observer.com/mobile/article/8
by Sara Vilkomerson
“This story is amazing in its own right … apart from being a Holocaust story. That’s important, I think,” said director Edward Zwick recently, sitting on the sunny rooftop of the Gramercy Park Hotel. The 56-year-old director was in town to discuss his latest film, Defiance, the incredible true story of the Bielski brothers, who hid in the forests of Belarus during World War II, fighting off the Nazis, and were responsible for saving over 1,200 Jewish lives. The movie, which stars Mr. James Bond, Daniel Craig; new daddy Liev Schrieber; and little Billy Elliot (all grown up!), Jamie Bell, opens at the Ziegfeld on Dec. 31 before opening nationwide on Jan. 16.
The previous evening, Mr. Zwick had screened the film for relatives of the Bielskis, in addition to other Holocaust survivors and their families, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City. It was an emotional two hours, punctuated with audible sniffling, and cheers during the courageous battle scenes. One of the more striking things about seeing any film set during that horrific period is the realization that, in the grand scheme of things, 1941 just wasn’t that long ago. With that in mind, Mr. Zwick spent the day taking portrait photographs of the survivors. “These people that I was with yesterday, they are in the 11th hour,” he said. “I was very close to my grandfather, and after he died, I didn’t realize how much I missed that sound, that shtetl accent. Within 5 or 10 years, that sound will be gone, as well as any living witness.” He paused. “That’s the thing about Jews, is that memory and the repetition of memory is central to the culture. That’s what the Passover Seder is: the retelling. I think that oral tradition has been accountable for the survival of these people.”
The film was a hard one to make, both emotionally and physically, with the cast and crew spending five long, cold months in Lithuanian forests. “The interesting thing about it was that when you are in a hard place, the company tends to bond,” Mr. Zwick said. “We were all sort of there for one another.” The dashing Mr. Craig (playing a Jew for the second time!) was an actor Mr. Zwick had met when casting his last movie, Blood Diamond. “I liked him, but the studio was basically like, ‘Who’s he?’” (Needless to say, this was before Mr. Craig was a.k.a. James Bond.) “Or they said, yeah, you can make it—we’ll give you 12 dollars,” Mr. Zwick laughed. About a year later, on his way to Africa to shoot Blood Diamond (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly), Mr. Zwick found himself on the same flight to England as Mr. Craig. They had a nice conversation, and by the end of the flight, Mr. Zwick had him firmly in mind for when he finished the Defiance script. “Daniel is a wonderful fellow. He’s a working-class actor who happens to be a big movie star now. Five minutes into this [Defiance], you forget all about James Bond.”
Like many of the director’s past films (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai), Defiance is big and beautiful, almost old-fashionedly so, unafraid to nudge at your emotions.
“A lot of people find fault with that,” said Mr. Zwick. “I think we go to the movies to cathart and be transported, but there are some people who are suspicious of that,” he said. “I think there’s been a tilt in modern criticism that feels that any kind of emotionality is by nature manipulative and that that’s exploitive in some way. It’s how the theater began, it was its purpose … and I am unapologetic. I think there’s a certain admiration for things that are more flinty and unsentimental, defiantly unsentimental. I’m not sure people understand that to reach genuine deep feeling, when earned, is extremely difficult.”
Surprisingly, Defiance also has sprinkled moments of grim humor. “People ask about that and my response is always, well, they’re Jews,” said the (obviously) Jewish director with a grin. “They’re funny and they’re dark—the darker the humor, the better.” The Illinois-raised Mr. Zwick, who was educated at both Harvard and the American Film Institute, now resides in Santa Monica with his family. Did working on this film make him feel more connected to his faith? “Faith … and the Holocaust is a very tricky subject,” he said. “Connected to a people and a tradition, yes, certainly. It’s one thing to try to reckon the immensity of the Holocaust from afar, it’s quite another to be up close in any way and come to understand just what it was.” He paused. “Vilnius [in Lithuania] is this beautiful city, but it’s been cleansed … and it’s ghoulish, and then you think about how many other cities that this has happened and one just can’t help but feel … there but for the grace of God.”
http://www.observer.com/mobile/article/8
Re: damn
Did you see Matt and Tom's MI3 interview 3 yrs ago ? There was a big bru ha ha over scientology . They had to make nice . My comment was that Tom was treating it as something new , whether it was to Matt didn't matter to me . I do think it was odd that they celibrated his 25 yrs in showbiz on there and on Oprah . They don't do that for older stars unless its cinamatique awards or the AFI ones . I will say he has made consistently money making movies for 25 yrs which is why they showed the Risky Bussiness scene .Guinness wrote:yea, nice, and being a good investigative reporter as Matt seems to think he is , why wasnt that brought up? that there was a previous movie made about it...and the many attempts on hitler and this is maybe why hitler executed his top men almost every year. instead we viewed tom dancing in Risky Business. and it really wasnt an intellegence in the room at all that day. why did Matt treat Tom like the Greatest American Artist, and treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood? aaahhh. too much caffeine. ~glaredo wrote:Guinness wrote:i just watched idiot Tom Cruise with that idiot from the today show here in the states. cant write his name, my blood boils-i just watch him to see him interviewing style with everyone. anyway...he was talking with tom and Valkerie... i want daniel to promote his very IMPORTANT movie more in the states. Valkerie is just as important, but damn it-Tom is such a fake actor it drives me nuts! Defiance is hard core drama with real life woods and real life actors who know how to do it! okay. sorry. done.
I like Matt , and they both behaved , but Tom never heard of this guy before ...they made a tv movie about this in the early 90s with Brad Davis ( from MIDNIGHT EXPRESS ) as the guy . It was pretty good as I recall .
one of them . I have liked him in a few things , ths just doesn't seem like a good fit .
yea, nice, and being a good investigative reporter as Matt seems to think he is , why wasnt that brought up? that there was a previous movie made about it...and the many attempts on hitler and this is maybe why hitler executed his top men almost every year. instead we viewed tom dancing in Risky Business. and it really wasnt an intellegence in the room at all that day. why did Matt treat Tom like the Greatest American Artist, and treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not seen the interview between Matt and Daniel. How did he treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not seen the interview between Matt and Daniel. How did he treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood?
i am not clever enough to bring the interview up, i may need some time...i felt it was tense and Daniel spent time defending himself. ~gLinda wrote:yea, nice, and being a good investigative reporter as Matt seems to think he is , why wasnt that brought up? that there was a previous movie made about it...and the many attempts on hitler and this is maybe why hitler executed his top men almost every year. instead we viewed tom dancing in Risky Business. and it really wasnt an intellegence in the room at all that day. why did Matt treat Tom like the Greatest American Artist, and treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not seen the interview between Matt and Daniel. How did he treat Daniel like an affront to American Hollywood?
CONTENDER Q & A - Liev Schreiber
To the tabloid-reading set, 41-year-old Liev Schreiber is probably simply known as that bearded actor-guy who's starting a family with "King Kong" actress Naomi Watts. But to those who have followed Schreiber's powerful and subtle performances in a string of films, including independents such as "Daytrippers" and "A Walk on the Moon" and the higher-profile "Scream" series (as the charmingly off-kilter Cotton Weary), he's one of Hollywood's most accomplished talents.
There's news for both tabloid readers and film fans -- for the former, there's a second, new baby boy, and for the latter, there is a new film, " Defiance," in which he plays one of three Bielski brothers who form a band of displaced Jews who battle Nazis in the Belarusian forest.
"Defiance" is your third Holocaust-related film, after "Jakob the Liar" and your directorial debut, "Everything Is Illuminated." How close is the subject to you?
Usually in these interviews, I am in denial that this has something to do with my heritage because I don't feel like in my life I have earned some connection to the Holocaust. I am only half Jewish, and the other half is about as un-Jewish as you could get: on my father's side, it's Pennsylvania WASP. Many people think that because of "Everything Is Illuminated" that my grandfather was directly affected by the Holocaust, but he wasn't. And yet, I can't imagine a Jewish family in New York that wasn't affected in some way.
How did you get along with your costars, Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell, who play the other two Bielski brothers?
I was a little nervous, as I always am in the beginning. But the first time I showed up at the hotel on location in Lithuania, I heard this booming voice call my name and it was Daniel. He gave me the biggest bear hug. I was like, "I think it's the guy but it also may be the actor, saying, 'This is my brother and I am going to open up this relationship right away.' " Whatever it is, it worked. We bonded very quickly. And the same thing happened with Jamie.
And your director, Ed Zwick?
He is a really tenacious guy. I thought we were going to go at it, because I can be equally tenacious. I had so many opinions and ideas and he completely neutralized me. I loved it. I have a lot of anxieties about this point in history and how it is represented. And he just kept reminding me that it's not about me. He'd say, "It's about the Bielskis."
You studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and at Yale, as well as doing much professional theater. Is it fair to call you a classically trained actor?
I never thought about it as training. I thought of it as an opportunity to act. I never thought I would be working professionally. I thought that the one way I would get to do this is if I paid for it at these places where I could act in plays. That's why I picked Yale. At the other schools, it's a lot of class work. At Yale, I got to do eight plays in a year.
For a while there, in films such as "The Sum of All Fears," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Omen," it seemed like you, or your management, was making a play for you to be a leading man.
Yeah, but I couldn't do it.
Was it you or the movies themselves?
I think it was me.
Why?
I'm a little funny looking.
Meaning you don't have . . .
. . . leading man looks.
Is it just that?
No. I also think I probably distinguished myself early in my career as someone interested in playing mixed-up people.
In May, you'll be playing the very mixed-up Sabretooth, opposite Hugh Jackman, in the new X-Men spinoff, "Wolverine." Did you enjoy making a superhero movie?
It was fun. Maybe I don't want to even admit that it's that fun -- we tend to think that it somehow diminishes us as actors if we let the audience know that what we do is little more than cowboys and Indians.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-enw-schr ... 1096.story
To the tabloid-reading set, 41-year-old Liev Schreiber is probably simply known as that bearded actor-guy who's starting a family with "King Kong" actress Naomi Watts. But to those who have followed Schreiber's powerful and subtle performances in a string of films, including independents such as "Daytrippers" and "A Walk on the Moon" and the higher-profile "Scream" series (as the charmingly off-kilter Cotton Weary), he's one of Hollywood's most accomplished talents.
There's news for both tabloid readers and film fans -- for the former, there's a second, new baby boy, and for the latter, there is a new film, " Defiance," in which he plays one of three Bielski brothers who form a band of displaced Jews who battle Nazis in the Belarusian forest.
"Defiance" is your third Holocaust-related film, after "Jakob the Liar" and your directorial debut, "Everything Is Illuminated." How close is the subject to you?
Usually in these interviews, I am in denial that this has something to do with my heritage because I don't feel like in my life I have earned some connection to the Holocaust. I am only half Jewish, and the other half is about as un-Jewish as you could get: on my father's side, it's Pennsylvania WASP. Many people think that because of "Everything Is Illuminated" that my grandfather was directly affected by the Holocaust, but he wasn't. And yet, I can't imagine a Jewish family in New York that wasn't affected in some way.
How did you get along with your costars, Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell, who play the other two Bielski brothers?
I was a little nervous, as I always am in the beginning. But the first time I showed up at the hotel on location in Lithuania, I heard this booming voice call my name and it was Daniel. He gave me the biggest bear hug. I was like, "I think it's the guy but it also may be the actor, saying, 'This is my brother and I am going to open up this relationship right away.' " Whatever it is, it worked. We bonded very quickly. And the same thing happened with Jamie.
And your director, Ed Zwick?
He is a really tenacious guy. I thought we were going to go at it, because I can be equally tenacious. I had so many opinions and ideas and he completely neutralized me. I loved it. I have a lot of anxieties about this point in history and how it is represented. And he just kept reminding me that it's not about me. He'd say, "It's about the Bielskis."
You studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and at Yale, as well as doing much professional theater. Is it fair to call you a classically trained actor?
I never thought about it as training. I thought of it as an opportunity to act. I never thought I would be working professionally. I thought that the one way I would get to do this is if I paid for it at these places where I could act in plays. That's why I picked Yale. At the other schools, it's a lot of class work. At Yale, I got to do eight plays in a year.
For a while there, in films such as "The Sum of All Fears," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Omen," it seemed like you, or your management, was making a play for you to be a leading man.
Yeah, but I couldn't do it.
Was it you or the movies themselves?
I think it was me.
Why?
I'm a little funny looking.
Meaning you don't have . . .
. . . leading man looks.
Is it just that?
No. I also think I probably distinguished myself early in my career as someone interested in playing mixed-up people.
In May, you'll be playing the very mixed-up Sabretooth, opposite Hugh Jackman, in the new X-Men spinoff, "Wolverine." Did you enjoy making a superhero movie?
It was fun. Maybe I don't want to even admit that it's that fun -- we tend to think that it somehow diminishes us as actors if we let the audience know that what we do is little more than cowboys and Indians.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-enw-schr ... 1096.story
-
Daskedusken
- Posts: 14137
- Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
- Location: Always heading somewhere
-
Anglophile
- Posts: 3573
- Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:50 am
- Location: in front of my comp
With stories like this, you begin to understand why everyone says he makes people feel good on set.Thelma wrote:the first time I showed up at the hotel on location in Lithuania, I heard this booming voice call my name and it was Daniel. He gave me the biggest bear hug. I was like, "I think it's the guy but it also may be the actor, saying, 'This is my brother and I am going to open up this relationship right away.' " Whatever it is, it worked. We bonded very quickly. And the same thing happened with Jamie.
The more joy we have, the more nearly perfect we are. ~Spinoza~
-
Daskedusken
- Posts: 14137
- Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
- Location: Always heading somewhere
You sure do....Daniel is a fantastic person who really cares for others. Lucky co-stars is all I can say.Anglophile wrote:With stories like this, you begin to understand why everyone says he makes people feel good on set.Thelma wrote:the first time I showed up at the hotel on location in Lithuania, I heard this booming voice call my name and it was Daniel. He gave me the biggest bear hug. I was like, "I think it's the guy but it also may be the actor, saying, 'This is my brother and I am going to open up this relationship right away.' " Whatever it is, it worked. We bonded very quickly. And the same thing happened with Jamie.
"Love anyway. Live anyway. Choose to part of this anyway”
http://jewssip.com/4394/exclusive-defia ... ion-movie/
Jewish website with their review of Defiance.
Jewish website with their review of Defiance.