Seller:Amazon Video On Demand Rating:142 reviews Sales Rank:2,173
Genre:Drama Rating:R (Restricted) Media:Video On Demand Running Time:137 Minutes
Theatrical Release Date:January 16, 2009 Release Date:December 24, 2009 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Synopsis:
On the run and hiding in the deep forests of the then German occupied Poland and Belorussia (World War II), the three Bielski brothers find the impossible task of foraging for food and weapons for their survival. They live, not only with the fear of discovery, contending with neighboring Soviet partisans and knowing whom to trust but also take the responsibility of looking after a large mass of fleeing Polish Jews from the German war machine. Women, men, children, the elderly and the young alike are all hiding in makeshift homes in the dark, cold and unforgiving forests in the darkest times of German occupied Eastern Europe.
OutstandingFebruary 19, 2009 R. Kyle(USA) 104 out of 116 found this review helpful
One wonders why it took so long to tell the story of the three Bielski brothers, who managed to save the lives of 1200 Jews during the Nazi Holocaust in World War II. My personal answer is that they didn't have anyone near the caliber of Daniel Craig to play the part of Tuvia.
The story opens with the Bielski brothers Tuvia (Craig) and Zus (Liev Schreiber) returning to the family farm to discover the Germans killed their parents. They find their younger brother, Asael (Jamie Bell) hiding from the slaughter in a cellar.
They decide to go to the forest to hide out. It's initially pure happenstance that they run into other refugees, but as the story progresses, they have a community from philosophers to warriors.
It's fascinating to see the community grow and the harsh realities of living under the Nazi radar. The images in this film will haunt me as strongly as the original newsreel "Let my People Go" did when I saw it in junior high.
In my opinion, "Defiance" is one of the top films of this year and I hope it earns the awards it deserves. The film is excellent for students of Jewish history, psychology, and community development. It's well worth full price in the theatre and adding to your collection.
Rebecca Kyle, February 2009
Great movie! R rating undeservedJanuary 18, 2009 R. Plemmons(Texas, United States) 55 out of 67 found this review helpful
Story about Jews fleeing Nazi death squads in Belorussia who fight back against their occupiers and survive for years in forest hideouts. Very moving story and quite well-acted. The R rating is mind-boggling. I've seen PG-13 movies with more graphic violence. The profanity is sparse and never gratuitous. An excellent history lesson for teenagers, but the rating will keep many of them away (along with some adults). In the current climate of rising anti-Semitism and holocaust revisionism, this movie is unlikely to win awards, but it should.
A simple story about large issues in difficult timesJanuary 3, 2009 H. Schneider(window seat) 31 out of 40 found this review helpful
Belorussia in 1941. Germans and local collaborators hunt Jews. The Bielski brothers, in civilian times apparently not really choir boys, escape into the forests and attract followers, other refugees, who are desperate for help. A camp in the forest, an unsteady symbiosis with Russian troops nearby. Raids for food can't avoid getting noticed by the German army, whose attacks follow; the camp has to run. The refugees find another location for a camp. Apparently based on true events.
The film is about big subjects: strategy, leadership, discipline, solidarity. No surprises,just basic constellations and human conflicts. Wonderful cinematography. Solid work by Mr.Zwick (who apparently has a personal relation to the real Bielskis; family?). Good show by Mr.James Bond as Tuvia Bielski; the other actors do well too (but I don't know them).
DefianceJanuary 17, 2009 Dave Hart(Farmingdale, NY-USA) 14 out of 18 found this review helpful
AWESOME! One of the absolute best war flicks i've ever seen, and a true story to boot. I was riveted in my seat for 2+ hours! And i cried too. Go see this movie if you want to feel alive and learn something historical and worthwhile.
Brilliant evocation of amazing heroismNovember 30, 2009 Alan A. Elsner(Washington DC) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This brilliant movie tells the true story of the Bielski partisans -- a band of Jewish survivors who hid in the forests of Belorussia during World War II and fought the Nazis.
It comes with all the bells and whistles of a classic war movie but it's so much more that that -- this is a movie with many important moral messages to impart about survival, commmunity, human dignity and resistance.
Daniel Craig gives a powerful performance as Tuvia Bielski, the group's leader -- all the more powerful for its understatement. Liev Schreiber is just as good as his brother Zus, who wants only to fight and kill to avenge the awful personal losses the family has endured.
If this were only a movie about men fighting a vastly superior force, it would be incredible enough. But Tuvia Bielski opened his camp to all survivors -- the old, the young, the sick, women, children. No-one was turned away. It's amazing to contemplate how they survived two bitter Russian winters with little or no food. Yet by the time of the liberation, they were running a school in the middle of the forest.
Incredibly, the brothers managed to save the lives of 1,200 people. Today, some 19,000 people are alive who would not have been were it not for their heroism.
There are many exciting battle scenes and tender love scenes and interesting secondary characters -- but the central metaphor comes when the band of refugees is forced to flee German armor and air power and find themselves wading through a massive swamp, holding on to each other's belts. It's an image that looks back to the exodus from Egypt -- although one of the brothers states that God will not save them this time and will not part the waters. Only by employing their own strength, determination and persistence will they survive.
In another painful scene, a German soldier is captured and then bludgeoned to death. Tuvia Bielski does not try to intervene. He understands that although he aspires to a higher moral standard, the cry for revenge among people who have been reduced by their enemies to animals, have been mistreated, humiliated and degraded and have seen their loved ones massacred cannot be appeased without blood. It is also an acknowledgment that to fight a monstrous force like Nazi Germany, a certain brutal ruthlessness is sometimes required.
The extra features on this DVD include interviews with family members of the Bielskis, who went on to build lives in the United States and some haunting photographs of survivors by director Edward Zwick.
See this movie. It's an amazing story that will change your perceptions of the Holocaust.
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