Defiance - B-

In theaters. Rated R, 137 minutes. Trailer.

As I've stated before, any new Holocaust movie has to overcome a threshold question of relevancy given the exhaustive collection of (excellent) films on the subject. Last year's The Counterfeiters passed the test but this year's Defiance fails the test. The story itself is new to me and semi-interesting: two Jewish brothers (Zus (Liev Schreiber) and Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig)) lead a group of 1500 Jews to survive and fight in the Polish woods through World War II. Click below for more on yet another Ed Zwick military drama:

The film begins with actual footage of typical Holocaust scenes, then bleeds into color to 'take you into history'. We are in rural Poland, watching as Zus and his younger brothers find their and Tuvia's parents dead from a Nazi "Jew hunt". After Tuvia meets them, they all head for the woods hoping to stick together and make it as long as they can as a nimble 4 man group. Slowly but surely they run into dozens of large groups of rural Jews and ghetto escapees that gravitate toward the charismatic and competent Tuvia as the leader of their "Otriad". Zus is the classic hot-head trying to exact vengeance and exercise a brutal efficiency to their survival (read: Bush), while Tuvia takes a more diplomatic, reasoned approach (read: Obama). After a dust-up between the two, Zus leaves with the other tough guys and joins the Otriad's loose ally, the nearby Russian platoon, to fight instead of making houses and chopping wood.

The rest of the film goes like this: Germans are coming...move...hunger...challenge to Tuvia...more Germans...more moving...Zus/Tuvia reunite...epilogue. Along the way, we're treated to lots of typical "humanity" springing up where even against impossible odds. Some of the film feels like Swiss Family Robinson, and other parts feel like a weird Bond flashback.

The movie is best when Schreiber is onscreen, as his relatinoship with Craig was interesting and intense. As the younger brother begins to assert himself at the end of the film, I was genuinely feeling the film, so there were some deeper feelings about coming of age and becoming a man. Zwick explores a few thought provoking questions regarding the Jew's history of non-aggression, treatment of women, and societal pecking order reversal during a violent conflict - but certainly not enough to warrant an entire film. The epilogue was the most interesting part, revealing that around 1200 Jews survived with Tuvia and Zus and that the brother moved to New York after the war and ran a trucking business for 30 years. How about this story, instead of the Defiance story: Condense Defiance down to 30 minutes (keeps the freshness of the Bielski Otriad story), then show how the brothers handled the end of the war (interesting and new), then show them starting and running their business. Lots of interesting angles and themes to deal with and bring forward, and much better than a simple rote re-telling of a lost but semi-interesting anecdote about the War?

Ed Zwick is in my list of directors I like, but he can be hit or miss. Glory (A) is a great film, TV Series My So Called Life is one of my all-time favorites, and Blood Diamond really surprised me. On the other hand, The Last Samurai almost put him on my Guy Ritchie hatred list, what with its horrific mash-up of the Civil War and Asian conflicts. This one doesn't push the dial either way. It got bumped from a B to a B- because of 1 line from Daniel Craig to his (woefully underdeveloped character) "Forest Wife": "No, you saved me." Yech.