The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 295 Days to go: 282
Movie #82: Defiance
This never happens. I bought this movie sometime several years ago, having never seen it and knowing nothing about it, because it was in the Wal-Mart bargain bin I think and I recalled maybe hearing good things about it from trusted sources. (That is perhaps my husband’s influence. I’m not one to invest in a movie I’m not certain of.) The thing is, I’m pretty sure I watched it at some point after that, or tried to at least, but I think it bored me to tears or I couldn’t follow it or something. I really can’t remember. In fact, I have no concrete memories of it at all — not what it was supposed to be about, not of it ever being in theaters or when that may have been, nothing. So I approached today’s task with trepidation.
By sheer luck (or maybe I knew this at some point in the past and simply forgot, who knows), it turns out the movie is based on the true story of Jewish revolutionaries who fought against capture in Belarus and survived in forest camps for over two and a half years. I will pretty much watch any story of Jews escaping, overcoming or otherwise defeating Nazis (because fuck those guys), even if it turns out to be Life is Beautiful and I hate it. So I was on board with this one.
Defiance tells the story of the Bielski brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell) and Aron (George MacKay), who escaped to the woods when their parents were murdered in a Jewish Ghetto in 1941. Together with a few of their neighbors, they built a small camp and defended themselves against SS units. Soon, more people escaped to the camp, then more, then more. They learned to fight and to shoot, learned to make and repair weapons, and managed to build an entire community from the ground up, amid the trees. All in all, over 1200 Jews were saved by the Bielskis. That’s fucking badass.
The movie itself isn’t perfect, but it is interesting. Zus is the more hostile, angrier brother. He and Tuvia (also violent and angry at times, but much more commanding and in control) lock horns over the constant influx of refugees into their camp, compete with each other for position and authority, and eventually have a falling out that leaves Zus joining the nearby Russian troops to fight the Nazis outright. Their conflicts are mirrored throughout the rest of the camp, too, as people begin to question Tuvia’s leadership, inequalities and resentments start to rise and a more savage aspect of human nature rears its head from time to time.
Asael and Aron are the younger brothers (Aron being just a boy) but Asael steps into a leadership role of his own, becoming a brave and skilled fighter and teaching the women how to shoot as well. One young woman in particular, Chaya (played by Mia Wasikowska two years before her breakout in The Kids Are All Right), notices Asael and when he rescues her parents from one of the Ghettos, falls in love with him. There is a really interesting scene where Asael and Chaya’s wedding celebration (held in gorgeous light snowfall) is intercut with a tense and bloody shootout between Zus’s regiment and a caravan of enemy soldiers. It highlights the strange dichotomy they lived in, of love and war, of death all around them while life continues on.
Things come to a head in the camp, though, as one of the chief and more vocal dissenters to Tuvia’s command (a bully who sexually harasses Chaya every chance he gets), takes advantage of a time when Tuvia is weak with sickness to forcefully takeover the camp and decree that he and his fighters will eat better than the others. Tuvia says this is not allowed, that everyone gets the same rations, and when he’s told his command is over, shoots the dissenter dead in a flash and says anyone who doesn’t like his rules is free to go. It’s both awesome and terrifying, because on one hand he’s fighting for the survival of the group but on the other he is a strict and uncompromising dictator.
It’s a relief, then, that a woman in the camp who Tuvia rescued from a Ghetto, Lilka (Alexa Davalos), nurses him back to health, grows to love him, and helps him to hold on to the humanity of their people. She and Isaac Malbin, an intellectual in his former life, (played by Mark Feuerstein, who I love, always, but still have to look up the spelling of his name every time) provide a solid foundation of heart and community for the camp, and they help it to grow into a resilient and close-knit society.
There are some weird moments, like when tense fight scenes are scored with soaring, sorrowful compositions, but overall it’s a pretty successful telling of a truly harrowing and heroic story of real people, real sacrifice and real survival. There’s a great climax as well, complete with a deadly battle, unlikely salvation, and satisfying reconciliation, which makes for a good movie ending. Pretty happy with myself for somehow buying this one.
Viable Option 