Defiance Review

James Bond travels back through time to fight the Nazis and their pals. All right! Well that isn’t exactly what this film is but I liked it anyway. Daniel Craig plays a man who chooses to fight in a true story that is being skipped by Oscar’s buzz parade. Listen up “Valkyrie”: THEY ALL HAD EASTERN EUROPEAN ACCENTS. Which I really liked because I was never taken out of the film. It is an intense story with good action. Whoops! Action is like kryptonite for the Academy. Just ask “The Dark Knight”. (I loved Dark Knight so much that I have found a way to include it in a WWII movie review. You complete me.) Or the director, Ed Zwick, who had to forgo Oscar Gold when he made “Blood Diamond” with too much action. Forget the great acting and real life story. Just let your oscar brains only see a popcorn film. Craig plays the real-life Tuvia Bielski who, along with his brother, hide in the woods and fight the Germans. Similar to other Zwick films, Craig’s character is a flawed hero with a moral greyness. A greyness that is dark at times but has a good heart when confronted with a tough decision. His humanity is tested and is forgivable due to the horrors of the times. Trying to survive and protect hundreds of people during all this makes for a compelling story. At the end of the film it is said that the actual man moved to New York after the war and ran a trucking company. Ordinary people reacting to extraordinary situations is what WWII and many of other Zwick characters is all about. The portrayal of this in “Defiance” is what makes this a good film. Not to pull a Christian Bale-style overlooking is Liv Schriber, who is great as the rival brother. He has a different moral compass than Craig and given the circumstances it’s easy to agree with him at points during the film. All the other actors are believable and good. Many of which are European which gives more credibility to the project. Weird that no body was running around yelling, “God Save the King!” Go see this film and PALM STRIKE the Academy for overlooking this film. And then hang them for treason for overlooking “Dark Knight”.