Imagine a world crumbling around you and at every turn friends, relatives, neighbors are all being herded away like cattle or shot for escaping.  Defiance tells the true story of brothers that survive a Round Up in their Polish town only to escape to the forest where they find hope, compassion, and learn the true meaning of community and who they can really trust. 

Defiance is similar to Schindler’s List, yet is apples and oranges in storyline.  The difference is when it was done and over, 1,230 Jews walked out of the woods near Nowogrodek to freedom.   Schindler’s story revolved around him being a factory worker that saved Ghetto Jews, while in Defiance Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus Bielski (Liev Schrieber) form a Jewish community within the Bellarus forest and survive until the end of the war.   It was amazing to see all the intelligent people that were able to flee the Nazis, but were practically inept at sustaining life outside of a civilization.  Intellectual superiority means nothing if you can't work a hammer. 

Isaac Malbin (Mark Feuerstein) learned the hard way as a “Pamphlet Writing Intellectual.”  It was interesting to learn that within the Jewish community prior to the war, there was an invisible Class System.  Since the Bielskis were farmers, they were not able to socialize with the Upper Crust and it is ironic that these same people are now are their Saviors.  If it were not for these two men most would have been caught within days, starved to death within weeks, or would have went back to a certain death in the Ghetto.   One thing that will definitely be surveyed is the accurateness of both actors’ Polish, German, and Russian because it sounded true from the heart and flowed like they spoke it their entire lives.   

There were so many great scenes within this movie to sustain anyone’s attention.  The relationship between Daniel Craig and Liev Schrieber was so convincing and believable as the movie progressed.  Tuvia said, “I'd rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten Nazi soldiers.”  This conflicted with Zus’ revenge theory which collided into a hand-to-hand fight that almost ended in a Cane & Abel scenario.  There were many speeches, welcoming or warning that truly inspired them.  “Our greatest revenge is to live.”  When times were bad and they had not eaten in days, he sacrificed his horse for them.  There were countless scenes of incredible humility, humanity, and true test of the human spirit that this movie will be the benchmark for this genre of bio-pics for years to come.  True survival.    

This movie is based on a book Defiance, The Bielski Partisans by Jewish Sociologist Niechama Tec.  It was optioned by Oscar-winning Director Ed Zwick for The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond who not only was able to tell the story but give a visual representation of what life was like for these survivors.  He wanted to insure that the image of European Jews going passively to their deaths is completely inaccurate.