Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Defience- Movie Review


The movie Defiance with Liev Shriebner, and Daniel Craig.

The story is based on a true story, based on a book. I remember seeing this book at least 15 yrs. ago in Barnes and Noble but I did not pick it up. After Schindler's list I wanted to read anything and everything about the Holocaust.

This movie is a very different kind of movie about the Jews during the Shoah. This time they fight back. The reason I felt this was different was, every movie that takes place during the holocaust either is the passivity of the Jews, about the awful sad atrocities that happened during that time. Or the elderly, that were survivors tell the true facts, and flashbacks. It is the first time I have seen anyone do something to fight back.

Finally Jews that fight back!!

It is about Defiance, the two older brothers both become defiant with each other. The become Partisans in the forest after their parents are killed and they find out the fate of their wives. They both have to make a choice. One of the brothers wants to avenge the deaths of the Jews by the Germans, the other brother feels that life is precious. every life you save you are responsible for, it is survival. He feels saving a old woman's life is more important than killing ten Nazi's. It is interesting how all of the Jews that are saved are in the forest and how they become a community. It is interesting how they deal with survival and the making of their own society during the duration of the war. The brother's fight to decide how this will play out either as avenging the Germans or just to survive. One of the brother's decides he wants to fight side by side with the Russians. The other just wants to live each day and survive.

My favorite quote
One day of freedom is another day of faith

You can read a review from The New York Times here

2 comments:

Marie Cloutier said...

sounds like a great flick, and a great story. my favorite resistance story is a children's book, called The Cats of Krasinski Square. It's about Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who smuggle in food with the help of a group of feral cats- true story too!

Charles said...

Speaking of Jews who fought back against Nazis, try, "Jacob's Courage" (2007, Mazo Publishers). Information at http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/.

 
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