Defiance

Defiance: I went to see Defiance on opening day at the first show of the day. This was not on purpose it just worked out that we had a free afternoon at our disposal. The interesting thing about seeing the movie at this time was the audience. There were a few couples and a small group but there was also a very elderly man with a cane (by himself), some other very elderly couples and young men and women who were obviously Jewish (I recognized this by their apparel). Not a big crowd at the movies but one I took note of considering the subject of the movie.
Defiance follows a group of Jewish resistance fighters, lead by two brothers Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus (Liev Schreiber), and the community they built in the forests of Russia during WW II. The Nazis invaded Russia with a vengeance and held nothing back when it came to it's attack on the common people. The Jewish fighters were made by neccesity as these were not men of violence and made up of mostly Jewish farmers but the majority of the community was made up of educators, intellectuals, students, aristocrats and tradesmen. As Zus put it - they are protecting people that would not let them touch their daughters with their "dirty hands." But a time of war against an entire people - the Jewish people seemed to negate any propriety and instead the need for survival was paramount.
The movie is remarkable in the sense that you get to see Jews fighting. Normally, Jews are portrayed as passive, as they line up to be slaughtered. Apparently, this was not the case and there was a need for this story to be told. The movie is based on a true story that was not known by all the descendants of those that hid in the woods (for over three years). But they didn't just hide they literally built a new community and kept their traditions.
Being a Theological Studies major, I have studied the Old Testament and I feel that gave me some insight into the struggle and decisions these people had to make. They were bound by their religious beliefs and the need to survive. And, as it is pointed out in the movie, to maintain their humanity and not become like their enemy.
I am not telling you much about the movie because you need to go see it. The cast is excellent and is the best performances of Craig and Schreiber to date.
MMMMM (out of 5 M's)