Defiance
Defiance centers on Tuvia Bielski, an ordinary citizen turned hero who turned a group of war refugees into powerful freedom fighters. Tuvia, along with his unyielding brother, Zus, motivate hundreds of civilians to join their ranks against the Nazi regime.
15 November 1981, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR [now Lithuania]
27 October 1963, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR [now Lithuania]
16 November 1963, Landshut, Bavaria, Germany
4 October 1967, San Francisco, California, USA
11 February 1966, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR
8 June 1971, New York City, New York, USA
11 July 1978, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
5 August 1975, Tel Aviv, Israel
1 January 1977, Southwark, London, England, UK
12 February 1974, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR [now Lithuania]
26 November 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
22 July 1981, Siauliai, Lithuania
3 April 1955, Auburn, California, USA
October 20, 2010
Defiance is heavy-handed, but emotionally compelling, engaging and inspiring throughout.
January 16, 2009
As a piece of historical redress, a great service has been done in bringing this narrative to the screen.
June 22, 2013
Zwick wants to tell timeless stories on a grand scale. I know that's not what people want anymore. I know it's not breathtaking. But it's not something many are doing now, and definitely not doing it this well.
January 10, 2010
Director Edward Zwick does a fine job presenting the challenges of reality without falling into nostalgia or easy Hollywood heroes.
August 16, 2011
Zwick does not deal in gratuitous grotesquery or far-fetched metaphor. "Operatic" and "surreal" are not in his vocabulary.
January 20, 2009
I felt like these characters were prototypes and not people.
January 16, 2009
It's understandable and laudable that they desire not to sensationalize the Bielskis, and they've made a worthy film. But their understated approach makes the struggle seem less urgent than it must surely have been.
March 18, 2011
For all its pomp and ruminating, Defiance isn't really interested in drama. It really just wants to entertain us. But it's not any better at that.
January 16, 2009
It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a gripping 137-minute epic about people standing around under the trees.
December 17, 2009
succumbing to Hollywood cliches at the expense of historical truth
January 16, 2009
Ultimately, the film celebrates and memorializes the survival of something unthinkable, and a group of people for whom defiance meant, at heart, that they would push against the growing darkness and carry on.
