OVP: Defiance (2008)

Film: Defiance (2008)
Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, George MacKay, Alexa Davalos, Mark Feuerstein, Mia Wasikowska
Director: Edward Zwick
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Not all important subjects mean we get important movies, I think is a lesson we learn nearly every single year at the cinema.  Each year there's a number of films, some where critics are in on the joke (The Monuments Men) some where they sadly aren't (The Imitation Game) where a big, serious topic is brought to screen with absolutely no life in it.  We get neutered versions of real-life human beings and only a smattering of story about a person who deserved better.  This was surely true for the Bielski brothers, a band of four men that lived in a forest in Belarus during World War II, saving hundreds of Jews from the concentration camps.  What should have been a dramatic and fascinating look at survival instead became a cookie cutter, hyper-masculine, and boring movie that lacks any sort of style or individual stamp.

(Spoilers Ahead, though this is real life so, you know, you should know the spoilers) The film, as I stated above, is about the Bielski brothers, a group of men whose parents are killed by the Germans during World War II.  The four brothers vow revenge and head into the forest, where they are joined increasingly by a number of Jewish refugees.  The eldest brother Tuvia (Craig) finds himself at odds with his younger brother Zus (Schreiber), as Zus wants to take a more militant approach to the Germans and to surrounding farms (willing to kill for food), while Tuvia doesn't like the risk.  Zus eventually abandons them to join a Russian military group while Tuvia fights it out in the forest.  After a rough winter, the two are reconnected when the Germans are attacking (it's one of those "all is lost" moments where the cavalry comes charging in like we're in an old John Ford western).  The film ends with stories of what happened to the brothers after the war.

The story is pretty paint-by-numbers even if living it clearly was a harrowing experience.  I don't know why we didn't get more into the behind-the-scenes of the camp style sequences as a result.  We see little outside of the brothers, who are obviously in a weird position of power in the camp as they are the ones making most decisions and who frequently are on the military frontline (they're also the movie stars, so we know that they won't be dying, at least not until the end of the film).  I would have loved to have learned more about, say Mark Feuerstein's intellectual and what he thought of the warring brothers, or about any of the women (there's a recurring commentary about "forest brides" that becomes a little hippie commune that would have been fascinating to learn more about).  Women in this film, it's worth noting are treated particularly appallingly by the screenwriters.  Basically the only women that remotely get any interest from the writers or director are women that might sleep with one of the brothers.  I don't blame the women for wanting to sleep with them (Jamie Bell, y'all!), but this sort of derivative treatment of women is appalling.  It might be the 1940's in the movie, but it's 21st Century when you're making it.  Try and tell a bit of these women's stories that doesn't involve wanting one of the Bielski brothers.

The performances are not great, it's also worth noting.  I'm starting to realize that I don't really like Liev Schreiber as an actor.  His accent is thick and fine, but the rest of the performance is too calculated, constantly trying to "be in the moment" of a scene without creating the moment, and his character becomes too easy to spot in terms of anger and not letting the script (which is great) do its job.  Craig isn't much better.  I generally like his James Bond, but he finds no shading in his main character.  Jamie Bell is the actor I like the most of these three, and occasionally it feels like he might be doing something interesting (balancing hormones, anger, resentment, and two brothers with completely opposite world views, he might be the most promising character), but the script abandons him after his wedding to a then-unknown Mia Wasikowska, and we're left with the huffing of Craig and Schreiber instead.

The film received one Oscar nomination, which was for Best Score, and while I get it and James Newton Howard is an Academy favorite, of course, I think they could have tried harder.  There's nothing iconic here-this could easily be any number of other Newton Howard scores, and while it's very pretty, you should expect more than just pretty from an Oscar-nominated score.

Overall I left bored and felt bad that this is probably the definitive story of the Bielskis.  What were your thoughts on this movie?  Were you like me and wanting more?  Do you also find yourself wondering how directors can turn exciting stories into boring ones?  Which Bielski brother/actor is your favorite?  Share your thoughts in the comments!