NO PLOT SPOILER INCLUDED
Daniel Craigs latest offering to the big screen is Defiance and it's alright. The film follows the fate of a small group of Belorussian Jews who 'Defy' the Nazi occupation of Nowogrodek and Lida in present day Belarus and setup their own settlement in the forests.
Craig plays Tuvia Bielski a farmer who leads the large group for two years with the support of his hot headed brother Zus and his younger brother Asael Bielski, both played excellently by Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell.
The Story is based on a true story and is a relatively unknown. I have studied History for all my life and have only ever given passing reference to it.
As for the film, the acting is great, the story is as original as a real story can be and you can feel the cold through the cinema screen. It is also a decent length, about 2 hours and doesn't depress you as certain films from that period can. I'm thinking of Roberto Benigni 's 'Life is Beautiful', which certainly proved life was far from Beautiful.
Being a natural Historian of 'Social Scientist' as we are now labelled, I really liked this film. However i will struggle to give it more than a 6.5 out of 10 because the film lacks mass appeal. Some will find it a solid historical account, some will find it a horrible dramatisation and hollywoodisation of the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust. Others will just find it boring. The film is basically set in one place, the forests, their is limited gun play, gripping horror and no grand battles, which i know attract many to the war genre.
If you know about the Final Solution, the Ghetto's, this is interesting and gives a look into the psychy of those inside them, if you do not you will not learn much. None the less I would encourage everyone to watch the film, the story is great and inspiration to us all.
