Zwick Shows 'Defiance' From Usual Method

by Brett Parker

Defiance is the kind of movie we’ve been waiting for Edward Zwick to make for years. Zwick has spent his filmmaking career telling strong tales of ethnic or minority struggles (Glory, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) through the eyes of Caucasian protagonists. In telling the story of Jewish outcasts who fought back against the Nazis, Zwick finally places a minority group in the forefront and makes them heroic and inspiring characters. Of course, there was really no other way to tell this story, but at least it shows a change in his method.

The film depicts the remarkably true yet surprisingly under-documented story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish brothers who resisted and fought back against the Nazis during World War II. As the Nazis carry out their occupation of Poland during the 1940s, countless Jews are imprisoned or slaughtered. This includes the family and loved ones of Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig), Zus Bielski (Liev Schreiber), and Asael Bielski (Jamie Bell). Angry and terrified, the brothers decide to flee into the forests surrounding their town and plot revenge as they hide out. The Bielski brothers are too strong-willed to just sit back and let the Nazis destroy their lives. They decide to take matters into their own hands by forming a makeshift guerilla militia that rolls down into the towns at night and executes Nazi officials and all who assists them. By day, they try to create an environment in the forest in which they can live peacefully.

Word of the Bielski brothers actions spread throughout the groups of Jewish refugees scattered about and soon enough, countless amounts of survivors find their way to the Bielski’s section of the forest and they too want to hide out and live in this new community. With assistance from Russian Partisans also hiding out in the forest, the Bielski’s attempt to build a new functioning society in which these Jews can live comfortably in the woods by building their own shelters and finding their own food. However, this proves taxing to do as food is not the easiest to gather for hundreds of people and the cold weather causes sickness to spread amongst the camp. As the Nazi threat draws closer to their environment and the difficulties of a forest life begins threatening their lives, can the Bielskis keep up their protection and hope?

Zwick is no stranger to honestly depicting the struggles of a minority group in a hostile environment. Throughout his filmography, he has depicted blacks struggling with racism, samurai fighting for independence from imperialism, and Africans trying to survive the diamond conflict. While he tells these stories with tact and honesty, he is heavily criticized for telling these stories from the point-of-view of a conflicted white character. His films feature cream-of-the-crop leading white men (Matthew Broderick, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio) whose character’s struggles and heroics threaten to steal thunder from the minority struggles at hand. If these white characters were completely scrapped from the spotlight and these stories were told completely from the perspective of the struggling ethnic groups, we’d have versions of these films that are considerably more powerful than Zwick’s “white man” interpretations. Wouldn’t Glory be more intriguing from Denzel Washington’s perspective? Wouldn’t Blood Diamond be more gut-wrenching if Djimon Hounsou were the main hero?

Of course, Zwick has his reasons for this. In a thick-headed Hollywood landscape that cares only about box office grosses, it is unfortunately easier for minority tales to get greenlit if a glamorous white movie star is attached to the lead. This may not be an entirely negative ideal, for having a big star in a big budget Hollywood film may be an effective way to bring awareness of important ethnic struggles to a mainstream moviegoing public. Zwick is no idiot. It also sense the more you think about it that a white filmmaker trying to make sense of a minority story would have a white protagonist in the lead trying to do the same thing. Filmmakers often project their own ideals and personality into their main characters and perhaps Zwick uses his white characters to project his own hopes and curiosities with these stories.

Now comes Defiance, a story that can only be told properly from the perspective of the Jewish people struggling their way through Nazi-occupied territory. It’s thrilling to see these characters get the heroic depths and dramatics usually reserved for Zwick’s Caucasian leads. I remember an interview with Harvey Weinstein where he spoke of how Exodus was one of his favorite movies growing up. As a Jewish youngster, he was thrilled to see such a glamorous and powerful movie star like Paul Newman play a Jewish hero. I can imagine Jewish people feeling a similar joy at watching Daniel Craig, James Bond himself, play a glorious Jewish action hero, white horse and all! Craig is such a nuanced actor that he nails all the dramatic complexities the role requires, but when its time to turn on the action hero within, he is, off course, a thrilling sight to behold.

When it comes to the film’s action, we can imagine certain sections of this true story being pumped up to please an action junkie crowd. We invite it, though, because very rarely have we seen Jews battle back with full force against Nazi forces (I’m sure Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Inglorious Bastards is going to take that concept to pretty extreme heights!). Defiance suffers a little from lacking the scope and grand perspective of holocaust films such as Schindler’s List, but in its self-contained story, the actors and the filmmakers truly capture these particular Jews as they struggle to regain hope and civility in such a chaotic and tragic section of history. We can see exactly why this story needed to be told and this film needed to be made and great dignity and justice is served to this tale.

It’s also very exciting to see Zwick grow as a filmmaker. With Defiance, he is no longer shy about placing a struggling ethnic group in the heroic forefront. He has abandoned slick and polished camera work to bring a more intimate and gritty view on such an intimate and gritty tale. I hope this film is a sign of a new direction Zwick is pushing towards. If so, he is really onto something special here.