Director Edward Zwick continues to be one of Hollywood’s more provocative mainstream filmmakers, following up the likes of The Last Samurai, The Siege, Courage Under Fire and Glory with this based-on-fact drama about a community of Jews in World War II Belorussia who hid in the woods and staged guerrilla attacks on the Nazis. Defiance engages in some ethnic-pride hero worship – a macho Liev Schreiber and none other than Daniel Craig, James Bond himself, play the guerrilla leaders – yet it’s most interesting when it explores how the war quickly changes these victims into victimizers (one captured German soldier is the recipient of some particularly brutal vengeance). As a heroic drama, Defiance has its clichés and narrative hiccups, but as an examination of the cycle of violence it’s often harrowing.
