Defiance
Crit
On the basis of a trying-to-hard trailer and a soft review in the Times, I was planning to give this one a miss until David Denby talked it up the the New Yorker; glad I let him talk me into it. I mean, come on: ass-kicking Jews!
The film has stirred a bit of controversy as a victim-blamer. By showing that a few Jews were able to resist, survive, prevail, this unfortunate and wrong-headed argument goes, the filmmakers (and Nechama Tec's book on which the film is based--and gee, I guess when it comes right down to it, the Bielski brothers themselves, and everyone who took up arms with them) suggest that 6 million could have done likewise.
(A) That's poppycock, and (2) it has nothing to to with the film, which is The Ten Commandments meets The Magnificent Seven, with one of those prodigal-returning-to-save-the-day endings (I practically expected "What kept you?" "Traffic was a bitch"). In short, it's a movie, it's an Edward Zwick movie. That it's based on actual people and actual events--on actual Jews kicking actual ass--is all the better, but these are clearly exceptional people performing exceptional feats. Hell, that's James Bond leading the way!
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