Defiance

Let me start off this review by saying that I don’t think Jewish people are tough. I grew up in South Florida and whenever I think of a Jew I think of an old man named Erwin sucking on hard candy, and driving 20 mph to get to the early bird special at Too Jay’s. A movie that is based on the premise of “tough jews” is preposterous to me. It gets worse than the movie’s preview tells me that this bad-ass Jew story is true. I refuse to believe it. So, before I move on to talking about the actual movie, let me say, if any Jewish person has a problem with me saying they aren’t tough, come to my house and prove it to me.

I had no expectations when I sat down to watch Defiance. If I didn’t have an advanced screener of the film, then I wouldn’t have watched it all, but it was a lazy Friday and I thought, why not? That was my first mistake. The movie drops you in the middle of Poland during the Holocaust and sends us right into the woods with the characters. As a viewer, we are provided no opportunity to connect with the characters before the action of the story starts. Without this connection, what reason is there for caring about what happens to them. Truth be told, I doubt even with character development that I would have cared because the story of the film is so stupid and boring. It’s two hours and twenty minutes of people in the woods. Throw in some occasional shoot-outs with Nazi’s and a Jewish wedding or two (complete with cup stomping) and that’s the plot. If you’re thinking, “well, maybe the dialogue and acting are good enough to carry this garbage plot”, then you’re wrong. I have no problems with the acting, because they did the best with what was given to them, but the dialogue is so cheesy and unrealistic. No one would ever talk like this, especially given the situation these people were in. Not once did I ever feel their struggle through dialogue or emotion, but Mr. Zwick was clearly trying to show this struggle with repeated shots that screamed “look how dirty these people are!”

And there it is, I mentioned the director, Edward Zwick, the man behind one of my all tiem favorite films Blood Diamond and another very good film in Glory. Sadly, he’s also the man who directed The Last Samurai, another overly melodramatic film that I strongly disliked. As I sat watching this movie, complaining aloud how bad it sucks, I wondered how this man could be on such opposing ends of the movie spectrum. After a few minutes on my computer, I arrived at an answer. When Zwick is directing someone else’s screenplay, its a good movie. When he writes the script and directs it, it sucks.

The thing that hurt me the most about this movie, and why I was angrier when I finished it than I was after sitting through Max Payne, is that when they were making this movie, they thought they were making a great film. I’m sure they sat around musing about how many Oscars they would get nominated for and this is the root of a problem. Great movies come from people who love film-making and they come about naturally from their talents. Movies like this come about from people trying to emulate great movies, following a pattern that they think will lead them to success. It is this reason that I hate this movie more than most people I’ve talked to, so please keep that in mind. In the grand scheme of things, this is a mediocre movie in its truest form. If you think Jews in the woods with incomprehensible action set pieces sounds like a fun way to spend your evening, then by all mean’s, go see Defiance. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.