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Defiance
The story of the film about defiance is told by Tuvia Bielski, an ordinary citizen turned into a hero. This man has become a real hero in order to turn a group of war refugees into strong fighters. He died with his brother Zeus, pushing hundreds of civilians to join their ranks for opposition to the Nazis.
8 May 1975, Camden, London, England, UK
11 February 1966, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR
5 August 1975, Tel Aviv, Israel
12 February 1974, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, USSR [now Lithuania]
2 April 1950, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
1974, Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
1973, UK
1 January 1977, Southwark, London, England, UK
7 February 1951, Plauciskiai, Pakruojo, Lithuania
March 18, 2011
For all its pomp and ruminating, Defiance isn't really interested in drama. It really just wants to entertain us. But it's not any better at that.
January 10, 2010
Director Edward Zwick does a fine job presenting the challenges of reality without falling into nostalgia or easy Hollywood heroes.
January 16, 2009
It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to make a gripping 137-minute epic about people standing around under the trees.
August 16, 2011
Zwick does not deal in gratuitous grotesquery or far-fetched metaphor. "Operatic" and "surreal" are not in his vocabulary.
December 17, 2009
succumbing to Hollywood cliches at the expense of historical truth
January 16, 2009
As a piece of historical redress, a great service has been done in bringing this narrative to the screen.
October 20, 2010
Defiance is heavy-handed, but emotionally compelling, engaging and inspiring throughout.
June 22, 2013
Zwick wants to tell timeless stories on a grand scale. I know that's not what people want anymore. I know it's not breathtaking. But it's not something many are doing now, and definitely not doing it this well.
January 16, 2009
It's understandable and laudable that they desire not to sensationalize the Bielskis, and they've made a worthy film. But their understated approach makes the struggle seem less urgent than it must surely have been.
January 20, 2009
I felt like these characters were prototypes and not people.
January 16, 2009
Ultimately, the film celebrates and memorializes the survival of something unthinkable, and a group of people for whom defiance meant, at heart, that they would push against the growing darkness and carry on.