Defiance
More Camping Than War
As Defiance rears its head this month to compete with the likes of Valkyrie for the rank of top WWII film of the new year I feel as if I was lied to about the premise of the film. I was under the impression that the jews who hid in the forest would be training to fight the Nazis and then actually fight the Nazis. Well I was wrong, while the build up throughout the film focused on the forest tribe hunting and gathering food while preparing for battle the battle just never came (unless you count a few gunshots towards the end).
Ever since I saw Saving Private Ryan I’ve grown to expect the same suspense and draw to the characters as I felt then whenever I watch a WWII film. Following a sniper’s rifle as he slowly brings his target into sight or merciless death in an atmosphere that can only be described as Hell is the only way in my mind to portray war. The minute Zwick began to focus more on community and family than war I was uninterested and since the film runs approximately 150 minutes I had a long ride ahead of me.
As I said before, the film started out strong but lost it’s steam once the brothers (Craig and Shreibner) split up to go their separate ways. The story was predictable from then on and besides the one “battle” at the end we were stuck with uninteresting dialogue regarding a time and people I wouldn’t understand. This story was flawed from the start due to the overwhelming amount of women and elderly that inhabited the camp. I realize that it’s an amazing true story, but as a compelling representation of the time to movie goers, it’s boring and without comparable life lessons.
The women in the story are looked down upon throughout as well, as if to not be seen or heard except to cook and clean, which I had problems with. The writing even goes as far to train the women to shoot, yet never shows them in battle, which can confuse an audience member. They stop paying attention to everything because they believe it to be wasted film not attributing to the story they’re being fed.
I wouldn’t call this a World War II story at all because basically what you end up with is a half-assed love story with a touch of a buddy action flick all brought about by a very boring camping trip.
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