Astride a white stallion that might as well be Pegasus, Tuvia represents the we-shall-turn-our-swords-into-ploughshares cause. Training his rifle on collaborators responsible for the death of his parents, Zus is more the eye-for-an-eye type of guy. It is less Tuvia's and Zus' moral stances and more Craig's and Schreiber's magnetism that makes Defiance a rousing ride.
Disdaining violence except in self-defense, Tuvia presides over the encampment where as many as 1,200 Jews thrived and survived. While Tuvia coolly channels all energy into survival, Zus' blood boils with revenge. Frustrated under his brother's regime, Zus leaves the forest to join the Red Army and kill Nazis.
As directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond), Defiance is a wobbly stool, a seat propped up by the uneven legs of ethics debate, Holocaust movie and action thriller. Still, the fascination and novelty of Nazi-killing Jews who don't perish in the death camps packs quite the wallop.
Based on the nonfiction chronicle of the same title by Nechama Tec, Defiance corrects the received picture of European Jews cowering under the boot heel of Hitlerism. Here, Jews are not victims of genocide, but victors in the organized resistance against it.
Screenwriter Clayton Frohman distills this reversal into the memorable bit of byplay between a Soviet officer encountering the armed Bielski brothers: "Jews don't fight," proclaims the dismissive Soviet; "These Jews do!" respond the Bielskis in a rallying cry that could be out of Friendly Persuasion, to name one of those movies where a pacifist Quaker takes up arms.
