Defiance Review
I caught Defiance last Saturday with the mate and a few friends. The mate wasn't particularly interested in seeing it as war movies don't hold much appeal. I personally have mixed feelings on war movies, though generally Holocuast movies interest me to some degree (though taking the Holocuast class and watching all those movies with original footage from death camps has really dampened my need to ever see anything similar).
I wanted to do a write up sooner, but I was taking time to digest. My immediate feelings were something along the lines of empty. I mean how can I watch something that's even loosely based on a true story and enjoy it? After that thought comes the "how much is true"? Usually I feel comfortable to watch a movie "based on a true story" and consider it fiction more or less, but with any kind of war story, especially a war as gruesome a World War II it becomes difficult to know where the facts and fiction start.
I did some quick reading up on the true events and it seems to me that the movie has some very muddled areas, but the aspects most striking and horrifying are not far from the truth. Things they left out include the Naliboki massacre where 125 innocent villagers were killed. It's unknown whether or not the Bielski group participated along with the Russian Soviet in these attacks. While I understand some people's anger on this topic, I see why a film would leave out the controversy. Cinematically sainting a set of purescuted people is popular.
Others have also been critical of the distinct Russian prescence along with the lack of Polish presence. I believe that like any war story the complexities going on in real life and all the differentiations were too much for a movie were they cut it down to major players. The Russian Soviet army was more major the the Polish Resistance groups in this story. Still, I personally found it confusing to the story. I knew we were in Poland. I knew some basic background material about Polish Jews and the Polish people during the war, and found the Russian element slightly confusing If I'd been on the story board, I'd have probably altered the story at this point. Differing Polish resistances would have become the main factions and the Russian Soviet would have been cut. The few places where the Russian Soviet and the Bielskis interact could have been handled by Polish factions. I mean resistance fighters are resistance fighters, plus the Polish fighting for their own land, freedom, and people would have been more powerful than the Russians.
Perhaps the most glaring inaccuracy (maybe since the facts on this one are a bit scattered) is the level of forest people to military confrontation. In actuality, the camp was constantly moved and always ran rather than faced any military movement. The Nazis made a few concentrated sweeps of the forest, but the Bielski's relocated deep enough into the forest to evade these troops. I can think of a few scenes in the movie that probably didn't happen, and then some are still in sincere controversy in my mind.
SPOILERS START NOW.
I wanted to do a write up sooner, but I was taking time to digest. My immediate feelings were something along the lines of empty. I mean how can I watch something that's even loosely based on a true story and enjoy it? After that thought comes the "how much is true"? Usually I feel comfortable to watch a movie "based on a true story" and consider it fiction more or less, but with any kind of war story, especially a war as gruesome a World War II it becomes difficult to know where the facts and fiction start.
I did some quick reading up on the true events and it seems to me that the movie has some very muddled areas, but the aspects most striking and horrifying are not far from the truth. Things they left out include the Naliboki massacre where 125 innocent villagers were killed. It's unknown whether or not the Bielski group participated along with the Russian Soviet in these attacks. While I understand some people's anger on this topic, I see why a film would leave out the controversy. Cinematically sainting a set of purescuted people is popular.
Others have also been critical of the distinct Russian prescence along with the lack of Polish presence. I believe that like any war story the complexities going on in real life and all the differentiations were too much for a movie were they cut it down to major players. The Russian Soviet army was more major the the Polish Resistance groups in this story. Still, I personally found it confusing to the story. I knew we were in Poland. I knew some basic background material about Polish Jews and the Polish people during the war, and found the Russian element slightly confusing If I'd been on the story board, I'd have probably altered the story at this point. Differing Polish resistances would have become the main factions and the Russian Soviet would have been cut. The few places where the Russian Soviet and the Bielskis interact could have been handled by Polish factions. I mean resistance fighters are resistance fighters, plus the Polish fighting for their own land, freedom, and people would have been more powerful than the Russians.
Perhaps the most glaring inaccuracy (maybe since the facts on this one are a bit scattered) is the level of forest people to military confrontation. In actuality, the camp was constantly moved and always ran rather than faced any military movement. The Nazis made a few concentrated sweeps of the forest, but the Bielski's relocated deep enough into the forest to evade these troops. I can think of a few scenes in the movie that probably didn't happen, and then some are still in sincere controversy in my mind.
SPOILERS START NOW.