I was an ignorant teen when this movie came out, but little did I know 10 years later I would love it! I can't believe I hadn't seen it until today. What a great story and cast. I would recommend this to anyone! This is like the true story version of Red Dawn, but with much more heart!

"Defiance" starred Danial Craig of 007 fame. I give it 7/10 . It's worth a rental, although it is too long at 2 hrs. & 17 mins. It's the true story of Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis in the forests of Russia. I think I like Danial Craig better in this type of movie rather than his James Bond outings.

Well, it's great for a TV movie.As an historian I am NOT here to argue for historical accuracy. I am here to be entertained. Historically speaking, Defiance did it's job by making people that are curious about what happened look it up.So long as it's not full on propaganda, that is really all Hollywood needs to do, tease enough to get people interested. Do that and, at least from my POV, you've contributed to education.Now, what their real job is, is to entertain.It feels like a made for TV movie of the week sort of reboot of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" set in WWII.And to make it oh so much better it ends abruptly. Almost like you are moving along on the free way and have to slam on your breaks when traffic instantly stops out of no where sort of abruptly.Which almost fits the movie, given that it has most of the entertainment value of your morning commute.Like I said, I don't care about historical accuracy, but add a few more details to what happened and maybe they could have flushed out an actual story instead of a collection of scenes.For World War II movies, you can do better.

What with all the stories told from every faction of WWII and how everybody trounced those pesky Nazi Germans, things can get a bit formulaic! Defiance is a war era drama that takes a different stance, in fact it takes two; standing with one foot in the campgrounds of the Russian Partisans and the other in the camps of the Jews who dared to escape into the woods of Belorussia and Poland to survive the Holocaust.It sports some finely crafted drama, though not perfect. It just does the best with what it has and thankfully it has authenticity and great acting on its side, despite some shortcomings and incidences of overstepping the mark.Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber play the two older brothers of a slain Jewish Belorussian family who flee with their younger siblings into the woods, chased not only by Nazis but the police forces of their own communities who have sided with the enemy.One brother goes on to lead the growing number of escaping Jews while the other - ostracised after rising tensions - joins the Partisans.The story is sometimes sporadic in its delivery of drama and incidence, meaning that one theme is sometimes forgotten for the sake of a bit of action. Don't get me wrong, some of the action is superbly done, but I felt that there were some rushed scenes.While all very well executed, I feel that Defiance suffered an occasional conflict in direction and style, but most viewers might not even notice this.Craig and Schreiber's Russian is spot on and at times even seems playfully competitive, which adds much needed chemistry to such an ambitious tale of family. Jamie Bell is also on form.Overall a fine effort, even though I felt it might actually have had more impact were it half an hour shorter.