Thursday 12 October 2017

Defiance (2008) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 12th, 2017*

"Fuck Zwick"

While a solid war film, Zwick's clunky sentimentality and script gets in the way of what could have been a great war film. Daniel Craig is great as the lead, once you get past his accent. There is also some decent and visceral action, it's a shame it's ruined by some strange creative choices. There's a set-piece where the Jewish rebels have to steal medicine for their camp and it's done in this really strange slow-motion that made me think my disc might have been scratched. It was so out of place.

I did like the morality side of things. These rebels were portrayed in a very grey area, which is a risky move in a film about Jewish people fighting back in World War 2. They could have gone completely one sided, but it definitely helped the film by having these murky morals.


This script had some really cringey and bad lines too. At one point Daniel Craig's love interest tells him "You saved me", to which he responded "No. You saved me". Brutal. There's some more lines like that spread throughout, not that I remember much of it. 

Also, featured the obligatory "Lead actor is in an explosion, gets up and sees the chaos around him while the noise is droned out by ringing". Lame.  


I have a feeling revisiting Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai as an adult might be a bad idea at some point. Zwick is not a very good director. Defiance is still far from his godawful low point of a Jack Reacher sequel though.

6/10 Dans

Defiance is out now on Blu-ray and DVD
Watch the trailer below:

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