Trailer Tuesday: Defiance

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Let's be honest: when it comes to Holocaust movies most of the time Jews are depicted as passive, miserable shadows sadly shuffling towards their doom. Defiance, the new war drama from director Edward Zwick sets out to change that - by chronicling a largely unknown, courageous true story.

In a dream teaming, Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell play Jewish brothers in Eastern Europe during World War II, who escape massacre by fleeing deep into the woods they have known since childhood. From there they stage daring guerrilla attacks on the Nazis. However, as news of their acts spread, desperate men, women and children start joining them in the forest, seizing a chance to rebuild their community and fight for their freedom - even in the face of a harsh Winter and an even harsher foe.

Given that Defiance comes from the director of Glory, The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond, I'm sure we can expect things to not exactly end happily for all the main characters and their charges.


This said, Zwick makes rousing films for that rarest of mainstream audiences - adults. Even if Zwick's movies are more Oscar bait than actual Oscar quality they normally make for a few hours of engaging entertainment. I'm a firm believer that Daniel Craig is pretty much a 21st century Steve McQueen so I'm certainly interested in seeing him play a prominent role in a WWII-era rebellion, a'la The Great Escape.

Out of interest Defiance has received mixed reviews, with a slight leaning towards the positive. It's currently sitting on 53% at Rotten Tomatoes, with major critics praising its professionalism and performances, but calling the film too understated for its own good.


Defiance is showing in North American cinemas now. No clue when it will be released in South Africa... and speaking of release dates, excuse me Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro but when can we be expecting Watchmen? It's basically 7 weeks from worldwide release, yet it's conspicuously absent from our release schedule. What's up?

Comments

Brian Tristam Williams said…
Hey Pfangirl!

Point taken - you can get release info on Watchmen here: http://www.numetro.co.za/booking/521/

Thanks for your fanatical attention-to-detail :-)
12:27 PM
Pfangirl said…
Hey Brian, thanks for the link. That release date is excellent news and has calmed my nerves quite a bit:)

Glad you enjoy the blog.
1:56 PM
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