History Film / Defiance

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Lazar, the primary sentry at the camp, keeps missing the arrival of newcomers, or challenging people who are leaving from the camp and therefore must be safe. It gets to be kind of a RunningGag

* SenselessSacrifice: One of the non-combatant Jews rushes a group of German soldiers with a live grenade, only to be shot a few yards into his charge and his grenade to blow up by his body. Made worse that he only needed to wait a few more seconds before help arrived, making his attempt even more futile.

* LesCollaborateurs: Some Belarusians collaborate with the Germans and are eventually murdered by the partisans. Also, the RealLife Bielskis served in the Soviet administration of occupied Poland, which has made their positive portrayal controversial to many Poles.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The execution of Belarusian collaborators. There is also a scene near the end where a German soldier captured by the Bielski Partisans is beaten to death by the unnamed civilians of the group.
* OscarBait: It's BasedOnATrueStory, set during the Holocaust, and follows a community of Belarusian Jews as they hide in the forests and fight back against the Nazis (in other words: Oscar gold). It has the fairly standard dark and gritty tone favored by Academy voters, with a brooding AntiHero (played by frequent award winner Creator/DanielCraig) forced into cruel, angsty moral dilemmas that play out as if saying "you seeing this, voters?" [[Film/SchindlersList The film ends with a short montage of the fates of the people depicted, with real life pictures and the assurance that the descendants of this group numbers in the tens of thousands today.]] And it cut its release as close to Oscar time as possible, with a limited release on December 31st of the qualifying year. Ironically enough, in spite of having pretty much everything needed for a total Oscar blowout, it only received nominations for its music from both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

* TheCavalry: [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, the fleeing Bielski Partisans are surrounded by the German army, then saved by the sudden arrival of Russian partisans.]]
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: At the beginning of this film, we see black-and-white film footage of German soldiers rounding up Jews. We cut to a scene which you swiftly realise is not contemporary footage, which then turns into color. At the end of the film, things return to black-and-white.
* IHaveAFamily: The Jewish partisans capture a terrified Nazi soldier, who tells them he has a wife and two kids. One of the partisans yells out, "So did I!" They beat the Nazi to death while yelling about their lost relatives.
* LesCollaborateurs: Some Belarusians collaborate with the Germans and are eventually murdered by the partisans.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Execution of Belarusian collaborators. There is also a scene near the end where a German soldier captured by the Bielski Partisans is beaten to death by the unnamed civilians of the group.

* LaResistance: The Bielski Partisans form such a group against German occupation of Belarus, as do the Russian partisans also featured in the movie.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Collaboration between Bielski Partisans and Russian partisans happens to be quite problematic, thanks to rampant antisemitism of the Russian population.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Collaboration between Bielski Partisans and Russian partisans happens to be quite problematic, thank to rampant antisemitism of the Russian population.

[[caption-width-right:300:Every day that we survive is an act of ''faith''.]]

->'''Tuvia:''' Welcome to our... community.

'''''Defiance''''' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book (''Defiance: the Bielski Partisans'') by Nechama Tec. It stars Creator/DanielCraig, Creator/LievSchreiber, and Jamie Bell (of ''Film/BillyElliot'' fame). It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belarusian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until it is a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

* OscarBait: The film might be one of the more shamelessly obvious, borderline cynical attempts at an Oscar grab. It's BasedOnATrueStory, set during the Holocaust, and follows a community of Belarusian Jews as they hide in the forests and fight back against the Nazis (in other words: Oscar gold). It has the fairly standard dark and gritty tone favored by Academy voters, with a brooding AntiHero (played by frequent award winner Creator/DanielCraig) forced into cruel, angsty moral dilemmas that play out as if saying "you seeing this, voters?" [[Film/SchindlersList The film ends with a short montage of the fates of the people depicted, with real life pictures and the assurance that the descendants of this group numbers in the tens of thousands today.]] And it cut its release as close to Oscar time as possible, with a limited release on December 31st of the qualifying year. Ironically enough, in spite of having pretty much everything needed for a total Oscar blowout, it only received nominations for its music from both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

[[caption-width-right:300:''Every day that we survive is an act of'' faith.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:''Just because we are hunted like animals does not mean we must act like animals.'']]

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, Creator/LievSchreiber, and Jamie Bell (of ''Film/BillyElliot'' fame). It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belarusian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Execution of Belarusian collaborators. There is also a scene near the end where a German soldier captured by the Bielski Partisans is beatten to death by the unnamed civilians of the group.
* OscarBait: The film might be one of the more shamelessly obvious, borderline cynical attempts at an Oscar grab. It's BasedOnATrueStory, set during the Holocaust, and follows a community of Belarusian Jews as they hide in the forests and fight back against the Nazis (in other words: Oscar gold). It has the fairly standard dark and gritty tone favored by Academy voters, with a brooding AntiHero (played by frequent award winner Creator/DanielCraig) forced into cruel, angsty moral dilemmas that play out as if saying "you seeing this, voters?" [[Film/SchindlersList The film ends with a short montage of the fates of the people depicted, with real life pictures and the assurance that the descendants of this group numbers in the tens of thousands today.]] And it cut it's release as close to Oscar time as possible with a limited release on December 31st of the qualifying year. Ironically enough, in spite of having pretty much everything needed for a total Oscar blowout, it only received nominations for its music from both Academy Awards and Golden Globes.
* LaResistance: The Bielski Partisans form such a group against German occupation of Belarus, as did the Russian partisans also featured in the movie.
* SenselessSacrifice: One of the non-combatant Jews rush a group of German soldiers with a live grenade, only to be shot a few yards into his charge and for his grenade to blow up by his body. Made worse that he only needed to wait a few more seconds before help arrived making his attempt even more futile.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Collaboration between Bielski Partisans and Russian partisans happened to be quite problematic, thank to rampant antisemitism of the Russian population.
* TranslationConvention: Yiddish is English with Just a Stupid Accent. Although Russian and German remain the same and are often subtitled, occasionally the main characters will speak English with Soviet soldiers, who are unlikely to have known Yiddish. Despite taking place in Belarus, Belarusian is never spoken

* SenselessSacrifice: One of the non-combatant Jews rush a group of German soldiers with a live grenade, only to be shot a few yards into his charge and for his grenade to blow up by his body.
** Made worse that he only needed to wait a few more seconds before help arrived making his attempt even more futile.

* UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons

* UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, Creator/LievSchreiber, and Jamie Bell (of ''Film/BillyElliot'' fame). It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belorussian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

* LesCollaborateurs: Some Bielorussians collaborates with the Germans and are eventually murdered by the partisans.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Execution of Bielorussian collaborateurs. There is also a scene near the end where a German soldier captured by the Bielski Partisans is beatten to death by the unnarmed civilians of the group.
* OscarBait: The film might be one of the more shamelessly obvious, borderline cynical attempts at an Oscar grab in the past few years. It's BasedOnATrueStory, set during the Holocaust, and follows a community of Belarussian Jews as they hide in the forests and fight back against the Nazis (in other words: Oscar gold). It has the fairly standard dark and gritty tone favored by Academy voters, with a brooding AntiHero (played by frequent award winner Creator/DanielCraig) forced into cruel, angsty moral dilemmas that play out as if saying "you seeing this, voters?" [[Film/SchindlersList The film ends with a short montage of the fates of the people depicted, with real life pictures and the assurance that the descendants of this group numbers in the tens of thousands today.]] Ironically enough, in spite of having pretty much everything needed for a total Oscar blowout, it only received nominations for its music from both Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

* LaResistance: The Bielski Partisans form such a group against German occupation of Bielorussia, as the Russian partisans also featured in the movie.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Collaboration between Bielski Partisans and Russian partisans happened to be quit problematic, thank to rampant antisemitism of the Russian population.
* TranslationConvention: Yiddish is English with Just a Stupid Accent. Although Russian and German remain the same and are often subtitled, occasionally the main characters will speak English with Soviet soldiers, who are unlikely to have known Yiddish.

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, LievSchreiber, and Jamie Bell (of Film/BillyElliot fame). It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belorussian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

!This film provides examples of:

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, best known for his appearences as James Bond, LievSchreiber, who has a wide variety of roles, and Jamie Bell. It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belorussian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, best known for his appearences as James Bond, and LievSchreiber, who has a wide variety of roles. It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belorussian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.

''Defiance'' is a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the movie with Clayton Frohman, based on a book ("Defiance: the Bielski Partisans") by Nechama Tec. It stars DanielCraig, best known for his appearences as James Bond, and LievSchreiber, who has a wide variety of roles. It follows the Bielski brothers, four Belorussian Jews who escape the first wave of SS murders in late 1941, only to decide that they need to fight back. The resulting resistance group grows, taking in more and more displaced Jews, until its a genuine thorn in the side of the Nazi advance, forcing the Germans to retaliate.