Defiance

Defiance is a film set in German-occupied Belarus during World War Two and tells of the Bielski brothers who set up a camp in the middle of a forest and recruit Jews to live there. Slowly the camp builds up with survivors and before long there is a small community living in the forest, hiding from the Germans. It’s a gripping, inspirational and more importantly, informative film and makes you think that more people should know about the Bielski brothers.

The Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron, were Jewish Belarussians who were imvolved in rescuing Jews during the War. The film primarily focuses on Tuvia, who initially brings a couple of Jewish refugees to his camp to help them survive. Before long he had saved more than 1,200 Jews and had built a community in the forest, complete with a school, hospital and nursery, according to the film. When you think that they were continually hunted by the Nazis because of their reputation, this becomes all the more impressive. They lived in the forest for two years and when the war was over Tuvia refused any recognition and started a trucking firm with Zus which he did for thirty years. Him and his brothers never sought any sort of commendation for their actions, and I bet you most people won’t have heard of their heroic story.

Defiance is very action packed, and often involves the men of the group fighting at gunpoint against the soldiers and anyone who threatens their freedom. Daniel Craig stars as Tuvia Bielski and because of his James Bond past, does very well in this role. Most impressive is the accent he puts on throughout the film though. Anyone who has seen anything he has been in before will know that he sounds fairly British, but in Defiance he puts on a Belarussian accent, and maintains it pretty much throughout the entire film. This is by far and away the best thing about him in this role. He also does very well in the scenes which require a bit of emotion. His character is not afraid to kill when his community is threatened, but when it looks like their hope has been lost at the end of the movie, he is so believable as a man who has tried so hard and come as far as he can. This makes it all the more sweet when he is hauled to his feet once more.

Liev Schrieber stars alongside Daniel Craig as his brother, Zus. His character is much more complex and has a long standing conflict with his brother. He frequently complains that the size of their group is getting too big, and one big disagreement causes him to leave the community and join the Russian army. Schrieber was a relatively unknown actor to me before I researched this post. He does very well though, and is portrayed as being very concerned about his brothers’ well being, despite leaving them. When he is with the Russians his first thought is usually about the impact his actions will have on his brothers and the community, and the scene where they are reunited is enjoyable.

There are a number of other actors in this film that are very enjoyable to watch. The audience cannot help but engage with Shimon Haretz and his more learned friend, and the scenes where they exchange opinions on politics are some of the more entertaining ones of the film. However, despite the obvious camaraderie of the community, there is a sense that there is something hanging over them for the whole film. The director, Edward Zwick, does very well to communicate this, and there is a nearly constant threat hanging over the characters for much of the film. Jamie Bell also appears as the third Bielski, Asael, and is much more likeable than the authoritative Tuvia and the absent Zus. He comes across very strongly as a young boy who has found himself in a completely unfamiliar situation. However he rises to this situation splendidly.

A lot of the criticisms of this film focus on the implications it has for the perception of the Jews. I don’t really want to get into these because they are quite heavy going. If you are really interested then check this out: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/movies/31defi.html?scp=2&sq=defiance&st=cse&_r=0. For me, the film has the potential to be an emotionally charged rollercoaster, which has some gritty fight scenes and a few really engaging characters. However, what it turns in to is a film which seems to focus more on the action than the actual survival, and this detracts somewhat from the overall story.

This doesn't make it a bad film however. I didn't know anything about the Bielski brothers before watching this film, and now I realise that these cases of heroism tend to go unnoticed in the public consciousness. The Bielski brothers did an inspirational and incredible thing, and they deserve more recognition for this. Defiance is not the film to provide this recognition, but it tries, and more than anything else, it makes you aware of what happened. 

The Bielski Partisans

Saving Private Ryan

First of all, this post is coming a day later than normal. I was moving house yesterday and there was a bit too much going on for me to post. I hope no-one minds this coming on Sunday. This one is about Saving Private Ryan.

In my opinion, Saving Private Ryan is the definitive modern war film. It is an absolutely classic film, and one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest. It follows a group of soldiers who are on a mission to save Private Ryan. All of his brothers have been killed in action and the American high command feel that sending Private Ryan home is the best thing to do for his mother. The soldiers, led by Tom Hanks, track down Private Ryan and attempt to take him away from the war.

Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, who is in command of the group of soldiers. There is a certain air of mystery about him for the majority of the film because while we find out little bits about the other soldiers we know very little about him. Tom Hanks is absolutely marvellous in this role though. As with most of his roles, the emotion he puts into his character is phenomenal and his command of the screen is incredibly engaging. His role as Captain Miller just adds to the long list of phenomenal roles Tom Hanks has starred in. His dedication is amazing, and the hand tremor that his character shows for much of the film is so perfectly portrayed by Hanks that it is slightly present even when it is not in focus. There’s not really much else to say about him in this role though. There’s not much more to it. He’s fantastic.

Despite being the title character, Private Ryan (Matt Damon) isn't in the film for very long at all. The band of soldiers finds him very late on, and from there the film is building up to the final battle. Matt Damon does very well in this role, but it is quite difficult to critique him too much because he just isn't in it for very long.

It is the other soldiers that I want to talk about. The band of actors who play the soldiers in Captain Miller’s command are a joy to watch. Between them they manage to perfectly convey the little family that each troop comes to represent, and the collective grief, anger and shock when one is killed is portrayed fantastically. Each actor brings a fantastic sense of camaraderie to the film. They are all very likeable in their own individual way, and there are a lot of familiar faces in there. Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi (from Friends), Adam Goldberg (Friends and A Beautiful Mind), Barry Pepper (The Green Mile, Enemy of the State, True Grit) and Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor) jumped out at me. Jeremy Davies particularly excelled for me though, as the nervous and obviously out of place Upham. He is taken from his ‘desk job’ and planted into full combat, and does very well conveying this struggle. I found myself liking Upham increasingly right up until the final battle where his lack of hardened soldier-ness shines through. In many ways it is this team of soldiers that completes the film, rather than one actor.

Saving Private Ryan is a horribly honest film. Its depiction of the war is horrendously graphic. The scene at the beginning where the soldiers are taking the beach is one of the most graphic and gory scenes I have ever watched. The effects were absolutely phenomenal and the wounds that they convey are 100% believable. The whole thing is very gritty and is the most accurate depiction of a war that I have ever seen (though I have never been in a war so I don’t have anything to compare it to). This can only be a good thing. No film should ever try to depict a war if it is not whole-heartedly conveying just how horrendous and graphic it is. The first half and hour left me a bit shocked, so you can only imagine what it must have been like to have witnesses it first hand.

The direction of the film is breathtaking as well. Spielberg continues his interest with the Second World War and makes the film as nail-biting and realistic as is possible. Some of his off-screen direction is what really credits his abilities as a director though. The actors playing the soldiers were trained for military portrayals, and Matt Damon was deliberately left out of this so that he would be resented by the group. This comes across beautifully in the film, and the sincerity with which the soldiers question the loss of a fellow officer for one Private pays testament to this. Also, Spielberg did not storyboard the first battle scene because he wanted it to be spontaneous. It certainly is that, and the action that plays out in front of you is very impressive.

Saving Private Ryan is the ultimate war film, and is a wonderful piece of cinema. I can’t say much beyond impressing the importance of the film. Simply for the reality it portrays and for the engaging atmosphere of the whole thing this is not a film to miss. It should be a must-see on everybody’s list.

Pearl Harbor

An awful lot of people really don’t like Pearl Harbor. I didn't really understand why until I saw the film. It’s awful. I went in expecting a historical drama with a couple of American heroes who tragically die and which left me drained but with an appreciation for those involved. Instead I found myself watching a romantic film where two best friends are divided over one young nurse. It just so happens that they are in Pearl Harbor. The film is about three hours long, but very little of that is actually depicting the Japanese attack.

There are so many criticisms of this film that I don’t think it would be possible to cover them here. Instead of producing a historical film with a romance in the middle of it, Michael Bay manages to create a romantic film with a couple of planes in it. It is so typically Michael Bay that it becomes cheesy and then what should be a serious film becomes a bit of a joke. And the historical inaccuracies in the film are unbelievable. They are too numerous to even go into here, but believe me, who ever researched that project should have been fired immediately. At times you forget that you are watching a film about the reason why America got involved in World War Two and seem to find yourself watching a film about a group of soldiers who are all in love with a group of nurses. At one point there was a line “I think World War Two just started”, and this is shockingly poor.

And it’s not even like the acting is good but the film is let down by the direction. Ben Afleck takes the lead role in this film as Rafe McCawley but is so unbelievable that the story around him, his girlfriend and his best friend becomes beyond incredulous. I don’t want to get into an in-depth character analysis but the idea of bringing in a back-story to the childhoods of the two soldiers is a poor attempt to engage the audience in the characters. I quite like Ben Afleck generally, but in Pearl Harbor it is almost like he has turned up to an exam having revised the night before. I mean no Michael Bay actor is going to win an Academy Award, but Ben Afleck does not engage with the audience at all. No part of me was rooting for him or the other soldiers at any point, and instead I found myself watching with mild disinterest as their lives unfolded and some planes attacked them.

Kate Beckinsale is well cast in Pearl Harbor and fits the part she is trying to play almost perfectly. It is a shame then that the character she does play is as transparent as both of the men she falls in love with. Obviously when one man goes missing in action it is natural to try and move on, but by anyone’s standards, the best friend might be a line too far. It is also a shame that the character she plays requires next to no acting effort to complete. I was very disappointed with her role in this film, and once again, I thought the film detracted too much from the conflict and became more about the group of nurses and their relationships. I don’t even want to talk about Josh Hartnett as the other soldier in this love triangle, because he too is so unbelievable that it is painful. Come the end of the film (which couldn't come fast enough) I don’t care what happens to the characters and instead find myself tolerating the frankly boring scenes just before the credits.

The only good thing about this film is Cuba Gooding Jr. who plays one of the staff on one of the ships and becomes so angered by the Japanese attack that he climbs atop a turret and shoots down a plane. Much in the same way that the best bits of The Rock have Sean Connery in them, the more redeeming scenes of Pearl Harbor (and there are very few) have Cuba Gooding in them.

Michael Bay is obviously aiming for a cinematic epic to rival some of the greatest war films out there, with his own special touch added in. However, he misses the mark so spectacularly that the film pales into insignificance. ‘Pearl Harbor’ is a misleading title as well, because there is a good hour either side of the attack which is unrelated to what you expect from the title of the film. Personally, I think Michael Bay gets the overall tone of the film completely wrong. One major criticism of Titanic is that it puts a romance into a serious historical event, but with Pearl Harbor the romance becomes the centrepiece, whereas in Titanic, much more of a focus is on the sinking ship.

There are more critical reviews of Pearl Harbor out there, and there is no doubt that it deserves most of the criticism. If someone offers to watch Pearl Harbor with you, say no. Avoid it at all costs. It is Michael Bay’s worst film. If you are expecting a historical depiction of Pearl Harbor you will be disappointed, and if you are expecting a romance story you will be disappointed too. Pearl Harbor is drawn out, long and in my opinion sets the benchmark for what a bad film should be judged by.