Word: bielskis
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...Edward Zwick ’74 (“The Last Samurai,” “Blood Diamond”) surprises the audience by examining the Holocaust from an original angle. In a story of survival, Daniel Craig (“Casino Royale”), as Tuvia Bielski, becomes a symbol of hope as he leads a large community of Jewish refugees hiding in the forests of Belarus. Based on a true story, “Defiance” narrates Tuvia’s journey as he and his followers attempt to rebuild a life that was stolen...
...Edward Zwick, the TV producer (thirtysomething) and maker of Important Films (Glory, Courage Under Fire, Blood Diamond), writes in the New York Times that he felt a similar Holocaust-movie fatigue when offered the idea of a film on the Bielski brothers, a band of real-life Jews in Belorussia during World War II. "I groaned, 'Not another movie about victims,' " he writes. But he went ahead and made Defiance anyway...
...Some Were Warriors Zwick was especially rankled by the legacy of Jews as victims, as passive enablers of their own destruction. Thus his attraction for a film about the three elder Bielski brothers, who forged a community of refugee Jews in the Belorussian woods and fought off the soldiers hunting them down. They helped other Jews escape the Warsaw ghetto. The Bielskis' heroism saved about as many Jewish lives as the hero of Schindler's List did. And they were family, not a wealthy Gentile whose act of paternalist benevolence can be stretched to absolve a generation of "good Germans...
...think is a legacy of that.” His new film “Defiance,” about Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, combines Zwick’s dual interest in epic storytelling and intimate human drama. The film documents the amazing true story of the Bielski brothers, who helped thousands of Jews seek refuge in the Belarusian forest and escape the Nazis. Zwick was inspired to document this unique and moving narrative after a friend showed him an obituary in the New York Times for Zus Bielski, one of the brothers...
...show begins to lag. In playing the princess, Beth Ellen Salm has a most difficult job, which may explain why she falls so flat. As written, the would-be feminist princess sounds like a selfsatisfied prig, and Salm's portrayal reinforces that impression. When her assistant Lady Blanche (Linda Bielski) mocks Ida behind her back, the audience sympathizes. Lady Blanche, at least, keeps the audience awake by putting the orchestra to sleep with a song/philosophy lecture. Bielski, a professional actress, is easily the show's best female performer...