Defiance
Paramount Home Entertainment | Release Date: December 31, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's an exciting action spectacle and a thoughtful, cumulatively moving family drama. Read full review
88
PremiereGene Newman
The perfect antidote to the post-holiday blues. It's exciting, well-acted, touching, and genuine. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's a heroic story, and Zwick frames it rather too strenuously as an antidote to the generic Holocaust stories of Jewish passivity and martyrdom. And yet, as a piece of historical redress, a great service has been done in bringing this narrative to the screen. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The battle scenes are well choreographed and contain enough uncertainty to make them genuinely exciting, but one would expect no less from a man who has overseen Civil War engagements (Glory) and Japanese strife (The Last Samurai). Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Here, Jews are not victims of genocide, but victors in the organized resistance against it. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Remarkable, unheralded story. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The film isn't much of a character study; too many of its secondary characters are stereotypes, and it never fully engages our emotions the way "Schindler's List" or "The Pianist" did. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
Defiance says that it took grit, desperation and courage under fire to say, "Not this time," and fire back. Beyond that, it's a pretty good movie -- a bold, uneasy mix of romance, political debate and vigorous action. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Defiance, as it turns out, makes insistent emotional demands, and those who respond to it at all, as I did, are likely to go all the way and even come out of it feeling slightly stunned. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It's impossible to watch Defiance without experiencing a vicarious thrill of resistance and revenge. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Zwick offers excitingly staged moments, but once you get past the novelty of WWII Jews acting this heroically macho, Defiance bogs down in a not very well-developed script. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Zwick may be the definition of a modern blockbuster filmmaker, but he's also spent his entire career struggling to find the balance between opposing impulses – the sentimentalist's desire for emotional-historical heft and the artist's fascination with conflicted humanity – a struggle that's all over Defiance. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineJason Buchanan
A Holocaust film that's light on sentimentality but high on human drama, Defiance tells one of those remarkable survival stories that's so incredible it must be true. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The tale of the resistance movement in Belorussia is undeniably inspiring and ideally suited for a cinematic rendering. But Defiance resists bold, passionate storytelling and delivers something rather conventional. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
This promising premise is turned into basically an overgrown TV movie. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The best performance, because it's more nuanced, is by Liev Schreiber. His Zus Bielski is more concerned with the big picture, more ideological, more driven by tactics. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
For all the film's flaws, this is a war story told with passion about a band of brothers that still has the power to inspire. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The film should've aimed higher, given all that these people endured to have their story told. Read full review
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