Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 128 Ratings

  • Starring: Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Liev Schreiber
  • Summary: Based on an extraordinary true story, Defiance is an epic tale of family, honor, vengeance and salvation in World War II. (Paramount Vantage)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. It's an exciting action spectacle and a thoughtful, cumulatively moving family drama.
  2. Here, Jews are not victims of genocide, but victors in the organized resistance against it.
  3. 75
    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.
  4. That butting of heads, as performed by actors as strong and soulful as Craig and Schreiber, lends Defiance an emotional charge, even as the film itself struggles dramatically to find its way out of those woods.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 41
  2. Negative: 7 out of 41
  1. 10
    Defiance has awesome character and story. This tv series is better than game Defiance. Positives aspect it different class people. I give 10/10, if next series will be better. Now some is boring, but i have hope, that will be better. Expand
  2. EliasC
    8
    Very good thoughtful film. Good acting. A story, though simplified here, that needs to be told. Low user ratings may be because this is not an action film (viewers - do not expect James Bond), action sequences are realistic (viewers - do not expect fake fiery explosions), and perhaps because the film does not explain enough of the details of this true historical event for viewers too young to know what WWII was really like. Expand
  3. I don't understand the decent reviews. Daniel Craig gives his best in "Defiance", as well as Edward Zwick. He realistically potrays the horror and advesities the jews had to suffer. Despite the tedious pace, "Defiance" is still a great movie you will want to watch. Expand
  4. jacksfilmblog.blogspot
    4
    Zwick is a director with honourable intentions with an interest in telling stories about the struggles that different cultures have had to face. However, he seems to be genuinely unaware that his films always use the plights of minorities simply as a device to redeem his white heroes, and in the end there is no escaping the slightly uncomfortable image of the decidedly un-Semitic looking Daniel Craig nobly leading the helpless Jews to safety. Expand

See all 41 User Reviews

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