Metacritic Movie Ratings
Defiance Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 67

  out of 100

  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.

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• 63

  out of 100

  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.

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• 63

  out of 100

  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.

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• 60

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen

  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.

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• 50

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan

  Defiance has some genuine strengths but also some weaker elements, and these opposing traits battle it out kind of the way the contentious Bielskis fought not only the Germans but each other.

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• 50

  out of 100

  VarietyTodd McCarthy

  A potentially exceptional story is told in a flatly unexceptional manner.

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• 50

  out of 100

  The New York TimesA.O. Scott

  Defiance presents itself as an explicit correction of the cultural record, a counterpoint to all those lachrymose World War II tales of helplessness and victimhood. This is a perfectly honorable intention, but the problem is that, in setting out to overturn historical stereotypes of Jewish passivity, Mr. Zwick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Clayton Frohman) ends up affirming them.

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