Defiance

[nevada]

Okay, I know this movie isn't out yet in most theatres but when it is, go see it. It's an amazing true story about courage and the will to live and the ability of people to come together.

Daniel Craig gives, in my opinion, one of his best performances ever. Liev Schreiber is fantastic as always, and Jamie Bell has really come into himself as a great actor since Billie Elliot.

Some critics are saying it has nothing new to say about the Holocaust and I suppose that's true, but what more "new" things do you have to say about the holocaust.

What it does give us is a story nobody's ever heard before about three brothers who found courage to care for thousands of refugees even though that wasn't their plan. People needed them and they stepped up.

This is not Schindler's list, I will agree. But it is a very good movie that, even though it shows hunger and suffering, also shows what's good about people, that love and laughter and hope exists even in the worst of times and that is why people go on and survive.

[ChaosTitan]

Thanks for the rec, nevada. The first time I saw a preview, I wanted to see it. Now I just may have to visit the theater, instead of waiting for DVD.

[maestrowork]

Not showing yet, but intend to watch.

There seems to be a slew of WWII movies out recently: Miracle of St. Anna, The Boy in a Striped Pajamas, Valkyrie, The Reader, to name a few. I wonder why....

[nevada]

Maestro, I think it's because it is a safe war. The country, yours and mine, is at war. But we're not ready to talk about this war because it's not a war we understand. The rules are different, the results are no longer cut and dried. But people need to talk about war.

Vietnam doesn't fit the bill, because that was a bad war. Once again, rules changed, people made disastrous mistakes, it was a lost cause. So we go back to a war we understood, horrible as that sounds. WWII had battles in a way we understand battles, not house to house with IED's and suicide bombers, but soldier against soldier, Geneva Convention rules upheld, and when they weren't it was by the "bad" guys. The bad guys were obviously bad and the good guys were obviously good. It was a war of black and white.

I think people need that now. I think people need to be reminded of "black and white" of simple good vs bad. In reality we understand that it's all grey, that bad decisions are made by everyone, that no one is infallible. But in fiction, people need to know that good triumps. And good triumphed in WWII.