Opening on August 1941 with the Nazi’s taking Eastern Europe by force; the Jewish people are fleeting for their lives to escape capture and worst, death. The Bielski brothers: Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell), Aron (George MacKay), arrive home to find their parent’s have been murdered by the local police under new law by the Germans. The brothers head to the forest but vow vengeance. In the forest, they encounter other Jews who are also hiding there as well and take them under their wing. The brothers make good with their promise and avenge their parent’s death. After an attack on a truck of Nazis, they quickly realize their causalities are too great to continue waging war on the armed enemy. Instead over the next year they continue seeking shelter in the forest as the number of refugees in their camp continues to grow. However old wounds continue to fester with two of the brothers, the eldest Tuvia and Zus. After continuing to have a disagreement on the future of their camp, Zus eventually leaves to fight with a local Soviet partisans group.

With a long winter ahead, can the Jewish camp survive sickness, the fear of starvation and the power struggle that is happening inside the ranks of the camp? Defiance is quite an extraordinaire true story about the will of man and what ends one will do for survival.

The film comes with some bonus features for you to enjoy as well. The audio commentary by director Edward Zwick is top notch and you tell how deeply moved he is with the material. Defiance: Return to the Forest clocks in at twenty five plus minutes and gives us some insight on both the making of the film and the real life story it is based on. Children of the Otriad is a featurette with the children of the Bielsky brothers recounting the stories that inspired the film and their memories of their parents growing up. Scoring Defiance is a short little featurette on creating the beautiful soundtrack and some of the themes used to trigger some of the emotional moments in the film. Bielski Partisan Survivors is a photo montage of black and white shots taken of the real-life survivors. All of these features are here in HD including the pair of trailers that conclude the bonus features.

With so many films coming out every year, a few inevitably slip through the cracks. Defiance is one of those films that should have been on every one’s Best Of list, especially coming from a director that gave us such films in the past as Glory, Blood Diamond, and Legends of the Fall. The film is a powerful film based on an incredible real life story. The acting is powerful and film has a perfect balance of drama and action. Defiance is now available on Blu-ray for everyone to discover.

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