As I was girding my loins (if females have loins) to start delving into the Holocaust records for Nowy Dwor, Poland (http://www.elaineostrachchaika.com), my husband suggested we watch Defiance. I lasted maybe 10 minutes into the movie in the scene where Tuvia enters a Polish Christian neighbor's house as the family was eating. Tuvia''s family had been killed, and apparently the neighbor had fingered them for the Germans. As Tuvia enters the kitchen, we see a POV shot of the neighbors, and, the man standing up and saying that the Germans had said if he didn't point out Jews, they would kill the man's family. Guess what the next camera shot was? A bullet entering the man's forehead, with the requisite amount of blood gushing out. Then we see the rest of the family but one shot and killed by Tuvia. That was it for me on two separate counts.
First,if this was supposed to be a movie in which Jews were to be portrayed as better than Germans, this shooting nullified that. If I were the Christian and the Germans, who were occupying my country, threatened me, I might be a heroine and say, "Shoot me." (or I hope I would). But, if they said they'd harm my children, I would obey the Germans, and I wonder if Tuvia wouldn''t have done the same thing. His act of revenge was cold blooded murder. He was judge and jury. I hate Hollywood's constant portrayal as revenge murders as justified no matter what the reason for the original killing.
Second, the shot to the head scene is banal, hackneyed, unimaginative, and unnecessary. It is used whether the shooter is a hero, a policeman, a gangster, a maniac, whatever. In Frankenstein, we see the monster's face as he murders someone. In today's movies, we see the face of the person being killed. Worse, it's always virtually the same shot (camera, that is.)
I'll have to gird myself for those Holocaust records in some other way.
First,if this was supposed to be a movie in which Jews were to be portrayed as better than Germans, this shooting nullified that. If I were the Christian and the Germans, who were occupying my country, threatened me, I might be a heroine and say, "Shoot me." (or I hope I would). But, if they said they'd harm my children, I would obey the Germans, and I wonder if Tuvia wouldn''t have done the same thing. His act of revenge was cold blooded murder. He was judge and jury. I hate Hollywood's constant portrayal as revenge murders as justified no matter what the reason for the original killing.
Second, the shot to the head scene is banal, hackneyed, unimaginative, and unnecessary. It is used whether the shooter is a hero, a policeman, a gangster, a maniac, whatever. In Frankenstein, we see the monster's face as he murders someone. In today's movies, we see the face of the person being killed. Worse, it's always virtually the same shot (camera, that is.)
I'll have to gird myself for those Holocaust records in some other way.