The story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish farmers who were living in Belorussia when the Germans invaded, and the forest village they started that saved them and 1,200 other Jews from the Holocaust, is an inherently rousing story, one part action-adventure tale and one part social fable. Thus, it is not surprising that it drew the attention of director Edward Zwick, who tends to moor (not always successfully) his films’ spectacle thrills on sturdy moral underpinnings and heady themes about family, honor, and sacrifice. No theme is too big for Zwick’s canvas, and Defiance fits right into his mold of the alternately exciting and didactic. (DVD Awards Screener)