Defiance

Hey, my piece on Defiance and Jews in film more generally, is up at Racialicious.

I found Defiance moving, but also entertaining. It swells with action in the best tradition of Hollywood. For some people, this is a problem. The most commonly expressed fear of directors making films about the Holocaust is that they will trivialize and exploit the tragedy. Ralph Seliger complains about historical inaccuracies and that the Bielskis are cheapened as “the image of Hollywood heroes.” My concern is different. There were six Holocaust films out at one time, but given the history of how Hollywood has depicted Jews and the Holocaust - and the way in which I understand antisemitism as shaping that depiction - Defiance was the only one I had any interest in seeing.

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