Arriving on Blu-ray on May the 18th, Defiance is director Edward Zwick’s follow up to the Oscar nominated Blood Diamond and recounts the true story of the Bielski partisans, a community of Jewish resistance fighters hiding in the Belorussian forests and wrestling with the need to protect their community and their desire to fight back against the occupying Germans.
Featuring a solid performance from Daniel Craig and a brilliant one from Liev Schreiber, Defiance combines story, cinematography and acting to great effect, but sadly neglects to provide as much drama as you’d expect from a film that features fraternal rivalry, pitched tank battles and desperate escapes. The beautiful woodland shots go some way towards compensating for the film’s occasional flatness, while the 5.1 True HD soundtrack does justice to John Howard's award-winning score. Less impressive is the limited selection of Blu-ray extras: a photo gallery and less than an hour of documentaries. You can watch our full Defiance review here.
On the subject of lesser known war stories, the life of spy Violette Szabo has provided the loose inspiration for Velvet Assassin, a WWII game that combines morphine, lingerie and knives to disturbing effect.You can check out our first-play of Velvet Assassin on our games channel.