Fighter And Defiance: Film Analysis

Fighter and Defiance are both films that portray a story of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Each of their stories present similarities in their representations of Jewish resistance. For example, they both involve characters that first find the desire to fight from their thirst for vengeance. They both also inadvertently make non-resistors seem less heroic than those who did fight. However, there are also differences and I will mention one; Fighter goes into further depth on establishing the difference between a fighter and a non-fighter by contrasting both of their experiences during the war, and by demonstrating the long term effects of the war on each of them. Both Fighter and Defiance show characters that developed their fighter …show more content…
Throughout the movie, we see that fighting has taken a toll on Wiener and he consistently behaves with resentment and anger when talking about his story with Lustig. As the non-fighter, Lustig is portrayed with more of an open mind and shows a more relaxed view on not only their experiences of the Holocaust, but life in general. For example, Weiner told Lustig about a story in which a man decides to safe Weiner instead of sending him back to the Nazis. Lustig looks at the story more critically and asks Weiner if he thinks that the man may have possibly had a son the same age as Weiner, which would have compelled him to then show mercy on Weiner. In response, Weiner gets very mad at Lustig and insists that it was simply because the man was a good person. Lustig is able to think more critically about the Holocaust because of the lesser effect that the events of the war had on him. The differences in the way that they think shows that although part of how they think is a result form their upbringing, some was also due to their experiences of the war. Fighting gave Weiner a more cynical and straightforward view of the world; while Lustig is able to maintain an open mind and less cynical view of the world. This allows us to question whether fighting and resisting was worth it when looking at the