Defiance expresses the importances of human freedom. These people who were fighting to remain alive would rather be free and hunted than enslaved and "safe" in ghettos. Their purpose was to remain human beings and not become animals even though they were being hunted like animals. Tuvia says, "If we die, at least we will die as human beings." All of these Jews believed in the creation as told in the Bible, and there were references made towards the Old Testemant stories of Moses and the Red Sea, David and Goliath, and God's covenants with his promised people. The teacher that was among them was the religious leader for them and he actually prayed saying that they were tired of being his people and going through this mess.
The community of Jews in the movie were crying out for the Kingdom. They were being oppressed by Germans with their anti-sematic tactics. The Jews wanted freedom and they were the poor and weak that the Kingdom of God says will be first. They definatly are fighting against empire and are living their lives wandering through the forest fighting for life in search for Kingdom. This artifact shows moments of pacifying to the empire as well. The Jews in the forest cannot remain peaceful and give in to the violence that is oppressing them and use it against themselves at times and as revenge. The empire has affected them as oppressed people and caused them to fall into a trap of anger and rage. The empire is powerful but the striving towards Kingdom and true freedom is stronger.
This movie makes you hope for the community to achive their goal of freedom and escape the oppression. It shows you how to value your life because you could be gone in one pull of a trigger. By putting yourself in the place of those who are oppressed, it gives you a better look at how to view the Kingdom and how much you should try to achieve it. You can see the fall in the movie by looking at the attitudes of the Germans. They love their families and do not know that they ard doing anything wrong. The soldiers are "doing their jobs" and are following orders. Sin is so twisted within us that we allow ourselves to become entangled in false ideas and it becomes a true part of what we believe and soon after we are killing Jews without thinking anything is wrong. Sin is deep in the system and isn't something that can be seen. The german soldiers weren't really "bad" people. They fell victim to the empire they were in just like we can do. We just see the devastating effects of their sins and not the sin itself.
The Jews believe that they can get through this. It didn't make any direct references to redemption or to Jesus for obvious reasons that they don't believe in Jesus as God. It does however show that there is hope for those who are being oppressed by the empire. There is something more than living in a world of sin and it is worth fighting for. They were striving for Kingdom and were willing to die for it, just as Jesus did for us.
This movie affirms many qualites of the Kingdom where everything is turned upside down. The weak and the oppressed are the ones that shall be first. They value nature and use their imaginations to make houses and shelters and even chess boards from wood and other materials. It no longer mattered who was cool and who wasn't becuase life was a bigger issue. The Jews didn't center their lives on Jesus which is a criticism of the Kingdom but they did show that the empire does effect everyone and the stiving for the Kingdom involves a sacrifice that puts yourself last and you look out for others. If the community were only looking out for their indivudal selves, they wouldn't have been able to survive.
Overall, I think Defiance was a great movie as entertainment and as a artifact to exemplify the Empire and Kingdom.
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