MovieChat Forums > Defiance (2009) Discussion > Scene w/Arkady getting blown away really...

Scene w/Arkady getting blown away really happened?


Does anyone know if, historically, the scene with Arkady getting blown away by Tuvia (for the poisonous snake he truly was) really happened?

Please, I don't need a lot of commentary on how "good" or "bad" the movie was to you. Obviously there are a lot of strong opinions in here and talk of "racism" that spans the gammit. I just want to know if that scene is historically accurate, if someone happens to know.

Thanks!
-pj

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Both Tuvia and Zus killed Jewish partisans who put the organization in danger

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Well, you can almost be guaranteed, just statistically when dealing with that many people and under the conditions of duress that they were in, that... at least one person acted as Arkady did and summarily had to be "dealt with." There is almost always someone like him who not only thinks of just himself, but decides he's going to try and poison as many people as can in the process. So it's not surprising. Recall that earlier in the film, someone else in the camp during one scene already referred to Arkady as "a snake."

-pj

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I met an eyewitness quite by chance in Tel Aviv in 2013, and plan to meet again next month. He had been with the Bielski's early on, and came from the Grodno region of Belarus where it all happened (was under Poland at the time). He saw Bielski shoot a guy, one of their own, who refused to throw away food supplies from a horsecart making room for women and children fleeing. Bielski got them away to safety. This guy decided to run further east, and got away to Usbekistan eventually where he survived the war. No one else in his family or community that he knew had survived. He is 92 now, and only last year lost his drivers licence. I actually bumbed into his daughter Sara in another country where she led an Israeli tourist group, and got connected. The movie obviously has some inaccuracies, but still gets across an amazingly important part of history in a credible way.

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Thank you for sharing. Do you have more that you care to share?

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