This story [of Defiance] needed to be told.
Those of us who make films are forever searching for heroes. More often than not they’re imaginary. Luke Skywalker battles the Galactic Empire; Frodo Baggins duels with the Dark Lord. We have Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man, but few ordinary men. Because the closer one looks at real-life heroes, the less they conform to the simple verities Hollywood finds easiest to peddle.
—Director Edward Zwick, on why he made “yet another 1940s Holocaust-survivor movie”
[Also, the fact that the NY Times was able to get Zwick to tell his story himself is a reason why I still have respect for print journalism, and I probably always will.]