Both Oskar Schindler and Spiderman are Power of Conscience characters.

These characters actually believe they are their brother’s keeper. They feel responsible for the greater good and for doing good. They wrestle with how far they should go in seeking justice and fairness for others, in exposing corruption and injustice, or in standing up against evil or wrong-doing. They worry about with what is the higher duty and what exactly is required of them in response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGqwUWjsdrM

Peter Parker loves Mary Jane but he must summon up the courage to let her go.  He does so in the funeral scene when he rejects Mher profession of love and says he can only be her friend.

The answer, in a drama, is the Power of Conscience character must sacrifice everything he or she holds dear to be the hero he was meant to be. Over the course of a drama, these characters are drawn further and further down the path of righteousness. They are compelled to do one small thing, then another and another until, in the end, they have sacrificed their personal concerns, their safety, their security, their family, their fortunes, and often their lives.

Oskar Schindler gives his ring, his watch, his cigarette case– one trunk of money and then all his trunks of money– but it doesn’t feel enough when weighed in the value of a life. At end of the film, he wishes he could have done more.

Power of Conscience characters are asked the existential question:  “If I am my brother’s keeper, how far must I go on his behalf”.  The answer is all the way.  These dramas are about sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a word that has very much fallen out of favor in our current cultural and political climate. Protect yourself.  Protect your party. Don’t sacrifice anything for the good of the country or anyone else.

Defiance tells the remarkable story of Jewish Partisan Fighters who survived World War II by living on the run in a vast forest in Poland/Belarus.  Eventually, the forest community numbered 1,200 men, women and children.  The partisans survived for several years only losing 50 people to sickness, old age or combat.

One brother, Tuvia, played by Daniel Craig, is a Power of Conscience character.  He establishes and enforces the moral order and the rule of law in the ragtag community.  Another brother, Zus, played by Liev Schreiber, is a Power of Will character.  He is a warrior who believes only in force, strength and might makes right.

The two brothers clash over authority and strategy.  Zus joins the Russian Army Fighters in the forest.  The two come together when the Russian Army retreats in the face of a planed air and ground attack by the Germans.  Zus joins Tuvia and together they defeat the advancing enemy.

Defiance suffers for having no specific individual antagonist– only the general looming threat of the Germans.  Schindler’s List is a much more effective and powerful film for setting up the personal dynamic between Oskar Schindler and Amon Goeth.  For most of the movie Tuvia’s only personal antagonist, his brother, is on the other side of the forest.  Defiance has too little focused personal conflict and is very episodic.  It doesn’t engage emotionally.  I felt interestd but curiously detached in viewing the film.

I guess the thing that struck me most strongly in Defiance was the terrible privation the forest dwellers endured.  Things we take for granted like hot water, sufficient food, clean drinking water and a warm dry place to sleep are impossible and unobtainable luxuries.  The terrible sorrow in the loss of loved ones and the physical suffering in the film reminded me of what many people in Japan (and Haiti) must be enduring right now.  We should all be grateful for the small luxuries we too often take for granted.

Here’s the best place to make a contribution to Japanese Earthquake Relief Efforts:  https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052&idb=0