Director Edward Zwick (“Glory”) is known for earnest movies with noble sentiments. So it’s natural that he should tackle a true, little-known World War II story about some valiant Jews who resisted their German oppressors.

“Defiance” is the result, and it bears many of Zwick’s trademarks: handsome cinematography, crisp action scenes and emotions writ large for the big screen.

The story takes place in Belorussia (today Belarus) early in the war. The Bielski brothers return home to find their parents murdered by German collaborators. There are four brothers: Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell) and Aron (George MacKay). The brothers know that they, too, are marked men, and they head for the forest they know so well. There, they begin to attract other fugitive Jews, and a community begins to take shape. There are intellectuals, craftsmen, teachers, nurses and others that form a microcosm of the outside world.

Though this is a war movie, much of it involves family and community dynamics. Tuvia is a natural leader who feels that his job is to protect all the Jews who come to the forest. Zus is a fired-up instrument of revenge who wants mainly to kill Germans. He also feels resentful of the upper-class Jews who once looked down on his farming origins. Ultimately, the community isn’t big enough for both of these alpha males, and the inevitable slugfest ensues. Zwick is not immune to such Hollywood touches, and the movie has more than a few.

The bloodthirsty Zus leaves the forest sanctuary and enlists with a Russian resistance brigade along with some of his followers. The leader of the brigade is played by Ravil Isyanov, and he gives one of the more interesting performances. He’s good humored, rowdy and friendly toward Zus while other resistance fighters cling to their anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, Tuvia has to deal with a checklist of crises. There are malcontents in the camp. Winter is approaching. Food is running out, and disease is overtaking the camp. Romances are also springing up. Chief among them is the chemistry that develops between Tuvia and a music student well played by Alexa Davalos.

The performances are consistently good, though the choice to have the actors use Eastern European accents is not a good one. It’s kind of the elephant in the room. More effective is the approach taken by “Valkyrie” that lets each actor speak in his normal voice.

Zwick, also the co-writer, tends to rely on Hollywood melodrama to make many of his points. But the biggest setback when it comes to dramatic tension is the anonymity of the Nazi villains. The movie needs a face — not just an evil institution — to hate, and dramatic license could have helped here.

Still, it’s an inspirational story that needed to be told about victims who refused to stay victims in one of history’s most shameful moments. And Zwick and his cast and crew tell it with admirable conviction.