These types of movies all seem to hit the same beats, partly because they're based on the same events. But it's the familiar rhythm of these ‘triumph of the human spirit' narratives that tends to make so many of them so maddeningly similar. The Survivor does something else, finding a different way of telling a familiar story through an intensely character-driven film. Driven predominantly by Ben Foster's ‘Harry.' Less feel good than some will hope, but its on its surest footing when it veers into the visceral ache felt by all survivors. Well worth the watch made all the more timely by recent events.

Brilliantly acted story that everyone should witness.

UNA AGONIZANTE HISTORIA Cada día de sus vidas se basaba en el contundente pensamiento de la muerte. Una muerte pobre, seca, cansada, injustificada. Pensamos que no había elección, sí que la había, obedecer o morir, y no sé cuál podría llegar a ser más rentable. Y al final cada judío destrozado injustamente debía preocuparse por su vacía esperanza de vida y conseguir salir del pozo más profundo en el que una persona podría caer hasta el día de hoy. Unos lo hacían por egoísmo y traición a sus compañeros, otros conseguían esas etiquetas pero el amor lo justificaba. Y todo esto para contarnos una sorprendente y emotiva historia de un polaco que lo convirtieron en boxeador contra judíos (cuyo futuro llegaría a pelear contra el inigualable Rocky Marciano), en uno de los campos de exterminio, solamente para el disfrute de los nazis. Noto una ligera intención de cine comercial y convencional, con aspectos propios hollywoodienses, tampoco ponen como protagonista el boxeo sino el acontecimiento por el que tuvo que pasar, explicando porque tuvo que boxear y porque continuó haciéndolo una vez liberado, y también lo que le ocurrió con Schneider y el amor que sentía por esa hermosa joven que de repente se la arrebataron, es decir, el sentimiento de culpa y los recuerdos tenebrosos. Contándolo todo a varias personas que una de ellas es un entrevistador cuya intención me recuerda a la del muchacho que entrevistó a Louis, en Entrevista con el Vampiro. Palabras interesantes y profundas son las que escucho durante la proyección, me adentro más en la historia al experimentarlas, me ocurre algo similar al contemplar la interpretación de Ben Foster y Vicky Krieps, todos están geniales, pero ellos están en negrita. Ese final lagrimoso es conmovedor. Levinson recrea una historia real en la que podemos aprender de dos amores en períodos de tiempo muy lejanos de uno al otro, una inquietante decisión que convierte la supervivencia en culpabilidad y traición ligada al amor. Dónde no sale de lo convencional pero sí que aumenta su valor en comparación con este año. Es probablemente su mejor película en la última década. RICHIE VALERO, SEPTIEMBRE 2023, ESPAÑA.

It baffles me how much the human body can endure when its mind is focused on survival. Whats even more baffling is how that very mind can betray you when the battle is over. I can't even begin to imagine the pain and suffering the Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. I know this may be controversial… but fuck Hitler! This film is based on a True Story and it will really put our last couple of years in perspective. We think high gas prices, social distancing and family members passing due to the pandemic is so terrible. How about being treated like a mangy dog, having to watch your loved ones burned, gassed and in Hafts case be forced to fight in a gladiator style boxing circuit for the amusement of the German soldiers. Oh, and I know your family is dead but now you MUST fight your best friend to the death. Think about that next time you bitch about wearing a mask to eat at a restaurant. You'd imagine that coming out of all that suffering alive and well would make you feel ecstatic and appreciative of your life, but more commonly you are a victim of Survivors Guilt. Imagine that. You have quite literally made it out of hell due to how focused your mind was on survival and once free your mind betrays you and makes your daily life an internal hell. Bio-pics are made because the story is worth telling. How the director tells that story is where things can get dicey. The story can be overshadowed by shitty directing or be magnified by a great director. The Survivor is an example of the story being better than the movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie is still good but I think its only good because of the story itself is so compelling and then is carried by Ben Foster's incredible performance.

The survivor doesn't have the sparkling spectacles of liberation but it got a clear revelation of survivor's day-to-day trauma. What's remarkable about this story is how it translates to modern lives dwelling in the cutthroat society, the guilt, helplessness and questionable consciences when thrown together produces a truly dramatic visualization of a life lived in two extremes in two different eras. Hertzka's painful struggle to start his life from where it was uprooted and Schneider's sociopathic obsession to live on his desires is a clear provocative constrasts. The remarkable performances, flawless story and clever visual set-up put this movie higher up in ranks.

This sports movie was great. Ben Foster, Vicky Krieps, Billy Magnussen, Peter Sarsgaard, John Leguizamo, Danny Devito, and the rest of the cast did a great job in this movie. This true story about boxer Harry Haft was dramatic, tragic, and terrifying. It's about fighting to survive during a dark time in history. If you haven't seen this movie yet, check it out sometime. It's a definite must see.

Racconto ad altissimo impatto emotivo, di un personaggio su cui si potrebbe discutere per anni ed anni senza mai trovare un comportamento adeguato. Questo infinito potenziale emozionale non viene totalmente sfruttato a causa di una regia un po' vecchio stile nei colori e nelle inquadrature e a causa di un trucco non perfetto a Ben Foster, soprattutto in faccia, gonfiato in maniera poco naturale e che lascia trasparire poco le sue emozioni. La divisione del racconto in continui cambi temporali è una scelta classica per il genere ma non funziona il bianco e nero sul periodo di "prigionia" che finisce per togliere troppo impatto visivo ed emozionale alla realtà. Toccante e ben costruito il finale.

movie really hit my heart strings. Ive recommended this movie to everyone. although i wish i got to see him win some matches after he survived.

The fact that this SS officer and Harry had a very complicating relationship where Harry had to box to save his life while fighting other Jews in the concentration camp was gut wrenching to watch. However, it almost felt like you were there with Harry understanding why his mind kept going back to that time. It may have been one of the first cases shown of PTSD as most survivors movies don't address the horrors or the memories they are haunted with. Ben Fosters performance is amazing wrestling with the present being a boxer and the original reason he had to box to live. It is a wonderful love story that really has a tearful ending for someone that knows the Holocaust to watch. spoil alert he finally tells his son what happened to him and I cried because so many children of survivors don't ever get to hear the words and are left wondering. Bravo to the actors and writers of this true story that lets you in to part of history that is now being questioned. It did happen and it was real. Thank you HBO for showing this movie.

(Mauro Lanari) A solid and tough film directed with classicism by veteran Levinson. In his last book, Primo Levi formulated a general anthropology divided between "The Drowned and the Saved": why "saved"? If anything, precisely "survivors" or "floating". Levi belonged to the second category and for that felt a crushing shame, an insult to his own ethical values. Harry Haft's story looks a lot like his, so, between hammer and anvil, Harry chooses the hammer paying the price of a traumatized life. The similarities with "Raging Bull" (Scorsese 1980) are inferior to those with "The Deer Hunter" (Cimino 1978): duels are fratricidal, existence is hellish even without Nazis (the encounter with Leah will only happen when she is about to die of cancer), and "God Bless America" is the choral song that seals both films (but sung here in Yiddish).

Based upon the life of Harry Haft, Ben Foster stars as the boxing Auschwitz survivor. Haft was taught how to box to the death by SS guard Dietrich Schneider, for the amusement of the guards. The winner kept their life while the loser had a bullet put through his head. The film is a character study into the traumas of war and PTSD and it's incredibly untenable what the survivors not only had to endure during the war in order to survive, but also the daily nightmares they experienced afterwards. Ben Foster has always been an underrated actor in my opinion, who turns in a passable performance as Haft, who sometimes comes off as gruff, but it's understandable with the knowledge of what he's lived through. He survives the camp to find his one true love in Leah (Dar Zuzovsky). After the war, he desperately seeks any information as to her whereabouts and even calls out soon-to-be heavyweight champion of the world Rocky Marciano (Anthony Molinari) in a desperate attempt to garner attention to his name in hopes she'll read about it. During this time he somewhat befriends/berates Miriam Wofsoniker (Vicky Kriep) who assists him with finding Leah. Years later with an empty feeling inside of him that Leah is dead, much like his family, Harry settles down and starts a family with Miriam. The subject matter is contagious for those with an infinity towards history, as a boxer who learned to fight for his life within the confines of the Auschwitz death camp, who then turns professional in the States and has the opportunity to fight Rocky Marciano. Foster comes off as a damaged man, detached much of the time but also recalls many of the horrors he's survived easily. The trauma the man has endured can never fully be appreciated and the last 15 minutes of the film will rip at your heartstrings. Seeing individuals like this pick up the pieces of their life and move on, only reinforces how trivial the problems we have in modern society today.

The Survivor is a movie that I stumbled upon while browsing movies on HBO Max. I watched the trailer, and I was immediately intrigued. Coming from a Jewish family, stories of the Holocaust have always fascinated me. I also felt immediately drawn to the movie because it is based on a true story. The Survivor is the story of a man named Harry Haft, who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II. Harry was forced to fight against his fellow prisoners for the amusement of the Nazi soldiers. These gladiatorial boxing matches fought to the death. Every time Harry fought, he was fighting for his life. The movie is set mostly in the present, which is 1949, and shows flashbacks to what Harry endured at the concentration camps. Each flashback provides a glimpse into why Harry is the way he is. When Harry gets out of Auschwitz, he tries to find his former girlfriend using an organization dedicated to helping survivors track down news of their loved one. This is when Harry meets Miriam, who would later become his wife. Throughout the movie, we get to see the relationship between Harry and Miriam and how PTSD can affect a relationship person. The acting in this movie was superb. Ben Foster as the lead was phenomenal. The supporting cast was great as well. Billy Magnussen played the Nazi solider who recruited Harry to fight in the concentration camps. Vicky Krieps played Harry’s wife, Miriam. They both gave outstanding performances. The movie was powerful and brought forth a whole slew of emotions. Seeing what the prisoners at Auschwitz had to endure, and what Harry had to do to survive was heartbreaking. The movie also shows the guilt and struggles that Harry carried with him into the future. Harry fought to survive at Auschwitz only to wrestle with the guilt of having survived. Although The Survivor at times is hard to watch, in my opinion, it is a must see!

Excellent true story. Hard to watch at times and heartbreaking, but also very touching. Ben foster was fantastic as always.

Touching, made me cry, or at least tear. Casting of certain Jewish parts played by non-jews. Made what we are experiencing seem lite by comparison even though it's not.

good movie for a dark subject and time in history.

Powerful film about the emotional toll the concentration camps took on the Jews trapped inside them during WWII. This film could've easily gotten a major theatrical release... but instead, it will need to be watched on HBO or HBO Max. Ben Foster's powerful portrayal as Harry Haft should not be forgotten come awards time.

Starts a little slow but I promise if you see it through you will see such remarkable unforgettable scenes. Ben Foster continues to be one of the very best actors of our time. This story brought me to tears on multiple occasions in the second half. I felt the role so much thru Fosters brilliant acting.

April 27, 2022 "The Survivor" tells the equally touching and gut-wrenching story of boxer Harry Haft, who survived an incomprehensible five years in six different concentration camps during the Holocaust. Haft's journey from lovestruck Polish teenager to Nazi prisoner to heavyweight pugilist to difficult husband-father is an engrossing and tumultuous one, and screenwriter Justine Juel Gillmer and director Barry Levinson pull no punches when it comes to painting Haft's story as grim, harrowing, and filled with traumatic memories that are painfully everlasting. In fact, the film's most salient virtue is the way it gets us to empathize with Haft's lifelong ebb and flows to reconcile his past with his current state of being, and for this reason, his experience is an important and resonating one. To be sure, "The Survivor" isn't the most original film to come out about the Holocaust or the perpetual effects it had on those fortunate enough to live through it and eventually find freedom. Both Hollywood and the international film scene have told countless stories about this most dark and ugly period in human history, and indeed "Holocaust Movie" has practically become a genre unto itself, with films such as "Sophie's Choice," "Schindler's List," "The Grey Zone," and "The Pianist" being among the most well-known and celebrated, and rightly so. But with so many examples, there inevitably come conventions and tropes, and "The Survivor" subscribes to many of them. Granted, its allegiance to the tried-and-true "Holocaust Movie" formula isn't to a fault, but it does make us feel like we've treaded this territory before, which perhaps prevents the film from having a more striking visceral effect. Don't get me wrong: George Steel's deep and beauteous black and white cinematography; Hans Zimmer's moving score, featuring mostly slow, swaying, stringed instrumentation; Miljen ‘Kreka' Kljaković's large-scale production design, which recreates not only the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp but also 1950s New York City; and Angelina Avallone's convincing makeup are emotive and collectively transport us to the film's many times and places. This comes as no surprise, since Levinson has a knack for making movies that faithfully recreate distinct eras and locations, including "Good Morning Vietnam," "Avalon," "Sleepers," and "Liberty Heights." But the visual and aural elements of "The Survivor" are essentially in line with what we're used to when it comes to Holocaust dramas, and even though they may be accurate, a part of us simply accepts what Levinson and his collaborators present while another part of us wishes they'd taken a more daring stylistic approach and offered a look and feel that went outside the norms. Ironically, given the gravity of the material, the sounds and visuals make us feel too comfortable, probably because we're used to them when it comes to this type of story. Still, with the production values being technically great but perhaps just emotionally adequate, where the film comes alive and where it strikes us at the core is with its human components. No matter the accuracy of the events—Gillmer's screenplay is based on the biography, "Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano" by Haft's eldest son, Alan—"The Survivor" relates its main character's physical, mental, and emotional battles in a way that feels genuine and universal. Much of this is owed to the performance of Ben Foster, who, despite being twice the age of the real Harry Haft during the time this story takes place, captures the spirit, anguish, fear, and sadness of a man faced with a seemingly insurmountable and lifelong path toward absolution and inner peace. The film opens with a pensive, middle-aged Haft walking along the beach in Tybee Island, Georgia. Why he's here and what he's deliberating we'll eventually learn. Cut from this tranquil moment in 1963 to 1941 Poland, where Haft walks playfully alongside his girlfriend, Leah (Dar Zuzovksy). Moments later, he witnesses Leah being taken away by a truckload of Nazi soldiers. Shortly thereafter, Haft himself, not yet 16 years-old, would also be sent to a concentration camp and he'd subsequently spend years wondering what happened to his beloved Leah. We catch up with Haft in 1949, after he's immigrated to America and established a respectable yet relatively low-profile boxing career in Coney Island, NY. His older brother Peretz (Saro Emirze), also a Holocaust survivor, serves as Harry's manager and Bill "Pepe" Miller (John Leguizamo) is one of his trainers. Haft's story is well known enough (an announcer proclaims, "The pride of Poland, the survivor of Auschwitz…"), but Emory Anderson (Peter Sarsgaard), an insistent journalist, doesn't believe the public knows Haft's real story—that is, the story of how he survived the camps. "Nobody wants to hear about the camps," Harry tells him. "Well, they shouldn't have a goddamn choice," Anderson retorts. Despite the objections of his brother and others from the Jewish community, Haft agrees to give Anderson an interview and speak about the horrific situations he faced while under Nazi authority. Haft's motivation is two-fold: not only could the publicity land him a fight against current heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano, which would help Haft to stay afloat financially, but more importantly, with his name gracing the papers, it would make it that much more possible for Leah to find him—if she's still alive. At this point, Harry has already spent eight years looking for his childhood sweetheart, and unlike his other unfound family members who perished, Haft doesn't believe Leah is gone. He beseeches the clerk at the local rabbi's office to keep looking, although to no avail, but it is here where Harry meets Miriam Wofsoniker (Vicky Krieps), who sympathizes with Harry's plight and even expresses a romantic interest in this vulnerable and clearly scarred soul. "The Survivor" uses Haft's recollection of Auschwitz, his preparation to fight Marciano, and his quest to find the truth about Leah as its narrative engine, and together, these make for a compelling drama. We listen to and really absorb Haft's remarkable story as the film crosscuts between his past and present lives and come to realize both are too much for any human to bear, because in both instances Haft takes an unfathomable beating, both physically and mentally. The Auschwitz scenes, as you can imagine, are stark and brutal. We witness the forced labor, physical abuse, and often-routine killings inflicted upon the emaciated prisoners by the hands of the Nazis, and it's all shattering. We come to learn Haft endured this ordeal after an SS officer named Schneider (Billy Magnussen) made note of his physical strength and ability to throw a punch, and subsequently offered Haft the opportunity to box other prisoners. However, Schneider makes it clear that Haft doesn't really have a good choice, that it's either fight and entertain the other Nazi soldiers (who take bets) or be killed. Haft submits to the former, and just as he fights his fellow inmates, the film hits us hard because it gets us to think about what we would do if forced to make such a devastating decision. "Sophie's Choice" and "The Grey One" dealt with similarly disturbing choices. If faced with death, would we agree to terms that harm others if it meant we get to live? Haft's experience in the camps inevitably leads to his post-traumatic stress disorder later in life, and "The Survivor" touches our nerves even more during Haft's present day, when simple, quotidian moments, whether it's someone pounding on a door, lightbulbs from cameras flashing, or looking through a keyhole, trigger his dreadful memories from the camps. The film is very powerful in the way it translates Haft's trauma and gives us a sense that living is something he must endure rather than appreciate. While Haft's steadfast determination to forge on is encouraging, it doesn't necessarily steer the film toward an ending that's necessarily about finding happiness so much as acceptance. Adding to the film's well-roundedness are its moments of hope and even humor. For instance, despite Haft's struggles, he forms a loving relationship with Miriam, who shows him that life going forward doesn't have to be bleak. Foster and Krieps' chemistry is palpable on screen, and the scenes when Harry and Miriam walk, argue, dance, and decide to "share each other" with their other partners (Miriam is also wondering if her first love is still alive) are honest and heartwarming. Other sweet and endearing moments, including the film's closing scene, show communities of Jewish people expressing love and gratitude toward one another, specifically at weddings, and they're ennobling. One of the film's more light-hearted scenes takes place when Haft sits around a picnic table with other "minority" men, each of whom has experienced prejudice in his own way, as they all sort of compare notes. There's Charley Goldman (Danny DeVito), Rocky Marciano's trainer who agrees to help Haft and who also happens to be Jewish; Louis Barclay (Paul Bates), an African American man and Haft's other trainer; and the aforementioned Miller, who's Latin American. Barclay quips to Harry, "Whites here don't like us because of the color of our skin, but you people, you look just the same as the damn Nazis. White!" Miller goes on to ask Harry if there are any "Spics and Negroes over there in Poland," and when Haft confirms no, the others agree it can only mean one thing: "No good food." Even though many scenes in "The Survivor" feel obligatory because it's both a film about the Holocaust and tells the story of a boxer (for instance, we get the inevitable training montage), most of what the film offers feels truthful. It sheds light not only a remarkable individual but also the greater idea that it's human nature to carry our memories with us and that one of life's dominant struggles is letting go of them, which can be as difficult as it is relieving. "The Survivor" encourages us to accept that letting go isn't always possible it's also not impossible. We just have to do what we can to survive. Available on HBO Max 04/27/22

Viewer reviews are a joke, this film was excellent and moving. Great acting . Reviewers complaining about the boxing scenes don't understand what they are watching. Tough subject matter handled brilliantly with an excellent cast. With all the crap out there today this film is worth your time.

Ben Foster deserves an Oscar!!!