MOVIE REVIEW: "The Survivor" Doesn’t Give Itself A Swinging Chance
6/12 ForReel Score | 2.5/5 Stars
If you log onto HBO Max this week, you’ll find not one, not two, but three new movies by Barry Levinson waiting for you. There’s a pretty good film about the Holocaust, a mediocre boxing movie, and a downright disappointing family drama. These three movies, all clashing in tone and story, have been squashed into a singular film: The Survivor.
Sporting an overwhelmingly talented cast of Ben Foster, Vicky Krieps, John Leguizamo, Danny DeVito, Billy Magnussen, and Peter Sarsgaard, The Survivor tells the true-ish story of Harry Haft - “the pride of Poland, the survivor of Auschwitz.” Haft (Foster), a Polish Jew, made a name for himself in the post-WWII United States as a professional boxer and an inspiring example of courage and resilience. Haft’s story is a remarkable one. Taken prisoner by the Nazis following the invasion of Poland, Haft was hand selected by an Auschwitz officer for his physique and strength. His job - to fight. Haft was forced to bare-knuckle box other prisoners of war in fights to the death. Over the course of his capture, until his ultimate escape fleeing a death march in 1945, Haft fought and won 76 fights. In the most literal terms, Harry Haft fought to survive.
That survival makes up the backbone of Levinson’s film. Told in black-and-white flashbacks, Haft’s time as a prisoner of war is not downplayed. The grotesque living conditions; the physical, mental, and spiritual toll he paid; the cold brutality of the Third Reich is displayed in measured and memorable fashion. Foster is transformative here, fully embodying a scared and angry man, one who must reconcile his own will to live with the reality of his gruesome circumstances. Magnussen, who plays the Nazi officer, is equally good in this storyline - callous, smiley, seeming to enjoy his performance a tad too much. They are a fantastically compelling duo, delivering what is a unique and heartbreaking Holocaust story, the likes of which has yet to be adequately put to screen.
Why then does The Survivor throw away so much of its two-hour and eight-minute runtime with the middling and oftentimes boring story of Haft’s post-war life and failed professional boxing? Here is where the bulk of the movie takes place. An anti-climactic boxing career, a heartless search for lost love, a dispassionate attempt at a family drama in the final thirty minutes overload this film. It’s as if Barry Levinson couldn’t help but put (at least) three films into one. In doing so, he beats up on the best of them all.
What could have been a clean cut character study of a man put through unknowable torture ends up being just another bloated biopic - its fat too forgettable, its meat too scarce. Foster may pack one hell of a punch in his performance, but the rest of the movie goes down without a swing.
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Acting/Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 0 | Reviewer’s Preference - 1 | What does this mean?