User Reviews

Ben foster is one of the best young actors. If you've seen his movies you will know. His transformation in this movie from the black and white to the color is incredible. It doesn't even look like him. All the other actors were great. The story was a good one but yes had some slow parts. But the parts of the camp were great. So much feeling all the way til the end which was really messed up. The things they made people do was sick. But this is our history unfortunately. Definitely worth a watch.

This is a bitter sweet tale of horrors, love, guilt and redemption. There's also some boxing.

It's extremely well acted.

It's well worth watching all the way to the end.

They DO still make good movies. This is one, & i can understand many folk rating it a 10 Films based on truth are always good very well acted and good to see danny divito in a serious role.

This is not a war movie. It's not just a love story either.

This is a film about enduring memories, and how we live with them, suffer them and move on from them.

The story is simple, a man looking for his lost love, but falls in love while looking. But he can never forget... The acting is beyond the pale and I truly don't understand how Foster has not had an oscar yet. He reminds me of a young DeNiro in the way he takes on all of his roles.

The photography is absolutely exquisite, the direction superb, the dialogue always wise and meaningful Every performance in the film is great but Foster is out of the league altogether with his.

If you love cinema and acting, watch it.

With an intriguing true story and a notable team behind the camera, it was disappointing at the average execution throughout. Starting off, Ben Foster as the title character is brilliant in his portrayal. He brought a brutally raw and emotional depiction of a survivor of Auschwitz as well as the side effects of what those events could do to a person. The scenes that took place in the past were horrifying in their depiction. The cinematography and camera work allowed the feelings of each character to be present throughout. It was also enlightening to aspects of the Holocaust that haven't been fully explored in a film. However, where the film brilliantly succeeds in some areas, it sadly fails in others. The film feels as though it was split into two parts, having an intriguing first half, while the duration of the movie after feels unneeded. It made what could have been a great film, drawn out longer than it needs to be, making it at times boring to watch. There are also technical elements of the film that could have easily been fixed to make the film have more of an artistic edge. While there are minor spurts within the narrative, the majority of the film has a bland feel to it. Overall, where the film has plenty of brilliant aspects, it ultimately falters in an overly long runtime and bland execution, making for an experience that sadly has more ambition than it can offer.

"The Survivor"

"The Survivor" is based on the incredible true story of Harry Haft (Ben Foster), who after being sent to Auschwitz, survives not only the unspeakable horrors of the camp, but the gladiatorial boxing spectacle he's forced to perform with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his captors. Unbeknownst to those who try to destroy him, Haft is driven by the most important reason any man has to survive, a quest to reunite with the woman he loves. After a daring escape, he makes his way to New York, where he succeeds in using his boxing skills to establish a name for himself in the hopes of finding his one true love. His indomitable spirit lands him in the ring with boxing legends like Rocky Marciano (Anthony Molinari) as he fights to make sense of his past and reclaim the life that was stolen from him.

Harry's story begins in Belchatow, where he's in love with the spirited Leah (Dar Zuzovsky). As he later toils in the concentration camps, Harry is tortured by the uncertainty of what has become of Leah, last seen two years ago being hauled away by Nazis. Leah as someone who chose to be optimistic by choice, not circumstances. A small boy lies awake at night, curious and frightened by the moans and muffled cries emanating from the man fitfully sleeping across the hall. He mumbles in an unfamiliar language and seems to be recalling a horrific experience. Not until many years later does the boy learn the reason for the tormented man's nightmares. Every night he tossed and turned and screamed in horror. It's a seminal experience and it really stayed with us, but in those days no one talked about things, and we never even knew who he was. The opening at the camp is a 1940s' black and white photojournalistic style with lots of hand-held shots, as if we're just picking up moments that we happen to catch. Harry's memories are jagged and rough, with no true continuity.

Nazi camp commander Dietrich Schneider (Billy Magnussen) is an educated man whose intellect makes his depraved indifference to human suffering more acute. He relishes the pain he inflicts. Schneider runs dog fighting but, to him, the dogs are Jews. Schneider is a sick puppy. In the film, Schneider enters Haft's life after he intervenes to save his friend Jean (Laurent Papot) from a camp guard (Hans Peterson). Sensing the aggression in Haft, Schneider recruits him to compete against other Jewish prisoners in weekly boxing matches. Schneider's motivation is to entertain German officers and earn him some Reichsmarks betting on the fights. In exchange, Haft will receive special rations and privileges. Out of desperation and the sheer will to survive. Haft is moved to the infamous Polish work camp, Jaworzno. There, Harry receives crude boxing instruction from Schneider and begins a series of fights. There's a huge price to pay for his compliance. With every fight Harry wins, he sends another man to his death. Each fatality adds to his guilt and shame. As a prisoner, Harry's boxing skills allow him to survive from week to week. Against all odds he makes it out of the camp with a skill that he uses to try and escape the memories of the atrocities that colored his past.

When the story shifts to New York in 1949, we've more color entering the frames, but within that period style of film noir. And he finds everything else along the way. Living in a low-rent apartment in Brooklyn, Harry boxes with a relentless ferocity, no longer to keep his body alive, but his heart. This is not a quest for glory or ego. The Pride of Poland is fighting for love. With each bout, win or lose, Harry is fighting for attention. He wants his matches noted in the papers, his name mentioned in the streets. Essentially, his life after war is a journey to find Leah. In his search, Harry comes to rely on Miriam Wofsoniker (Vicky Krieps), who works for the Displaced Persons Service, a government office dedicated to reuniting immigrants with missing friends and family. Like Harry, Miriam knows what it means to lose a loved one, having lost her fiancé to the war. An increasingly frustrated Harry has been haunting the office for weeks, anxious for news. Miriam's empathetic kindness and gentle manner calm Harry, and the two form a bond over mutual loss. She's not looking for a fairy tale romance. Miriam is able to say 'yes, you can love more than one person. Even with Miriam's help, Harry struggles to assimilate in a new land.

As the story concludes in Florida in the 1960s, the palette is distinctly brighter and warmer, with lots of pastel tones. But even in this sunny environment, the darkness from the past manages to cast a lengthy shadow. Harry Haft's struggle against the forces of evil is reminiscent of where, if left unchecked, we could end up. His older brother Peretz (Saro Emirze), by contrast, has a much easier time adjusting to life in Florida, finding love, work, and becoming part of the community. Peretz learns to read and speak English quite well, which helps him integrate into society much better than his brother. He's concerned that Harry continues to live in the past. 'Put it away', he tells him. 'Don't dwell on it'. 'Leah is the past, let her go, let it all go'. But he can't. Peretz feels responsible for Harry. Peretz is injured along the death march and wants Harry to abandon him, but he refuses. Harry risks his own life to get his brother out. It was a tremendous act of love, and for the rest of his life Peretz tries to repay that debt by looking after him. Harry enables his manager Louis Barclay (Paul Bates) to arrange a match with the hardest hitter in the sport, Rocky Marciano. Harry is excited and confident that a victory over Marciano will lead to finding Leah. After losing to Marciano, Harry retires from boxing. He marries Miriam, but happiness continues to elude him. The smallest detail, such as the peephole in the hotel room where he goes for his honeymoon, plunges him back to his time in the camps. His failure to reconcile with his past begins to threaten his relationship with his son, Alan (Kingston Vernes)

Spanning three decades and two continents, it's both the story of Harry Haft and that of so many people who are forever colored by the events of their past as they strive to not only to survive, but to live. It's a story about survivors that had to make difficult choices to try and understand what that might have been like. What abject circumstances forced a person to do to survive. The goal is to wrangle this very complicated life and complex man into a form that would be respectful of his experience and illuminate the spirit of how and why he survived. What means it being forever haunted. How does it color your relationships with your wife and with your kids? The film wants to explore the struggle of hiding so much about your past so that those you love never know about the things you're exposed to because you want to try and protect them.

Though the film touches on great difficulties, it's one that suggests hope. The faith in finding your true love and remembering the past while finding a new kind of peace today. We are bombarded with images that remind us of the hate that exists in the world. We've always been curious about exploring the idea that when someone experiences something like a war or a concentration camp they don't just leave the experience and get on with their lives. Today, with anti-Semitism and systemic racism at an all-time high. The saying about those who do not remember history being condemned to repeat it, is more apt today than at any time. This is not a concise history but rather the traumatized, disjointed and sometimes abstract recollections of a man on a journey from survival to recovery. (6,5) Written by Gregory Mann.

A remarkable story of survival and the cost thereof.

Ben Foster (Harry Haft) is one of the excellent younger actors. I cannot think of a bad performance from him, and most especially in 'Hell And High Water.' His physical transformation herein and his dead-on accent are remarkable.

Billy Magnussen (Dietrich Schneider) is outstanding as the complicated Nazi who saves Haft's life.

Danny DeVito has a small but impactful role.

John Leguizamo, whom I cannot stand in any role, is not around long enough to ruin anything.

The major problem with the film is Barry Levinson's direction and the editing. The film drags. It is, at least, 30 minutes too long.

As we get farther away from the atrocities at Auschwitz, this movie gives us another perspective. An incredibly sad and hopeless circumstance for this man, yet he continues on.

Conveyed in the most boring way possible. The first 45 minutes or so is pretty engaging due to Ben Foster's performance. Around one hour in The Survivor starts to do significant jumps in time that are off putting. The pacing becomes glacially slow after the first hour and I stopped being engaged in the story. Scenes of lengthy conversations are drawn out with uninteresting cinematography (with the exception of the holocaust scenes) and static camera placements. The dialogue never pops out enough to make many of these conversations engaging. The performances really save this movie with Ben Foster showing off his chops and Danny Devito putting some much-needed energy in the few scenes he is in. Some scenes do stand out and are very profound, but others struggle under the weight of the stilted dialogue and a runtime that feels like three hours. Worth a watch if your expectations are in the right place, because there are parts of this story that are tragically beautiful. Unfortunately, The Survivor is a great story told in the most boring way possible.

I was not only in awe of this story but in awe of the remarkable performance by Ben Foster...also including and was great to see Danny Devito!!.. Leguizamo...Peter Sarasgard...awesome!!

Good movie I would recommend. But directors left out quite some stuff about his life. Could have filled the second part with it. Learning about real-life Harry Haft gives him more complexity as a person. The following is one of the things that's left out:

'The elderly couple harbored Harry Haft in their small farmhouse, believing he was an injured German soldier who had been separated from his unit. Haft killed the couple the following morning after the husband began to badger him with questions about his eyepatch and whether he was German. Haft feared that they would turn him in to German authorities. He collected food from their kitchen and ran off and hid in the Bohemian Forest for weeks.

Eventually, he ran out of food and searched for another farm. He again had the same plan of telling the owners that he was an injured German soldier who had been separated from his unit. When a middle-aged woman answered the door, she could immediately see that he was an imposter and called him out for it. "You're not a soldier. You're not even German," she told him. Stricken with fear that she would turn him in, he went into a blind rage and pulled out his revolver and shot the woman. He headed to the kitchen to steal food when he heard a noise. He found a boy of about 12 years of age, presumably the woman's son, hiding in a bedroom closet. Haft told the boy to stay in the closet and then he quickly fled the house.'

The story abt Haft could have been great. But unfortunately I found the script below par - and there is such lack of visuality in the movie I almost got provoked. It's full of clichés and obviousness. You always know how every single scene is going to end almost before it starts. The acting however is really good and solid throughout, Foster (always great) & Magnussen shine above the rest (mainly due to their scenes together show their intense great acting abilities (even if the scenes are predictable). But, overall - the talented group of actors have too little to work with - especially Sarsgaard and Krieps - their characters are so flat and predictable.

If it wasn't for the actors I would not even have watched it to the end..

This was a very difficult movie to watch, and I can't honestly say that I enjoyed it. The acting, the cinematography, and the history were exceptional. But the story is, understandably, dark. Like the title implies, this isn't a story of triumph over evil - it's a story of survival.

You will understand why Harry did the things he did. And you will grieve for him. But it's so difficult to digest what he went through. I never found myself disliking him, because I can't imagine what his life was like. But neither can I invest myself in his story, because I can't imagine what choices he was forced to make.

You probably won't enjoy this movie, but you should definitely watch it.

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.

A great performance by Ben Forster, his best to date makes this low budget bio pic compelling. But the last 30 minutes detract from the whole. As with all boxing movies the fights are unconvincing, trained boxers don't take it in turns to punch each other. The love story at the film's heat is also unconvincing, love just doesn't work that way. Still a solid 7 though, which is he high praise from me.

In harrowing true-tale drama "The Survivor" Ben Foster (solid) is a Holocaust survivor who endured & witnessed shocking atrocities at Auschwitz (shown in striking b&w flashbacks by veteran director Barry Levinson) where Nazi Billy Magnussen (good) forced him to 'box' fellow prisoners to entertain the guards. Still traumatised years later, in NY, he boxes again (inc vs Rocky Marciano (coached by Danny DeVito)) while seeking the love he lost before the war (aided by Peter Sarsgaard & Vicky Krieps)... but this is no fairytale. It's hard-hitting, noble fare, but does drag out too long (at 2hr 9mins) ultimately diminishing it's impact... and that is a shame.

The Survivor provides a fresh perspective on a known atrocity. Narratives surrounding the Holocaust are often meaningful, but this adds tragic layers of survivor's guilt and complicated love. Ben Foster (who is underappreciated) gives a conflicted and vulnerable performance while also sacrificing his body for the role. The third act awkwardly shifts away from boxing and the dialogue is straightforward, but the plot remains extremely humanizing. By maintaining a small scale and examining the protagonist's complexity, The Survivor makes unbelievable horrors relatable and recontextualizes a desensitized story. For that, the film stands out and succeeds.

Technically, The Survivor is mixed. The production switches eras and settings. The effects enhance aging and violence. Plus, there are emotional songs sung by characters, and moments of cinematic focus, angles, composition, and motion. Still, it's the sound (using abstract stings, J-cuts, and silence) and the editing (using smash cuts, match cuts, and wipes) that are the highlights here. Conversely, the lighting makes mistakes, the pacing is clunky, and the production is overly clean. Overall, The Survivor possesses strengths but never transcends its parts. It has important source material and a powerful lead, yet The Survivor's safe filmmaking limits its ceiling.

Writing: 9/10 Direction: 6/10 Cinematography: 7/10 Acting: 9/10 Editing: 7/10 Sound: 8/10 Score/Soundtrack: 7/10 Production Design: 8/10 Casting: 7/10 Effects: 7/10

Overall Score: 7.5/10.

There was too much of a romantic wokeness that interfered with the story line. Had it involved more of the struggle and survival of being in the camp or boxing, it would have been a better movie. Like all war related movies, such as 1917, it's woke-brokeness, is made to appease a particular kind of audience. Certainly not a mature one.

This was more of a gender neutral chick flick, or leaned towards it with the main character a bit stale. The SS officer, and Danny DeVito pulled this movie from sudden death.

OK movie but agonizingly slow. The last hour dragged tremendously. Foster's performance was excellent. He went From emaciated to pumped

Danny DeVito was excellent. As was Magnuson.

With 2/3 of young adult Americans having no idea that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust (according to the Guardian, 2020), movies like this are still relevant.

This is an incredible story of survival, just as a storyline itself.

The acting, script, and cinematography are supurb. The use of mixingcolor and b&w to move us between past and present is not a new technique, but is well done.

Well worth the watch.

Although there are some trite choices, the overall feeling and impression of the film leaves you feeling choked by the visceral realness of the trauma of Harry Haft. Scenes are concise and carefully placed to reveal the strife of someone living in galvanizing shame and remorse for his actions. The search for his love, who was taken to a camp for being Jewish in Poland during 1937, is his guiding light forward to survive.

Watch without expectation, and let the story wash over you. If you're reading this review even now while watching the film, you're likely to miss the effect. Yes there are old stars in it. Yes there are nose prosthetics. Yes we've seen many many many films about this Holocaust.

But this one is about a human life, surviving through the most extreme and dire circumstances. It's worth giving the excellent direction, cinematography, sound engineering, and deeply textured performance of Ben Foster a chance to grab at your heartstrings.

I think told in a linier fashion this might have been a little more entertaining but the constantly shifting in times along with a bit of boring dialog, the thing just drags a lot. Just because it's a Holocaust story doesn't mean it's a great film.

Of course Ben Foster gives an oscar-worthy performance, no doubt. It's just not a well written or directed film. I wanted to love this because I think the story is great and is something that needs to be told but it needs to be told better than it was here.

A better script and director and Ben Foster again, this could have been great.

For my 70 years of film watching I am sure this is the very best I have watched, the cinematography, the acting subtlety, the story line, amazing. A must for all at a time of present day pogroms by the Russkies.