Post World War II, Harry Haft is a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by memories and guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.... (Full plot summary below)
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Post World War II, Harry Haft is a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by memories and guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.
Leave your thoughts about The Survivor.
| RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzLike its lead character, and the actor who plays him, Barry Levinson's The Survivor initially presents as familiar and comprehensible. The biographical drama then proceeds to surprise its audience, not with plot twists—we're told at the outset what the character's issues are, and have a pretty good idea of where the story is going to end up—but with how it keeps finding little ways to complicate and deepen every relationship and moment. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperWe believe every frame of this performance, whether Harry is an emaciated figure in the ring in the concentration camp, a formidable opponent as a pro fighter in America or an older man who seems to have found some measure of peace in his life, though the horrific memories will never die. |
| The PlaylistJason BaileyThe Survivor is occasionally infected by the aridness of the handsome, well-made historical film — it feels old-fashioned, in both the complimentary and pejorative senses. But some of that is purposeful and even a little subversive. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanThe Survivor is a Holocaust movie that’s fresh enough to make you laugh between the tears, the gasps of terror, the long road out of the inferno. |
| The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeBen Foster goes through more than one striking transformation here, changing body and soul while neither shying away from nor overdramatizing the uglier aspects of the man’s life. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerIt’s a long film, and the payoff might not be enough for some. But as a moody story about moral dilemmas and moving beyond the past, The Survivor outlasts its 129 minutes. |
| TheWrapSteve PondThe Survivor needs to be an unpleasant movie to watch, because you don’t want to simply use Nazi atrocities to advance the plot. So Levinson doles them out, makes them shock and then ties them into the postwar Haft standing in a ring and enduring merciless beatings. |
| CNNBrian LowryThe underlying story is better than the movie in “The Survivor,” but that material is so harrowing as to win on what amounts to a split decision. Timed to Holocaust Remembrance Day, the film isn’t equal to the awards bait HBO has traditionally offered in the TV-movie genre, but it should inspire plenty of googling about the remarkable tale of Harry Haft. |
| Screen DailyTim GriersonThere’s no shortage of familiar elements here, and yet one can’t deny the empathy Levinson brings to the material. |
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergWhile Levinson is not working from his own history as in “Diner” or “Avalon,” The Survivor, partly because of its subject matter and postwar milieu, feels of a piece with those overtly personal films. Whatever its flaws, it’s powerful. |
