Review: ‘The Survivor’ Centers on an Ugly Triumph over Impossible Odds

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.
* * *
Ben Foster (“3:10 to Yuma,” “Hell or High Water”) stars in “The Survivor”—a sometimes melancholy and often disturbing biopic of heavyweight boxer Harry Haft. Its HBO Max premiere on Wednesday (8:00 p.m. ET/PT) will coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.

Haft, a teenaged Polish Jew, was imprisoned by Nazis and sent to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. There, he survived during the height of World War II by providing ghoulish entertainment to bored officers. Audiences familiar with “The Pianist” may recall a similar arrangement. Muddy outdoor bareknuckle boxing matches were set up with a simple rule: win or die. Guided by undying hope and gifted with a heavy right hand, Haft defeated 76 opponents. All were summarily executed by their captors.

Director Barry Levinson (“Rain Man,” “Bugsy”) expertly moves back and forth between Haft’s youth in Poland, the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi death camps, Haft’s professional boxing career in America and his post-retirement life as a family man. An old adage states that “war is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” Such was Haft’s life even after regaining his freedom. Accordingly, Foster’s performance swings wildly, from shy and subdued to brutally violent. Foster is unrecognizable in appearance, voice and demeanor, undergoing an extreme physical transformation not unlike Christian Bale in “The Machinist.”

Haft’s clash against future world champion Rocky Marciano in 1949 would be the obvious climax of any combat-sports movie, but “The Survivor” ultimately is a film about painful choices. Do you choose your own life over someone else’s? Do you choose to keep going when there is no hope? Do you choose to allow your own trauma to damage your loved ones?

Levinson’s movie is based on the book “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano,” penned by the boxer’s own son, Alan Scott Haft.