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The Survivor
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Incredible true story of Holocaust survivor; violence.
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The Survivor
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Based on 2 parent reviews
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Extremely empowering story
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What's the Story?
THE SURVIVOR tells the true story of Hertzko "Harry" Haft (Ben Foster), a survivor of Auschwitz. In the years after World War II, Haft lives in America and fights with some success on the boxing circuit for being an Auschwitz survivor. His goal is to fight a match against champion Rocky Marciano, in the hopes that the fight will generate enough press that he'll be able to track down Leah, his first love who was taken away by the Nazis while they were still in Poland. A journalist interviews Haft, and uncovers the horrors of what Haft endured in Auschwitz, including being forced to box fellow prisoners to the death for the entertainment of bored Nazi officers. As he grows into middle age, Haft suffers from PTSD, haunted by the traumas of his past and the uncertainty of what happened to Leah, who he believes is still alive.
Is It Any Good?
This is an incredibly powerful film about the horrific lengths one man went to survive Auschwitz. The Survivor tells the story of Hertzko "Harry" Haft, a New York boxer in the late 1940s trying to use his fledgling boxing career as a way to track down his lost love who was taken by the Nazis and never heard from again. Unlike his family, he believes she's still alive, and Haft tries to create a new life for himself and his family in the United States. What The Survivor so movingly presents are the challenges in surviving not only past trauma, but also surviving living with that trauma in the years after, particularly after World War II, when a silent stoicism was believed to be the best way for men at the time to live with their pain.
While intense, the movie has some moments of humor, particularly from Danny DeVito, who plays Rocky Marciano's trainer. As Haft, Ben Foster turns in an extraordinary performance, capturing the nuances of a good man forced to do bad things, an imperfect man struggling to accept that the past he endured cannot be forgotten, and, for his son and future generations, nor should it be. The Survivor deserves a place among the very best movies to depict not only the Holocaust and its victims, but also the battles that raged within those who lived to fight another day.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in The Survivor. How does the violence reveal the horrors prisoners of Auschwitz faced, and how does it show why Harry suffers from PTSD in the years after the end of World War II?
How does the movie show the ways in which survivors of the traumas of concentration camps and World War II dealt with their pain in the years after World War II, long before PTSD was acknowledged as an illness requiring medical attention?
What are the many ways in which survival is presented as the theme of the movie? How does this idea of being a "survivor" change for Harry over time?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: April 28, 2022
- Cast: Ben Foster , Peter Sarsgaard , Billy Magnussen
- Director: Barry Levinson
- Studio: HBO Max
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts , History
- Run time: 129 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: Disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.
- Last updated: November 1, 2022
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