The Survivor

"Harry Haft (Ben Foster) could have just been another story of a Jewish man lost to the clutches of Nazism and perished in concentration camps during World War II. However, something makes him survive to tell the story: boxing. That's right. The man's skill in doing well in a fighting ring makes the Nazis turn him into entertainment in the camps - and leave him there long enough to get out. This is the story of 'The Survivor'. Directed by Barry Levinson ('Rain Man'), the feature film anchors itself in two moments in Haft's life. First, in the concentration camp, when he uses boxing as his only weapon against the Nazis. Ben Foster is physically transformed. However, it is in these scenes that we have the greatest obviousness of 'The Survivor': the black and white, the way of portraying the concentration camps, the absolutely linear and unsurprising plot. It is the obvious of the obvious, as we have seen a lot around here and without any inspiration from Levinson. The second moment of the plot, signed by Justine Juel Gillmer ('The Wheel of Time'), deals with Haft's life in the US, struggling to become a professional boxer - not only to have a career, but also to try to become known enough for his girlfriend, also taken to the camps, to find him. It is the strong point of 'The Survivor', when we have the most interesting dramatic charge of the feature. Not only the fight for the boxing market, but also this complexity in forgetting the past, but always returning to it. A story that, although obvious, exudes overcoming. For inspiration."