There have been so many movies about the horrors of the Holocaust and so many movies about the hardscrabble lives of boxers that it's tough for director Barry Levinson to find a new approach to either of those subjects in his handsome but staid biopic The Survivor. That's not to say the true story of Auschwitz survivor and small-time boxer Hertzko "Harry" Haft isn't worth telling, or that Levinson and star Ben Foster don't depict a number of genuinely moving moments from Harry's life. But there's little inventiveness to The Survivor, and the unique aspects of Harry's story still mostly conform to the conventions of historical drama.
The Survivor's first half mostly focuses on the height of Harry's boxing career in 1949, when he's been living in Brooklyn for several years after fleeing his native Poland during the war. He's racked up enough wins to garner some regional attention, but he wants to raise his profile, in large part because he hopes that his former girlfriend Leah (Dar Zuzovsky) has also survived the war and may track him down if she sees his name in the newspaper. So he allows a local reporter (Peter Sarsgaard) to tell his tragic story, even if it means alienating other members of the Polish Jewish community in New York City.
Levinson uses black-and-white images for the flashbacks to Harry's time in the concentration camps, when a sadistic Nazi commander (Billy Magnussen) singled him out for his strength and fighting ability, and pitted him against fellow prisoners in brutal boxing matches for the guards' entertainment. To stay alive, Harry fought his fellow Jews, knowing that they would be put to death once he defeated them in the ring. Like other Jews who traded talents or favors for temporary amnesty from the Nazis, Harry carries guilt over what he did, even though he was cruelly placed in an impossible position.
It doesn't take much to make Holocaust scenes harrowing, and Levinson shows just enough of the expected atrocities to establish the context, while keeping the focus on the dynamic between Harry and his German tormentor. Levinson effectively cross-cuts between boxing matches in the two time periods, emphasizing the continuum between the harsh violence of the camps and the more controlled violence that Harry faces in sanctioned matches in the U.S. Mostly, the story plays out in standard boxing-movie sequences, leading up to a key match between Harry and future world champion Rocky Marciano.
The second half of the movie is less compelling, as Levinson and screenwriter Justine Juel Gillmer (working from a book by Harry's real-life son) start skipping through the years. Foster has sweet, understated chemistry with Vicky Krieps as aid worker Miriam Wofsoniker, who helps Harry in his efforts to track down Leah and then falls for him herself. There's a beautiful, touching scene of both characters acknowledging that their future romantic relationship will always be shared by the significant others they lost during the war.
But the story lacks focus as it shifts away from Harry's boxing career and toward his growing family, jumping across more than a decade in a short amount of time. Foster never overplays Harry's anguish or anger, keeping him realistically tense and raw, no matter how much time has passed since his traumatic experiences. Movies about Holocaust survivors often emphasize fragility, but Harry is tough and powerful, although that doesn't always serve him well. It makes for a fascinating contrast as he channels those feelings into boxing matches, and while The Survivor loses some of its impact when it transitions into a meandering domestic drama, Harry himself remains a captivating presence. ♦
THE SURVIVOR
