There is absolutely no doubt that "The Survivor" is a fascinating, harrowing, and poignant Holocaust story. At times, the film features concepts/ideas that are truly significant and worthy of investigation. Sadly, the overall product comes off as quite messy and doesn't allow for the type of meaningfulness that could have sprung from such a project.
For a very basic overview, "The Survivor" tells the real-life story of Harry Haft (Ben Foster), a Jew who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp by fighting-to the death-other prisoners under the handling of a guard (played by Billy Magnussen) in a boxing scheme. Later in life, Harry pursues a professional boxing career-including a bout with Rocky Marciano-and is helped by Miriam Wofsoniker (Vicky Krieps) and journalist Emory Anderson (Peter Sarsgaard) to tell his story and potentially find the woman he was separated from before the War.
There are certainly scenes in this movie that are quite poignant. A conversation between Haft and the guard in a genuine moment is particularly riveting, as are the times where Haft must internally grapple with the conflict of survival versus essentially dooming fellow Jews at his own fists. I had never heard of Haft's story before, and it is truly fraught with emotional depths to plumb.
But in this telling, the filmmakers make a number of decisions-perhaps due to want of covering Haft's entire life in just over two hours of runtime-that water down or oddly render Haft's high-drama life. First and foremost is to make the emotional center of the film all about Haft's search for his first love-yet viewers are never treated to more than a single, extremely brief scene (more of a flash, really) constructing that relationship. For as heavily as "The Survivor" leans on this throughout, this is almost an unforgivable way to set up the narrative. The movie also (especially towards the end) jumps back-and-forth in time quite frequently and not always in chronological order. Though I could clearly see the film makers' intent, the experience proved rather jarring and difficult to piece together.
I hate giving 'The Survivor" a rating as low as 5/10 stars, because the story behind its creation is so emotionally dynamic. But here, director Barry Levinson & screenplay writer Justine Juel Gillmer largely miss the mark in terms of wringing that emotion out of the material and making it compelling viewing. All the pieces are present-just jumbled up and without much sense as to how they fit together in the overall narrative.
Tingnan pa 
