Boxing A Metaphor For Life

There are action sports movies and there are movies where sports is used to focus our attention on something much bigger than a game. The movie "Triumph of the Spirit" is in the second category. You won't find yourself rooting for anybody, only hoping that the combatants can endure the pain and suffering of their hopeless death camp incarceration.

The fact this movie is based on the actual world war II life experiences of Jewish-Greek boxer Salamo Arouch makes it all the more fascinating. This is truly a boxing movie like no other. Correction: This is really not a boxing movie at all. It is a survival movie.

This review is from: Triumph of the Spirit

Enjoyed this movie very much. The concentration camp situation has been seen in film many times (The Grey Zone), but this movie throws in the "boxing for survival" piece, and thanks to Willem Dafoe's incredible acting the movie becomes distinctive. With boxing being more a sport of survival than one of competition, I thought the story a perfect metaphor for the overall jewish holocaust survivors. Not only does a boxer fight against a crafty and often cruel opponent, but he must fight the urge of his own body and soul crying out to him to quit and give up the fight.

Triumph of the Spirit strips back the flesh to reveal that crying soul doing whatever he or she has to in a situation where only the strong and enduring survive.

Great performances by veteran actors Edward James Olmos and Robert Loggia. There are hidden moments in this film where the all seeing human spirit is silently captured in the eye contact between the actors. It is in these exhchanges that I felt the truest impact and challenge the holocaust had on these victims and their oppressors. Faith, hope and compassion have taken a holiday off and left humanity with it's primal instincts of survival.

Bloodsport At Auschwitz

"What kept me alive was a burning determination to someday tell the world what I saw at Auschwitz. I am sure I had moments when I wanted to die. But being here now to tell what happened makes me feel good about being alive."

Salamo Arouch