Triumph of the Spirit

This is an outstanding film with an excellent cast and the deepest power I have seen for a while. All I can say is see it for yourself and enjoy the best.


The best Holocaust Movie   January 19, 2001
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I agree with Leonard Ross, this movie is much better than Schindler's List. It is much more accurate and gritty and realistic in its portrayal of life in the camps. It is also a movie about family bonds, love and relationships and shows how these bonds were ravaged by what took place during WW II. Short of showing actual film footage in my classroom, this movie speaks volumes about the plight of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.


Better, more realistic than Schindler's List/Dafoe is Great   January 2, 2003
Adam Bernstein (Northwest, USA)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Triumph of the Spirit is probably the most realistic dramatic recreation of the horrors of Auschwitz I've seen. Director Robert Young is a pro at bringing controversial independent films to fruition, and Dafoe gives one of his best performances here. He portrays Salamo Arouch, a Greek Jewish Olympic boxer deported to Auschwitz. This true story was filmed on location at Auschwitz and Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and we are shown the death machine in full operation. Again there is an intensity and realism to this film that makes Schindler's List pale in comparison.

Edward James Olmos portrays a gypsy singer who becomes a key ally of Salamo; Gypsy entertains the SS and Salamo boxes for them while they hope for the Russians to come. One relatively minor flaw of the film is that the actors who portray SS and camp guards seem benign, almost nice at times, and I really doubt the actual female guards were as good looking as a few of the Frauleins here.

But a good touch of realism is the languages. The Germans speak German, the Poles speak Polish, and the Russians speak Russian all without subtitles (compare this to Schindler's List). And the make up job was great; the victims really looked like they were on death's door.

If you want to know about the Holocaust this drama is near the top of the list with the best documentaries. And Polanski's "The Piano" should be good too.


Even better than "Schindler's List"   April 7, 2000
Leonard Ross (Calgary, Canada)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen, and, alongwith Life is Beautiful, the best Holocaust movie made (in myopinion). Unlike Schindler's List, this movie portrays graphically what was really going on in the Auschwitz death camp (and other camps as well). It showed people undressing, preparing to enter the gas chamber. It showed the hellish daily life of the camp inmates--the agonizing work they had to do for the majority of each day, their horrific sleeping conditions, their deprivation of food, and the incredibly frequent beating and murdering of the prisoners by sick, sadistic Nazis. What really got to me the most was how the main character was actually getting thinner from starvation as the movie went on!

Scindler's List was a very dramatic, moving, well done movie, but it didn't accurately portray the true horrors of the Holocaust. The director was probably afraid to show anything that would be too graphic and disturbing for the general public and film critics. Spielberg was right in being cautious, as few people would be able to stomach a movie like Triumph of the Spirit. That is probably why this movie is virtually unknown.

My only complaint about this movie is that the main character gave a rather limp performance. A better actor in his place would have made this an absolutely perfect movie.


A deeply moving, excellent film... and a true story!   December 29, 1999
FTATA23@aol.com (Massachusetts)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This amazing story is beautifully acted by Dafoe and Loggia, as well as the other cast. It is my very favorite of the films I've seen portraying the tragedy of the death camps. I recommend it to anyone as a film not just of the triumph of the spirit, but as a triumph of love over suffering and loss. It may not be easy to watch such a film as this, but it is important for us to watch it and to learn from it.