Movie Type: Interpersonal Relationships, Social History
Themes: Righting the Wronged, Crisis of Conscience, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Arnost Lustig
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
Two survivors of WWII atrocities meet in Fighter, an emotional road-trip documentary from director Amir Bar-Lev. The film follows friends Jan Wiener and Arnost Lustig as they journey from Prague to Italy -- the exact path that Wiener used to escape from a Nazi labor camp. Lustig is an author who seeks to write about his friend Wiener's experiences, but over the course of the film, each man shares his tale of oppression, escape, and emotional recovery. Both men recount tales of watching their parents die in ghettos, and being told that they wouldn't live to see adulthood. Far from being agreeable old chums, however, the two men philosophically bicker; after one such argument, they vowed that they would never speak to each other again, and filming halted until the two reconciled. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Review
Fighter was shot inexpensively on video without much cinematic flair; it covers historical topics that have been addressed in greater depth in other documentaries; and it doesn't offer remarkable detective work, surprising revelations, or even a satisfying sense of closure. What it does offer is a fascinating portrait of the combative relationship between two friends, Jan Wiener and Arnost Lustig. Wiener is the "fighter" of the movie's title; he survived both the Holocaust and a Communist prison camp because he is a pugnacious man who refuses to surrender in the face of adversity. He draws the strength to survive from his anger at the injustices he has suffered; indeed, he credits his hatred of a smug Nazi collaborator with enabling him to survive his ordeals during WWI. Lustig, who was imprisoned in a concentration camp during the war, is also a survivor. However, he is more of a moral relativist and bon vivant; his personal anecdotes are often laced with gallows humor and wry observations about life, and he even describes how his father used to laugh when hearing Hitler's speeches on the radio. Lustig likes to tease Wiener about his handsomeness and ask him provocative questions about his fight to survive. He may be asking these questions because of jealousy over Wiener's physical appearance and uncompromising bravery; he may be asking them due to his own sense of guilt for joining the Communist party; or he may be asking them because he is naturally inquisitive; in any case, these questions and remarks produce a lot of tension between the two. This is bad for their friendship but good for the film, which benefits considerably from the clash between these two men's temperaments. Indeed, the main reason to watch this movie is to observe this conflict; the filmmakers found a natural, unaffected, and dramatically interesting way to examine the Holocaust through two different perspectives by letting these two men argue about it, both directly and indirectly. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Cast
Arnost Lustig
Credit
Amir Bar-Lev - Director, Peter Broderick - Executive Producer, Jeff Daniel - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gary Griffin - Cinematographer, Jonathan Crosby - Producer
Fighter is a documentary film about Arnošt Lustig and Jan Wiener, two CzechJews living in America who return to the Central Europe to revisit their traumatic past. The film was directed by Amir Bar-Lev.
