Bokser i śmierć

I have a very distant relationship with boxing, and I would never believe that I would give a boxing-themed film five stars. Fortunately, this film is far from just being about the sport. The screenwriter managed to connect the concentration camp theme with a peculiar relationship and a sports match in an excellent way. The excellent performances of Štefan Kvietik and Manfred Krug as fighters in the ring and opposing positions of the concentration camp boss and prisoner are outstanding. The black-and-white image suits this film, and for its time, it is one of the highlights of Czechoslovak cinema. I overlook its minor flaws; this is a timeless film about human pride, responsibility, and bravery. Overall impression: 95%. (10.10.2015)

While cinema in the western half of the Czech Republic at this time was standing still, often making bland or timid projects and waiting for that famous little big change that was soon to come, the eastern half waited for nothing and almost unobtrusively produced work of extraordinary quality. The Boxer and Death, based on the short story of the same name by Polish author Józef Hen, presents a classic drama of the moral qualities of an individual in an exacerbated situation, with the backdrop of a concentration camp and the main protagonists, German commander Kraft and Slovak prisoner Komínek, united by their pre-war passion for amateur boxing. Individual situations and characters are portrayed as authentically as possible at the time, and Peter Solan is not afraid of trilingual dialogue in German, Slovak and Polish. The psychological miniature detailing is excellent. The character of Kraft's partner Helga is well written (Valentina Thiel is useless but in many ways smarter than her lover), but all the female characters are stylized into the latest trends of the early 1960s, and it's awkward how much this period failure brings down all the good this film can be proud of. What's the point of all the chilling detail, Nazi uniforms, prison garb, menacing incinerators and barbed wire when a bunch of women like a period weekly start parading through your carefully constructed drama? It would not have taken much to make it perfect, but the costume designers, make-up artists and hairdressers would have had to be stricter. (12.12.2020)

"Finish it, Doctor. He'll kill him!" - "Who's killing who?" A great movie. The atmosphere of the concentration camp is extremely oppressive and in a few scenes even quite frightening, the performances of Štefan Kvietik and Manfred Krug are perfect, the script is simply straightforward but all the more impressive. I recommend it to everyone - far from being a "war" or "sports" film, it is a timeless message about the indomitability of the spirit. A pure five stars. (15.06.2012)