Fighter

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000500dvldtc.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Reel Movie Critic.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reel Movie Critic.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id1949.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bob Le Flambeur"><U>Bob Le Flambeur</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1948.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bombay Eunuch"><U>Bombay Eunuch</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1945.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="China: The Panda Adventure"><U>China: The Panda Adventure</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1944.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cool and Crazy"><U>Cool and Crazy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1952.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Debut"><U>The Debut</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1946.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diamond Men"><U>Diamond Men</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1951.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dinner Rush"><U>Dinner Rush</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1950.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="edreams"><U>e-dreams</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1954.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Enlightenment Guaranteed"><U>Enlightenment Guaranteed</U></A>   |   <B>Fighter</B>   |   <A HREF="id1953.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="For Da Love of Money"><U>For Da Love of Money</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="041d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> <B>Home Pages for</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/index.htm"><U><B>Movies</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>      </B><A HREF="http://www.newbookdiscounts.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.newbookdiscounts.com/"><U><B>Books</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>            </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id364.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Travel</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>                   </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id361.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Great Web Sites</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> Fighter</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="501" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 146 WIDTH="495"><div> <IMG SRC="1374648c0.jpg" border=0 width="100" height="140" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <script language="JavaScript"> function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write("<a href=javascript:popUp('http://buybox.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=reelmoviecriticc&link_code=xsc&creative=23424&camp=2025&path=/dt/assoc/tg/aa/xml/assoc/-/B00006IUHJ/reelmoviecriticc/ref=ac_bb1_,_amazon')><img src=http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/remote-buy-box/buy1.gif border=0 alt='Buy from Amazon.com' ></a>"); document.close(); </script> <noscript> <form method="POST" action="http://buybox.amazon.com/o/dt/assoc/handle-buy-box=B00006IUHJ"> <input type="hidden" name="asin.B00006IUHJ" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="tag-value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="hidden" name="tag_value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="image" name="submit.add-to-cart" value="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" alt="Buy from Amazon.com" src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/add-to-cart.gif"> </form> </noscript>  DVD</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> .</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="575"><div> Fighter *** (Not Rated) </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By Pam Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="545"><div> Life lessons</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div>  Jan Weiner</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div>   Arnost Lustig</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div>  Director: Amir Bar-Lev</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div>   </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: Not the usual documentary recollections presented as two Czech survivors of concentration camps, now in their seventies, revisit the Europe of their youth. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Jan Weiner, a fit 77 year old, jabs expertly at the punching bag hanging in the garage at his Lenox, Massachusetts home. The rules of boxing are synonymous with life he tells us, "…to take a blow and get up."</div> <bR> <div> Jan and his friend Arnost Lustig, a 72 year old writer, are next seen poring over a map of Europe in Washington, DC, where they have come to begin a journey back in time to the Europe of WWII for a documentary film. Arnost, with his usual optimism, declares, "I cannot wait to go with this man," as Jan flatly responds, "I can wait." </div> <bR> <div> Their trip through Europe begins with the memory of a pair of shoes; one pair allotted to Jan by a Czech collaborator in Prague who told him he would not live long enough to wear them out. Jan reenacts how he returned after the war, with gun in hand, to seek revenge on this man. He solemnly says, "On these stairs I ended World War 2." </div> <bR> <div> Jan and Arnost's relationship, even during the filming, is quite confrontational at times; born of the human bond of suffering, which sometimes unleashes rage. </div> <bR> <div> Jan was charged with being a British spy by the communists, he was a member of the RAF during the war and he was sentenced to five years hard labor at a camp. Arnost spent his younger years in an enforced ghetto and adjoining concentration camp<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >-</FONT>the same camp where Jan's mother was murdered by the Nazis. </div> <bR> <div> In Slovenia Jan recounts the tragedy of his father, which changed Jan's life and attitude about the war. Arnost talks about his own father's fate and his father's outlook on Hitler. The compassion the two men feel for each other is evident.</div> <bR> <div> We learn of Jan's escape from the camp; 18 hours spent on the underbelly of a locomotive's toilet hole, slick with excrement and just over the train's churning steel wheels.</div> <bR> <div> Jan had found refuge with an Italian farmer and his family all those years ago. Now he and Arnost are standing face to face with the descendants of that farmer who helped Jan escape and none of them remember ever hearing of him. No family stories of his plight or their kindness had permeated time. Jan is visibly effected and shaken because he had to <I>fight </I>for his survival and this seems to minimize its importance in the total scheme of things. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: Director Amir Bar-Lev met Jan Weiner in 1993 at the Prague Film Academy, where Weiner was with the humanities department. Amir was fascinated with this larger-than-life figure and the planning for this documentary began.</div> <bR> <div> A deterioration of Jan and Arnost's relationship was evident by the end of filming; although the filmmakers would often find Jan and Arnost debating fiercely over beer after a blow-up during shooting earlier in the day. Perhaps that debate is the very essence of their friendship. </div> <bR> <div> At film's end we are in a garden setting, again at Jan's Lenox home, where his wife guides him in the flow of energy created by the practice of Tai Chi. Jan seems to be learning a new and gentler way to handle life.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div>   Not Rated (thematic material)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> Pam Singleton © 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>pam@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>