Marty Supreme, Jewish Pride and the American Dream

One of the most refreshing films that celebrates Jewish heritage is the hit “Marty Supreme.” Judaism is deftly sewn into the ambitious world of Marty Mauser, a fast-talking, confident dreamer played by Timothée Chalamet (who previously starred as Jewish musician Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown”).

Already nominated for numerous Hollywood awards, the movie is loosely inspired by the feisty life of Jewish ping-pong legend Marty Reisman, who won many table tennis titles throughout his career and features several Jewish actors.

Jewish writer-director Josh Safdie (“Uncut Gems”) co-wrote the original feature with his longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. The duo were drawn to the idea of using the resilient Mauser as a way to explore post-Holocaust pride; how winning World War II ignited the idea of the American dream.

Timothée Chalamet, wearing a Star of David, and Josh Safdie on set.

“He comes from a very provincial place, the Lower East Side in the mid-20th century, which was a melting pot but a high concentration of Jewish immigrants,” Safdie said during a recent interview with National Public Radio (NPR).

“And after the war, the concept of Jewish pride kind of blossoms. And the survival of the Holocaust was something to kind of be proud of.”

One of the many scenes which illustrate Marty’s cockiness and mental toughness includes Marty telling a group of journalists that he’s Hitler's worst nightmare. "Just look at me. I’m here. I’m on top. I’m the ultimate product of Hitler's defeat."

In an interview with Aish.com, Safdie commented, “I think that World War Two and the Holocaust in particular, was like gasoline on the fire of Jewish pride–you can't kill us, and we survived. So I think that's where real Jewish pride really came to exist in the world.”

Marty Reisman

A riveting Holocaust flashback scene in the film is based on a true story. Marty’s friend, ping pong player, Béla (“Son of Saul’s” Géza Röhrig) tells him that while he was disarming bombs in the forest, he found a honeycomb. Seeking to give sustenance to his fellow inmates, he rubbed the honey all over his body and later, secretly let them lick it all off.

“That's a very special sequence for both Ronnie and I,” Safdie told Aish. “I find it to be more evocative and more telling than some Holocaust films that I've seen in their entirety. Sometimes we can understand the bigger picture through a smaller story. And that is exactly what happened when I stumbled upon it in my research of the mid-20th century table tennis international scene.”

The real-life occurrence happened with Hungarian player, Alojzy Ehrlich.

“He was a champion in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, and he was Jewish and was taken into a camp. It was Dachau and he was on his way to the showers and an officer who is a fan of table tennis recognized him, which spoke to its popularity in Europe. He had been at the 1939 championship, which had this record-breaking point in its length, and told him that he was going to come and work for them, as some Jews who had special treatment would end up working directly for some of the Nazi officers.”

Like many table tennis players, Ehrlich was very intelligent, said Safdie.

“They had high IQs but did very bad at school. And they had him, they used his brains and his body to basically defuse and dismantle US bombs or US mines that they had found. They sent him into the forest in the middle of nowhere. And so that if the bomb did detonate, he would be the only one spared and he would be able to defuse it in 5, 10 minutes. It was easy work for him.”

Ehrlich would tell the SS officers that it was going to take him a few hours and then he would just spend his time moving around the forest.

“And that was when he saw the honeybee,” said Safdie. “So Ronnie and I expanded upon the story slightly. He didn't find a honeybee, he found an abandoned honeycomb. But he did in fact spread the honey across his body and share it with, for nutrients, his fellow inmates. It was such a beautiful story for us because I think that it spoke to the camaraderie and the tight knit community. And how the Jews, particularly in the Holocaust, banded together to survive.”

Bronstein and Safdie describe “Marty Supreme” as “a Jewish experience” story. That is not to say that Marty is an embodiment of Jewish values; he decidedly isn't. This not a family film.

“That attracted us to this world and this story and this time period, this moment of the silent generation, in particular, the Jewish Americans who were far from the conflict,” acknowledged Safdie. “My grandma, who when she was 10 years old in New York City, saw Hitler invading Paris and her first question was to her mom, ‘Is he coming here next?’ There was a certain sort of distance but complete connectivity to the nomadic people throughout the world, Jewish people.”

That fear manifested a certain sort of “pervasive anxiety” that exists to this day within her.

“Which is understanding that the entire world can turn a blind eye to a collective experience of the Holocaust or the collective ignore the collective naivete of what is. What was happening to a very specific type of people. That goes back to a much more subtle context, to the Middle Ages.”

That level of anxiety is a bedrock inside Marty’s life, said Safdie.

“But the perseverance, the survival of the Holocaust for a Jew, post war, which, when Ronnie and I write from the perspective of a character in their current setting, all we can do is as much research and apply ourselves from an emotional standpoint and see the world through that character. Understanding what it's like to be a young man who was too young to fight in the war, but who saw his people survive, creates.”

He added: “It was the first moment in assimilated Jewish culture where you saw the concept of what Jewish pride could even be, because there was a sense of, ‘Oh, wow, we survived.’ Therefore, there's a sense of being, preening a little bit. Not preening, but prideful.”

The film’s trailer has already garnered positive buzz from Jewish audiences; Chalamet has a number of scenes where he’s wearing a Star of David necklace.

Said activist/influencer Naz Hashem on her Instagram: “It’s a nod to Reisman’s Jewish identity, and it resonates even more knowing Chalamet’s mother is Jewish herself. A subtle but powerful reminder of the pride woven into this story of grit, talent, and heritage.”