Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie Review

Boxing for your life.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III April 16, 2026

Robert M. Young's boxing drama Triumph of the Spirit isn't the only film of its kind with deep historical roots; this WWII-era biopic's plot sounds similar to the more viciously-titled 1962 Slovak film The Boxer and Death, which also tells the story of a boxer forced to compete in Nazi concentration camps after his career was cut short. But instead of Polish competitor Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, Triumph of the Spirit focuses on Greek-Israeli boxer Salamo Arouch, who's captured with his family in 1943 and shipped off to Auschwitz, where his win-loss record means either extra rations... or the gas chamber. Led by capable performances from the reliably good Willem Dafoe, Edward James Olmos, and Robert Loggia, this is an unavoidably sanitized but still effective film that's held up surprisingly well since 1989.

For a synopsis and critique of the film, please see Dr. Svet Atanasov's review of Kino Lorber's 2024 Blu-ray, which was released just in time for the film's 35th anniversary. While that disc is still widely available as of this writing, MGM has countered with their own edition... which, for several reasons, is a less desirable effort and twice as expensive to boot. Unless that Kino disc goes OOP by the time you read this, I'll save you some time: buy that one instead.

As for our slightly different ratings for the film itself, Triumph of the Spirit was more warmly received by me because, though I recognize it pulls a few punches (pun intended) regarding the historical backdrop and events depicted therein, I also recognize it was made by an independent studio and designed to appeal to a much broader audience than those who couldn't handle its events depicted with exacting realism. In any case, though, the gamble didn't work: Triumph of the Spirit only made back a fraction of its $12M budget, so perhaps it'll be appreciated by audiences in hindsight.

Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

MGM's new Blu-ray clearly uses the exact same master as Kino Lorber's 2024 Blu-ray, whose source material was supplied by the studio themselves. Even so, MGM's choice to make their own release a single-layer (25GB) disc to cut corners was the wrong one; though certainly not a disaster, the bit rate seems to run lower here and trace amounts of compression artifacts can be seen from time to time. Although Kino is generally not known as the strongest studio for encoding (to put it lightly), it appears as if they've scored a rare win here. Even so, what we get here should still look strong on a small to medium-sized display, and those who aren't actively looking for compression issues may not even see them in-motion. It may be even close than our half-point differences imply, but subtle differences are there.

Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the other hand, MGM's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix is surely the exact same as Kino's default audio track, which is largely in English with small bits of German dialogue. Therefore, please see Svet's review of Kino Lorber's 2024 Blu-ray for more details. In short, there doesn't seem to be any room for improvement here so a 5/5 is warranted, especially considering how much Cliff Eidelman's outstanding original score adds to the proceedings.

Like the Kino disc, optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with familiar cover artwork, which has been curiously flipped left to right for unknown reasons. The on-disc bonus features trade in Kino's exclusive audio commentary for a lame self-playing photo gallery, which is another point for the 2024 Blu-ray.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:57) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Behind-the-Scenes Gallery (1:40) - A measly eight production stills that run for 10 seconds each.

Triumph of the Spirit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Robert M. Young's Triumph of the Spirit is a somewhat underappreciated WWII-era boxing drama that turned 35 just a few years ago, and Kino Lorber celebrated the occasion with a 2024 Blu-ray that served up strong A/V merits (provided by MGM) and a pair of modest extras including an exclusive audio commentary. MGM arrives late to the party with this less polished disc that's not quite as impressive visually (though still quite good) and trades in the commentary for a lame photo gallery. Did I mention it's also twice as expensive? Only buy this one if the Kino disc is unavailable.