- 6 days ago
From bathtub mishaps to Auschwitz beehives - how accurate is Josh Safdie's 2025 table tennis epic? Join us as we separate fact from fiction in the Marty Reisman biopic! Our countdown includes his hotel upgrade schemes, Globetrotter tours, fictional love affairs, and the true story behind his Japanese rivalry. Did Safdie's dramatization serve the truth or spin it away?
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Now look at this, it's an orange ball, which no one's ever thought of.
00:02See, you're already following it way better. Look at his eyes. You're looking more engaged now.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the things that Josh Safdie's
00:102025 sports epic, based on the life of Marty Reisman, got right and wrong.
00:15Make sure you've seen Marty Supreme before watching this video, because a major spoiler warning is now in effect.
00:20I thought my chances were pretty good against Victor Bonham. That's my general impression, you know.
00:24Even though he was a five-time world champion.
00:27Number 10. Marty's bathtub fell through the floor. Wrong.
00:32Frank! Frank Gay! Coming out of escape right now!
00:36Oh!
00:40I'm on a new level!
00:42There is no historical evidence that Marty Reisman ever fell through the floor of a seedy hotel bathtub,
00:47nor was he known for that degree of destructive misadventure.
00:50The sequence in Marty Supreme is a pure cinematic contrivance designed to make Marty feel chaotic,
00:55unstoppable, and pinned beneath the weight of his own swagger.
00:58Come on, he's ready!
00:59To your Marty baller, how to be a boss?
01:02I wanna do that!
01:03It is also a quick shorthand for the Safdie style.
01:06Frantic, unsanitary, slightly dangerous, and morally messy.
01:10Reisman's real life certainly had grime on it.
01:13He hustled table tennis in smoky back rooms, lived hand-to-mouth early on,
01:17and thrived in off-the-books games.
01:18But nothing in his memoir or public interviews suggests he was ever plunged through rotten floorboards,
01:24while someone unfortunate occupied the room below.
01:27This drama's very important to me. I can't etiquette the drama.
01:30Number 9. Marty talked his way into a hotel upgrade.
01:33Right.
01:34In Wembley's Empire Pool, the finals of the British Table Tennis Championships.
01:38The English Championship is considered second in importance to the world tournament,
01:43and I was going in full of confidence because I thought I was,
01:46I knew I was one of the best players in the world.
01:47During the 1949 World Championship in London,
01:50the real-life Marty found is assigned accommodations beneath him,
01:54using charm and deceit to move himself into a more glamorous location.
01:58In the movie, the Ritz becomes symbolic of Marty's self-image.
02:01He believes he belongs in the finest spaces regardless of who pays.
02:05There was no one better than Marty in Marty's eyes, which is good for him, you know.
02:11So he was sure that when he went on the table, he was confident he would win, you know.
02:16Although he could lose very badly, you know.
02:19But in Marty's eyes, that was an off day.
02:22In reality, Riesman relocated to the pricier Cumberland Hotel
02:25and billed the English Table Tennis Association for everything he could charge to his room,
02:30even dry cleaning and telephone calls.
02:32The association refused to cover the bill, but that did nothing to dampen Marty's audacity.
02:36Josh Safdie's telling adds colorful flourishes, including Hollywood starlets and ludicrous room service orders.
02:43But the essence is correct.
02:45Marty upgraded himself and made someone else pay.
02:48The vigor of the teenaged New Yorker is the winning factor,
02:51and Marty Riesman is Britain's new table tennis champion.
02:54Congratulations to a gallant winner.
02:56Well, I was very elated to have won the English championship because my reputation spread throughout the world.
03:09I was invited to India, I was invited to Australia, New Zealand, and, you know, the Orient, and to Europe and so forth, you know.
03:16So that immediately established me as one of the top players in the world, officially, that is.
03:21The movie turns Marty's defining failure into a dramatic showdown in Japan,
03:26complete with patriotic tension, a rival genius, and a crushing loss.
03:30In fact, the real moment that broke Marty Riesman happened elsewhere,
03:34in Bombay at the 1952 World Championships.
03:37Held for the first time in India, the 19th World Table Tennis Championships,
03:40opened in Bombay with a parade of the competitors.
03:43Teams from 26 countries, the flower of youth from the East and the West,
03:47rallied under one international banner.
03:49That's where Riesman and the world's best players ran into Hiroji Sato,
03:53a slight, unassuming Japanese newcomer, whose secret weapon wasn't mystique, but technology.
03:59Riesman lost to him early, was devastated, and later tracked him to Japan for a rematch,
04:04but refused to adopt the new equipment, calling sponge play fraud and deception.
04:08It's a fantastic story, but it unfolded in India, not in Japan the way Marty Supreme imagines.
04:14The Sato, every now and then, with an imperceptible twist of the wrist,
04:18was able to produce an incanty amount of spin,
04:21where the ball would just slide off your racket and go into the bottom of the net.
04:26And it's not as even as if he were playing well.
04:29He just stood there, let the ball hit the racket,
04:31and it came back at you in a way that no one had ever seen before.
04:36Number 7. Marty worked in a shoe shop.
04:39Right.
04:39How are you doing?
04:40Hard. Look what I got for you.
04:42What is this?
04:43Check it out.
04:45What am I looking at?
04:47Start over.
04:51Manager?
04:52This detail isn't flashy, but it is real.
04:55Like many Depression-era prodigies,
04:57Marty Riesman worked odd jobs as a teenager to support his training,
05:01his family obligations, and his European travel ambitions.
05:04A shoe shop served as one of the places where he earned a paycheck,
05:07while practicing his game in every spare hour.
05:10It's been good for my soul to see this up close in person.
05:12I don't want to discuss this.
05:12I'm not a shoe salesman.
05:14I'm not a shoe salesman.
05:16Whoopsie, I don't want to discuss this.
05:17No, but I do want to discuss it now,
05:18because when I'm back from my trip, this is over.
05:19I'm not coming back here and doing this.
05:20Speaking of which, can we settle up now?
05:21I've got to buy my plane ticket.
05:22We'll settle at closing.
05:23I wanted to see the travel agent on my lunch break.
05:25You'll never come back after your lunch break.
05:27That's what you think of me?
05:28The film uses this beat to underline Marty's status as a scrapper,
05:32someone whose talent was at odds with his economic situation.
05:35In truth, Reese Mann was not a passive clerk.
05:38His habit of hustling for advantage started early.
05:41He wagered on himself in pickup matches,
05:43sold goods at markups abroad,
05:45and charmed adults into giving him opportunities that far exceeded his age.
05:48This kid understands the character better than he does.
05:52Excuse me?
05:53Tell him what you just told me.
05:54No, I was just saying you didn't really seem like you were in the scene is all.
05:59Um, who is this?
06:00He's nobody.
06:01Also, you know, in my experience,
06:05only children hold a knife like this.
06:08If it's a serious fight, you hold your knife like this.
06:09This is not a street fight.
06:11Number six, Marty's partnership with Milton Rockwell.
06:14Wrong.
06:15It's one of those serendipitous things in life.
06:18I got a phone call from Josh Safdie and Ronnie Bronstein,
06:21who co-wrote Uncut Gems, a film I loved with Adam Sandler.
06:25And they said, listen, um, there's this guy named Milton Rockwell.
06:29He's the richest man in America, royalty guy.
06:31He kind of reminds us as we're writing him of that guy on Shark Tank, you.
06:36Milton Rockwell, played by a perfectly cast Kevin O'Leary,
06:40exists to personify the predatory forces that hover around trained athletes.
06:44He's a financer, a fixer, and a scold who alternately dangles riches and threatens ruin.
06:49How do you relate to the Marty character?
06:52Do you?
06:53Yes, I remember being Marty.
06:56I remember, I know what that's like.
06:57And that's why I think my character connected with his.
07:00He was almost like a father-son thing going on there.
07:04But I expected him, and so would the character, to listen to what I said.
07:09No single real-world figure ever fits that description in Reisman's life.
07:13In reality, Reisman managed his own mythology and operated more as a solo hustler than a kept talent.
07:19He accepted stakes and sponsorships, but he moved freely and never relied on a towering patron
07:24with the ability to ruin him outright.
07:27Rockwell's narrative role is symbolic.
07:29He represents the power elite that needs Marty's talent more than Marty needs its approval.
07:33And that dynamic is thematic invention rather than historical fact.
07:37You know, the more I read it, the more I got into it, and they were also pretty smart.
07:42They let me accommodate my own comments about Milton, what he would have said in 52, who he was in 52,
07:49and why he would have said that, and they adjusted the script.
07:52So I really felt I owned that character by the time we shot it.
07:55Number five, Marty toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, right?
08:00At Chicago Stadium, the top-notch Minneapolis Lakers play the Harlem Globetrotters in an exhibition game.
08:06And what an exhibition it turns out to be.
08:09The Globetrotters in striped trunks feature trigger-quick ball handling
08:13and play a kind of game that might be called Basketball Bebop.
08:17Bebop?
08:18This is one of the most delightful truths the movie retains.
08:21Reisman really did travel with the Harlem Globetrotters,
08:23providing table tennis exhibitions that functioned as novelty entertainment
08:27alongside the team's legendary basketball showmanship.
08:30The pairing made perfect sense.
08:32Reisman possessed a flair for spectacle,
08:34loved an audience, and could deliver astonishing trick shots that set crowds roaring.
08:38No one knows what's coming next.
08:40It's all ad-lib and anything for a laugh.
08:44Even in slow motion, their magical hands fool you.
08:48The Globetrotters' connection reminds modern viewers
08:50that Reisman earned broad cultural exposure, not merely niche fame.
08:55His style and persona were fully formed long before the film's timeline,
08:59and that flamboyance was authentic.
09:00When Marty Supreme shows the fictionalized Marty Mouser dazzling crowds as a touring performer,
09:05rather than a mere competitor,
09:07it's pulled straight from the public record.
09:09They won't go into high gear with their basketball buffoonery till the game,
09:12but in the crowd, Roy Campanella is already getting his kicks.
09:15It's a benefit game against the Philadelphia Spas,
09:18and the Trotters show they can play it straight and slick,
09:21as if anybody doubted or cared.
09:23It's the court comedy of Midderlock Lemon,
09:25Wilt Chamberlain and company that draws the crowds
09:27and baffles the opposing team and the referees.
09:31Number 4.
09:32Marty had an affair with a childhood friend.
09:34Wrong.
09:35I have a purpose.
09:37If you think that's some sort of blessing, it's not.
09:39It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through,
09:43and with that obligation comes sacrifice.
09:44One of the biggest emotional threads in Marty Supreme
09:47is Marty's tumultuous relationship with Rachel,
09:50the long-suffering partner he leaves behind in New York,
09:53played by Odessa Azayan.
09:54Pregnant, isolated, and increasingly furious,
09:58she represents everything Marty is running from.
10:00Responsibility, adulthood,
10:03and the consequences of his hustle-first worldview.
10:05Everything in my life's falling apart, but I'm gonna figure it out.
10:08Do you need any help? I could help you.
10:10I know it's hard to believe,
10:11but I'm telling you, this game, it fills stadiums overseas.
10:15Her presence drives some of the film's most painful beats,
10:18culminating in Marty abandoning her while she is 8 months pregnant
10:20and in the hospital.
10:22But here's the reality.
10:23Rachel is a total Safdie invention.
10:26Reisman certainly lived a chaotic and unconventional life,
10:29but Rachel, and the emotional fallout attached to her,
10:31is a symbolic device,
10:33not a historical figure.
10:35She exists to show what Marty loses in the pursuit of fame,
10:38not to reflect a real woman left behind.
10:40Hey, I'll rip that unibrow right off his forehead!
10:43You wanna get physical?
10:44Like an ape?
10:45Number 3.
10:46Koto Endo was a real person.
10:48Right.
10:49Kind of.
10:50As the tournament started,
10:51there were all sorts of rumors about the Japanese.
10:55The Japanese had invented a new kind of racket,
10:58invented by a Japanese scientist.
11:00They were practicing in secret behind closed doors.
11:03Nobody was allowed to watch them play.
11:06And so, of course, you know,
11:07we had this kind of, you know,
11:09the American cockiness,
11:10the Europeans felt the same way about it.
11:12We just discovered the Japanese.
11:13Koto Endo,
11:15Marty's cool and unshakable Japanese rival,
11:17never existed.
11:19He's a composite drawn from two places.
11:21Actor, Koto Kawaguchi,
11:23a real deaf table tennis champion,
11:25and Hiroji Sato,
11:26the player who beat Marty Reisman
11:28during the 1952 World Championships.
11:30The Osaka venue packed with fans
11:32and broadcast nationwide,
11:34that part mirrors history.
11:35Nobody really understood what was happening,
11:37the amount of spin because the ball reversed itself.
11:39It was a very complicated kind of thing.
11:41The response off the racket with the sponge
11:43is entirely different from the pimpled rubber.
11:45It's a kind of catapult.
11:47Whatever effect you put on the ball,
11:49it comes back at you with twice the effect.
11:52So they didn't,
11:53they were losing against their own spins.
11:55They were losing against the beauty of their own game.
11:59What the film leaves out
12:00is why Sato dominated.
12:02He used a pioneering foam-padded racket
12:04that baffled opponents.
12:06In Marty Supreme,
12:07Endo wields a basic wooden paddle
12:09and wins through sheer poise.
12:11So the rivalry is real in spirit,
12:12but the name, backstory, and details
12:15are inventions crafted to shape Marty's myth.
12:18He was more surprised than anyone else
12:20when he found himself the world singles champion.
12:26And he was received by a million people,
12:29they say, who lined the streets of Tokyo
12:31to greet back their first world champion,
12:34not only in table tennis,
12:35but in any athletic sport ever.
12:38Number two.
12:39Marty had an affair with an older Hollywood star.
12:41Wrong.
12:42I have a purpose.
12:43Okay.
12:45Let me ask you something.
12:47Do you make money
12:47at this little table tennis thing?
12:49Not yet.
12:50Do you have a job?
12:52No.
12:53Kay Stone,
12:53Gwyneth Paltrow's fading Hollywood beauty
12:55who seduces Marty,
12:57introduces him to her husband,
12:58Milton Rockwell,
12:59and even slips him a diamond necklace to pawn,
13:01is pure invention.
13:03There's no record of Marty Reisman
13:04ever romancing a movie star
13:06or being swept into high society
13:08by a glamorous benefactor.
13:09How do you live?
13:10Well, I live with the confidence
13:12if I believe in myself,
13:13the money will follow.
13:15And what do you plan to do
13:16if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out?
13:18That doesn't even enter my consciousness.
13:20That said,
13:20the idea isn't coming out of thin air.
13:22Reisman did move in surprising circles
13:24thanks to New York's Riverside Table Tennis Club,
13:27a place where everyone from school kids
13:29to United Nations diplomats
13:30and even wheelchair athletes
13:32and the occasional chimpanzee in short pants
13:34picked up a paddle.
13:35The film turns that brush with fame
13:37into a romantic fantasy.
13:39But the truth is simpler.
13:40Marty dazzled the stars.
13:42He didn't date them.
13:43Hello?
13:44Hey, it's Marty Mouser.
13:45I'm in the royal suite.
13:46I saw you in the lobby yesterday.
13:48Okay.
13:49Well, I never talked to an actual movie star.
13:51You know, I'm something of a performer too.
13:53Are you?
13:54Yeah, you don't believe me?
13:55I...
13:55You what?
13:57You what?
13:58You got the daily mail in front of you?
13:59This is you?
14:00Yeah, the chosen one.
14:01It's a nice picture, right?
14:01Before we continue,
14:03be sure to subscribe to our channel
14:04and ring the bell
14:05to get notified about our latest videos.
14:08You have the option to be notified
14:09for occasional videos or all of them.
14:11If you're on your phone,
14:13make sure you go into your settings
14:14and switch on notifications.
14:18Number one,
14:19the beehives at Auschwitz.
14:20Right.
14:21Let's control Mauser,
14:23two games, three.
14:25Game and match point, Mauser.
14:29I don't know if I'm like this one.
14:30I don't know if I'm right.
14:31The wildest moment in Marty Supreme
14:33also turns out to be the one
14:35with the deepest historical roots.
14:37The film shows Bela Kletzky,
14:39recognized by Nazi guards
14:40for his table tennis skill,
14:41assigned to bomb disposal duty
14:43outside the camp
14:44and discovering wild beehives.
14:46In a quietly astonishing act,
14:48he smears honey on his chest
14:50and brings it back to the barracks
14:51so fellow prisoners
14:52can taste something sweet.
14:54While the honey detail is fictional,
14:55Bela is modeled on a real Jewish champion,
14:58Aloji Erich,
14:59who is indeed forced to disarm bombs
15:01in a concentration camp.
15:03The scene becomes the film's moral compass.
15:05Bela risks himself
15:06to give others a moment of relief,
15:08while Marty spends the entire story
15:10chasing glory for himself.
15:11Point, no!
15:12Have you seen Marty Supreme?
15:25If so, what do you think?
15:27Be sure to let us know
15:28in the comments below.
Comments