{"id":2197,"date":"2026-01-16T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/?p=568734"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"guys-the-disturbing-honey-scene-in-marty-supreme-is-actually-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/01\/16\/guys-the-disturbing-honey-scene-in-marty-supreme-is-actually-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Guys, the disturbing ‘honey scene’ in Marty Supreme is actually based on a true story"},"content":{"rendered":"

A24\u2019s Marty Supreme<\/a> has officially landed, and while Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a>\u2019s Marty Mauser is loosely based on the real-life 1940s ping-pong legend Marty Reisman, there are other-real life scenes and characters too.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the film, Marty recounts how a fellow prisoner, a talented ping-pong player named B\u00e9la, was tasked with disarming bombs during his time in Auschwitz. <\/span>During one mission in the woods, B\u00e9la found beehives and covered his body in honey. He returned to the barracks, allowing his fellow prisoners to lick the honey from his skin for nourishment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As it turns out, the truth is actually just as wild and devastating as the film.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s based on a real person called Alex Ehrlich<\/h2>\n

The character of B\u00e9la is inspired by a man named Alojzy \u201cAlex\u201d Ehrlich.<\/p>\n

In Reisman\u2019s autobiography (which Josh Safdie basically used as his Bible for this film), he writes about Ehrlich, a Polish Jewish champion who was sent to Auschwitz after being caught with a radio transmitter.<\/p>\n

According to Reisman\u2019s book, Ehrlich was given “special” treatment in the camps, which, in the context of the Holocaust, is a very loose term. Because the Nazis recognized him as a world-class athlete, he was spared from the gas chambers and given the terrifying job of diffusing bombs.<\/p>\n

Reisman wrote: \u201cOnce Ehrlich was defusing a bomb when he found a honeycomb nearby. He smeared the honey all over his body and when he got back to camp, inmates licked the honey off his body for nourishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Safdie told The Guardian<\/a> that this specific anecdote hit him harder than most history books: \u201cI learned more about the Holocaust in that little story than from some movies that are only about the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was known as the ‘King of Chiselers’<\/h2>\n

Beyond the trauma of the war, the real Alex Ehrlich was a total menace on the table tennis court. He was known as a “chiseler”, essentially a player who refuses to attack and just keeps the ball in play until their opponent literally collapses from exhaustion.<\/p>\n

At the 1936 World Championships, Alex and his opponent played a single point for two hours and 12 minutes. Two. Hours. The referee actually had to be replaced because he strained his neck watching the ball go back and forth.<\/p>\n

The match ended when his opponent literally snapped, threw his paddle across the room, and ran out of the building screaming.<\/p>\n

What does the scene actually mean?<\/h2>\n

Some critics see the honey scene as a “this is who we are” moment for the characters, while others see it as a metaphor for the entire movie, taking insane, life-threatening risks for the smallest, “sweetest” victories.<\/p>\n

Whether you found it moving or just deeply uncomfortable, it\u2019s one of those rare moments where the real-life history is somehow even more unbelievable than the A24 script.<\/p>\n

For more like this,\u00a0<\/i>like The Tab on Facebook<\/a><\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Featured image credit: A24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s really shocking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4,47,39],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-film","tag-timoth-e-chalamet","tag-viral"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe sad 'honey scene' in Marty Supreme is based on a real story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The disturbing 'honey scene' in Marty Supreme is actually based on a true story, and it's even more devastating than the film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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