Name: Top 10 Things Marty Supreme Got Factually Right and Wrong
Uploaded: 2026-01-10T16:59:34.000Z
Duration: 15 min 35 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

An orange ball which no one's ever thought of.

And today we're counting down our picks for the things that Josh Safdie's 2025 sports epic based on the life of Marty Reisman got right and wrong.

Make sure you've seen Marty supreme before watching this video because a major spoiler warning is now in effect.

I thought my chances were pretty good against Victor Bonham.

That's my general impression, you know, even though he was a five time world champion, number 10, Marty's bathtub fell through the floor.

There is no historical evidence that Marty Reisman ever fell through the floor of a seedy hotel bathtub, nor was he known for that degree of destructive misadventure.

The sequence in Marty supreme is a pure cinematic contrivance designed to make Marty feel chaotic, unstoppable and pinned beneath the weight of his own swagger.

It is also a quick shorthand for the Safdie style.

Frantic, unsanitary, slightly dangerous and morally messy.

Rhysman's real life certainly had grime on it.

He hustled table tennis in smoky back rooms, lived hand to mouth early on and thrived in off the books games.

But nothing in his memoir or public interview suggests he was ever plunged through rotten floorboards while someone unfortunate occupied the room below.

Marty talked his way into a hotel upgrade in Wembley's Empire pool, the finals of the British Table Tennis Championships.

The English championship is considered second in importance to the world tournament.

And I was going in full of confidence because I thought I knew I was one of the best players in the world.

During the 1949 World Championship in London, the real life Marty found his assigned accommodations beneath him, using charm and deceit to move himself into a more glamorous location.

In the movie, the Ritz become symbolic of Marty's self image.

He believes he belongs in the finest spaces regardless of who pays.

There was no one better than Marty in Marty's eyes, which is good for him, you know, so he was sure that when he went on the table he was confident he would win, you know, although he could lose very badly, you know.

But in Marty's eyes, that was an off day.

In reality, Reesman relocated to the pricier Cumberland Hotel and billed the English Table Tennis association for everything he could charge to his room, even dry cleaning and telephone calls.

The association refused to cover the bill, but that did nothing to dampen Marty's audacity.

Josh Safdie's telling adds colorful flourishes, including Hollywood starlets and ludicrous room service orders.

Marty upgraded himself and made someone else pay.

The vigor of the teenaged New Yorker is the winning factor.

And Marty Reisman is Britain's new table tennis champion.

Number eight, Marty lost the world Championship in Japan.

Well, I was very elated to have won that, the English championship, because my reputation spread throughout the world.

I was invited to India, I was invited to Australia, New Zealand, and, you know, the Orient and to Europe and so forth, you know.

So that immediately established me as one of the top players in the world, Officially, that is.

The movie turns Marty's defining failure into a dramatic showdown in Japan, complete with patriotic tension, a rival genius, and

In fact, the real moment that broke Marty Reisman happened elsewhere in Bombay, at the 1952 World Championships held for the first time in India.

The 19th World Table Tennis Championships opened in Bombay with a parade of the competitors.

Teams from 26 countries, the Flower of youth from the east and the west rallied under one international banner.

That's where Reesman and the world's best players ran into Hiroji Sato, a slight, unassuming Japanese newcomer whose secret weapon wasn't mystique, but

Reisman lost to him early, was devastated, and

later tracked him to Japan for a rematch, but

refused to adopt the new equipment, calling sponge play fraud and deception.

It's a fantastic story, but it unfolded in India, not in Japan.

The way Marty supreme imagines Sato every now and then, with an imperceptible twist of the wrist, was able to produce an uncanny amount of spin where the ball would just slide off your racket and go into the bottom of the net.

And it's not as even as if he were playing well.

He just stood there, let the ball hit the racket, and

it came back at you in a way that no one had ever seen before.

This detail isn't flashy, but it is real.

Like many Depression era prodigies, Marty Reisman worked odd jobs as a teenager to support his training, his family Obligations and his European travel ambitions.

A shoe shop served as one of the places where he earned a paycheck while practicing his game in every spare hour.

It's been good for my soul to see this up close in person.

Cuz when I'm back from my trip, this is over.

I wanted to see the travel agent on my lunch break.

You'll never come back after your lunch break.

To underline Marty's status as a scrapper.

Someone whose talent was at odds with his economic situation.

In truth, Reesmann was not a passive clerk.

His habit of hustling for advantage started early.

He wagered on himself in pickup matches, sold goods at markups abroad, and

charmed adults into giving him opportunities that far exceeded his age.

This kid understands the character better than he does.

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Top 10 Things Marty Supreme Got Factually Right and Wrong

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