Bobby Fischer movie

Hey,

So I just finished watching the Fischer movie with (the best spider-man IMO) Toby Mwhatever.  I was wondeirng if anyone else watched it and what they thought.

I find it sad the film did pretty bad comercially. I quite enjoyed it. Now, was BF this pyscho, and constantly paranoid? I don't know; but I do know, that I enjoyed it and thought it was pretty good. I also liked how they really made Spasky seem like a nice and approachble guy.

If I knew nothing about BF would I leave this movie truely appreciating how great he was at chess and how important he was? No, but after the film I finally decided to buy a biography of BF--in other words, it did make me want to learn more about him.

Did anyone else watch it, and what did you guys think?

i personally thought it was pretty bad.  Many, many historical inaccuracies, and they made Fischer out to be more of a raving lunatic than he actually was.  I'm really no Fischer fan... other than his chess games which were pretty brilliant... but they took WAY too many liberties trying to paint him as unstable and unlikeable.  Casting spiderman as Fischer didn't help much either... I personally find Toby to be super annoying on the best of days.

 

Anyway, I didn't care for the movie, the casting, or the faked up "hollywoodized" version of the story.  Your own mileage may vary.

What They Did:  IF you think Bobby Fischer "went beyond eccentric" in real life, it was AFTER the championship.  However, for dramatic purposes, they inter-weaved (new cool word I just made up) the "craziness" of his later life into the "present" of the period during the championship.  Dramatically, this is cooler -- in that it makes for more conflict -- but historically it reverses the order.  In reality, one "cause" of his paranoia was anxiety he experienced AFTER the championship; he thought Soviets were out to get him.  The BAD news is:  The Bobby portrayed in the movie is NOT sympathetic, NOT heroic.  He was "a hero even though he was a jerk."  This is directly responsible for the film's commercial failure.  If you go to YouTube you will see many wonderful videos of Bobby being nice, normal, sociable, and even funny.

As to be expected with Hollywood movies, some things are greatly exaggerated, some are oversimplified, and some (such as the rather cringeworthy shouting scene on the beach) are entirely made up.

Why didn't the movie do well at the box office? Well, last time chess was on the news everywhere was probably some 20 years ago when Kasparov lost against Deep Blue, and last time I recall the general public having cared about chess might have been the Kasparov vs. the World match a in 1999.

Yes... that beach scene was powerful stupid!

I read Fischer biography by Brady and pretty much watched all videos of him and about him. I am not an expert but from what I learned Fischer really was mentally unstable and crazy but NOT at the time of his game with Spassky. According to witnesses and people who were there he showed some signs of anger issues and instability prior and during his match with Spassky but he was pretty much normal and really the only thing was him asking for lots of money for playing and as prize. Spassky really is described as a very nice guy who had true sympathy for Fischer for many years after their game. As an old person in a wheelchair he spoke very fondly of Bobby Fischer.

Now about the Pawn Sacrifice movie. Many people including myself think it wasn't bet good at all. One huge reason is that Toby McGuire doesn't look or act like Fischer at all. His face looks wrong. One actor who probably sounds and looks like Fischer most is Nicolas Cage. Fischer's voice and mannerisms weren't accurately shown also. But that's kind of passable.

The other thing is how the movie depicts the time period and culture a lot of people pointed out that the people surrounding Fischer don't act like normal people would in those situations. They hold and wave cigarettes without even lighting them. Cigarettes are an absolutely horrible thing. But they or cigars would always fill chess rooms with smoke back in the day. Actually in Russia many chess players died from heart attacks.

The movie also shows Fischer running on the beach and shouting. I've never read about such a confrontation. Apparently he'd be hiding in his room most of the time.

Another thing that is very noticeable by most chess players is the chess props that probably weren't accurate due to movie's low budget. In some shots they show modern vinyl mats and plastic pieces. I think back in the day the boards that weren't wood would be made of fold on cardboard and they looked different. I don't remember now whether the depiction of the New York chess club Fischer went to in 60s had vinyl mats on tables also. I think it did. But they definitely had wooden boards and pieces at the time.

When Fischer is shown looking at a pocket chess set in the car you see him holding a folding wallet style chess set where you move magnetic flat pieces. These are the Chinese made and very common sets only today. There are quite many mentions of Fischer having had specifically a peg style pocket chess set. It's a box that has a checkered board with small hole in every square and each piece would've inserted into it. He apparently had it everywhere.

According to the book Fischer gradually became crazy and unstable only after the Spassky match when he began to hide in obscurity first in a house he rented, I think in Pasadena California. Then he either spent or lost most of his money, at least what he had received. He moved to a small apartment in an urban area somewhere. He was paranoid of all authority or people in power. He was stopped by police because he looked like some suspect. Apparently they roughed him up and he hated law enforcement of all kinds ever since. He also thought soviet agents would kill him in revenge for Spassky match, and so that he'd not beat their champions again.

Most interestingly Chess.com has a video where Roman Dzindzichashvili describes his meeting with Fischer in either late 70s or early 80s. Roman is a defector from USSR and he won some big competitions in the US. He wanted to visit Fischer. Fischer shouted at him and called him a soviet spy. Roman was really hurt because he himself escaped from USSR.

Yea, read that Brady book. It's good.

I stand corrected. The pieces shown at the Marshall club in the film are wooden.

That's my other complaint about the movie... though it's a minor one.

I was hoping to see some nice period chess sets, a few sweet Dubro's or older Lardys.  It was not to be... just a bunch of bland modern sets on unappealing boards.

@Bawker Yes, it's strange because couldn't they just borrow historic chess sets from some chess clubs or individual players? I guess it's possible they didn't have time but I noticed also that while there are wooden pieces in many longer shots, in some shorter scenes I see modern plastic club sets. It doesn't ruin the movie. The worst thing for me is that the lines people speak are not realistic but sound more like exposition in cartoons or movies aimed at younger audiences. Everything everyone says is like reading a speech as if they are aware there is audience and they are in a movie. 

 

But it overall I can't complain to much since at least there is a movie about chess that people actually noticed.

I thought the movie was pretty good. Fischer wasn't very relatable at all. I thought the writing was pretty confused. Was the movie supposed to be a weird reverse coming of age story or a comment on mental illness? I really am not sure. I thought Toby Mcspiderman was actually really good in the role despite what other people said. There were times in the movie where he sounded just like Bubby Fissure. I think the main problem was just the bad script. The stuff where Bubby and his trainer are having cheerful montages and what not are confusing tonally.

I have to say that I rather liked the movie. Like every movie it suffered from time compression, having to tell a story that played out over decades in a couple of hours. Thus some characters were out of place, some conversations were moved to different people and some events were moved to different eras. Minor nits about playing pieces didn't bother me in the least.

I was alive and already an avid chess player when the Fischer-Spassky match occurred. I remember the extraordinary interest that chess garnered for those few short months in the US. An American player taking on the great Soviet chess juggernaut was high drama during the Cold War. I think the movie captured that essential theme.

My take away was that the movie painted Fischer as mentally disturbed. But his central complaint, that the US used him during the Cold War and then tossed him aside when he became an embarrassment for his views, was essentially correct. In the Super-powers "war without battles, only casualties," Fischer was a pawn that the US may have sacrificed for its own propaganda.