MovieChat Forums > Pawn Sacrifice (2015) Discussion > How accurate was the portrayal of Fische...

How accurate was the portrayal of Fischer?

posted 9 years ago by RedruM65
16 replies | jump to latest

Just saw the film yesterday with my hubby who is a Bobby Fischer "fan"(for lack of a better word. I really enjoyed the film although I know almost nothing about chess or this mans history. So I just wanted to ask those who aremore knowledgeable what their take is on the film.

"Hello, Danny. Come and play with us... Come and play with us Danny... Forever..and ever..and ever"

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] The_Real_Review 9 years ago

Not accurate at all, Fischer was much taller at 6'2'' and he was cocky, arrogant (confident) or at worse slightly awkward but not crazy.

United States Chess Federation Life Master, Chris Chase commented, "The film portrays Fischer as a wide-eyed crazy person even from day one, and he wasn’t like that at all."

http://artery.wbur.org/2015/09/29/pawn-sacrifice

[–] Smackdown735 9 years ago

I never met him, but from what I've always been reading about him over the years, this is EXACTLY how I expected him to be. Although I thought he was just outspoken and paranoid, I was shocked to see him so mean.

Any Questions??

[–] HenryCW 9 years ago

According to the poster "The_Real_Review" above:

United States Chess Federation Life Master, Chris Chase commented, "The film portrays Fischer as a wide-eyed crazy person even from day one, and he wasn’t like that at all."

I have not been able to see this film yet. But I have been a long-time member of USCF, and judging from the information that the film ended in the Championship Match of 1972, I have to agree with this assessment. The suggestion of Fischer having mental problems "from day one" was indeed completely ridiculous. With the benefit of hindsight, the film appeared to be rewriting history "backwards". In 1972, no one in the Western world looked at Fischer other than the new American hero who destroyed the myth of invincibility of Soviet chess - which in turn had been used by the Russians as a demonstration of the superiority of the Soviet system. It was true that he was rather eccentric, but so were many other top chess players.

In 1972, Fischer's behavior or antics (intentional or otherwise) on and off the board, instead of being interpreted as signs of mental disorder, had been accused as psychological warfare to disturb and unsettle his opponents. There was evidence that many of his opponents were rattled by what he did and somehow played far below their strengths. Before he met Spassky, in the Candidates Matches he eliminated Taimanov and Larsen six wins to nil, without a single draw. According to Elo ratings, Fischer was expected to win but his opponents were expected to win at least one or two games, with a large number of draws. In the match with Spassky, Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the next, and for a while it appeared that the match might be aborted. Spassky was apparently disturbed by the ensuing negotiations and disputes and won only one more game in the entire match.

The USCF continued to support Fischer in the years before he finally "resigned" his title after failing to come to agreement on match conditions with Karpov as challenger. The USCF continued to support him in the negotiation for match conditions, though some were considered unreasonable and even unfair by many people. Still, the main concern was to get the match going.

After he forfeited the title, attention naturally began to turn to his activities off the board, and stories of his anti-Semitic remarks and distribution of anti-Jewish pamphlets, etc., began to surface in the 1980s. It was at that time that suggestions of mental disorder began to appear. Then his "return match" with Spassky in war-torn Yugoslavia in 1992 in direct violation of US sanctions turned him into a fugitive and we all know the rest.

If the film was meant to be a story about Fischer's mental problems, it should cover the events in the decades that followed, which were as interesting and relevant as the 1972 match.

[–] kypierce-28-171925 9 years ago

Glad to see these responses reflect exactly how I was feeling. Even the responder that said this was exactly how they expected him to be said it surprised them fischer was shown to be so mean. When you look up interviews of him he definitely looks confident and outspoken and at worst socially uncomfortable but he's no doubt having fun. Even the movies impersonation of these moments was wrong. The movie made him out to be a raging angry cook.

Glad you mentioned how his opponents thought his seeming craziness was a tactic to throw them off. this was put into the movie and I found it kind of strange but I think this is the crux of it. What might have actually been fischers genius may have been interpreted as crazy and the director obviously take the route of crazy lunatic paranoid and made a whole movie on it. I don't believe this was correct and I 100% agree with you that the decades following must have had something to do with the real Fischers transformation. Makes me wonder what kind of interviewing ppl do before making a biographical movie or do they just pick an angle and run with it.

My generation completely missed this part of history so it was interesting looking at Tobey Maguires impersonation of him, how the movie portrayed him, and then looking up interviews and historical records. Even the fact that tobey comes nowhere near him in height can easily be seen if you watch the real fischer so they ended up giving him a little Hitler complex.

[–] kypierce-28-171925 9 years ago

Just don't think Tobey was a good cast. Tobey as Spiderman, love him. Tobey as Bobby Fischer....cmoooooooon!

[–] HenryCW 9 years ago

The only thing good about casting Tobey was that he was able to display the cockiness and vainglory in his character as Spiderman (after he became famous), as one would have expected of Fischer at the time. The choice might not have been bad in terms of "attitude", though certainly so in terms of physical attributes. If the film were made 25-30 years earlier, some actor like Kevin Costner might have been acceptable.

[–] kypierce-28-171925 9 years ago

Exactly, it was only later I learned how much Fischer was a proponent for physical fitness to keep him in peak performance making him just as much an athlete as a prodigy. Something the movie avoids I think because of the casting

[–] Ithilfaen 8 years ago

The movie made him out to be a raging angry cook.

A lot of people with severe personality disorders like Fischer are misunderstood and can be perceived as mean or temperamental. He was clearly paranoid and at times thought everyone was against him. How did you expect him to react to people around him?

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] HenryCW 8 years ago

.....He was clearly paranoid and at times thought everyone was against him......

It is, however, sometimes difficult to distinguish between the cause and effect. If people have been found to be conspiring against you, that in turn can make a person paranoid.

One good example was the Candidates Tournament at Curaçao in 1962 in which Fischer participated. It was won by Petrosian, who then dethroned Botvinnik to become World Champion. In that tournament, the eight candidates (five of them from the Soviet Union) were required to play four games against each player in a round-robin. It was in that tournament that Fischer accused the Soviets for conspiring against him so that he was not able to win. It was remarkable that FIDE acknowledged the problem, and from then on the winner in the Candidates Matches was determined by a series of knockout matches between the players instead.

[–] lh_lh82 8 years ago

Not too accurate imo. Tobey didn't look, act, or sound much like Fischer. There are also historical inaccuracies in the script.

Cate Blanchett doesn't resemble Kate Hepburn, but she worked on getting the voice, accent, and mannerisms down for The Aviator; and with her good acting on top of that, she ended up giving a fairly believable impression of Hepburn. I think that approach was needed in Pawn Sacrifice as a foundation for playing Fischer. It would have been a good character role for the right actor.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] yullbei 8 years ago

You can check this blog for a guide to the movie in regards of the games being shown and played. The blog also explained some other facts such as opponents and tournaments as seen in the movie. Some are fictional indeed. the link :
http://red-white-chess.blogspot.co.id/2015/12/a-guide-to-pawn-sacrifice-2015-complete.html

[–] rtlh1982 8 years ago

In the late 90s a reviewer of a Fischer biography (in Newsweek if I'm not mistaken) posed this question: Why is the gift of genius too often wasted on people too stupid to know what to do with it?