Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

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1. 

   ASWcomics

   Fascinating look into the mind of possibly the greatest chess player to walk the earth. 8 years 3 months ago
2. 

   meltemsultan

   Good but referring to the title - Fischer was no one's pawn, I'll tell you that. 3 years 3 months ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   Pawn Sacrifice stars Tobey Maguire as the Western world's most famous, I might even say notorious, chess player, enfant terrible Bobby Fischer, who, during the Cold War, went up against the Russian grandmasters and pretty much lost his mind. Today, we might recognize Fischer as hovering somewhere on the autism spectrum, his genius ability from a young age hampered by hypersensitivity to sound and other sensory distractions, but the film doesn't attempt a revisionist diagnostic. Instead, his descent into paranoia is part and parcel of the Cold War narrative (even if the film seems to promise a spy thriller at times that the true story fails to deliver), and the chess players are treated as petulant rock stars, giving the movie some necessary energy. I didn't feel like Pawn Sacrifice made the chess-playing come alive - Fischer's defeats and victories are largely abstract, though we're given just enough to know whatever the achievement is, it is an achievement - but that is perhaps unnecessary, so long as we understand the film as a portrait of a man overwhelmed by the possible moves he could make, more so in life than in the game. 6 years 10 months ago

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