An excellent point made by Soltis. A friend and I were discussing the Nash film the other night at chess club.
SOLTIS: I think it does, and that’s one of the problems with the movie. Bobby was not a very likable person. And this is a movie about a man cracking up. That works as entertainment if the subject is, say, John Nash and the movie is “A Beautiful Mind.” But you have to be sympathetic to the character, and you can’t do that really well with Bobby Fischer.
The main character in Downfall was not very sympathetic, either. Not a good date movie, perhaps, but a very good film.
During his years of illness, Nash was an virulent antisemite, too. This unpleasantness was skipped over in the film. For folks like Fischer, Nash before his recovery, Judge Schreber, it’s impossible to separate their expressions of antisemitism from their mental illness. And by and large, these poor souls didn’t harm anyone. Not quite the same for the Downfall fellow.
One moment in the Pawn Sacrifice trailer (the confrontation with Spassky on the beach) does make me roll my eyes. Other than that, I am looking forward to seeing the movie this weekend.
See:
jewishjournal.com/up_front/a … _20020315/
A significant difference between Nash and Fischer is that Nash received treatment for his illness, whereas Fischer, as far as we know, did not.
The bottom line is that Nash is in many ways more interesting as a human than Fischer, IMO. Some of his delusions, as evidenced in the Nash film, are indeed funny and affecting. Nash also was a Princeton for many years and undoubtedly impacted many people in positive ways directly which I suspect Fischer did not.
If the movie comes out in general distribution to my area on Sept. 25, I might go to see it. Having grown up in chess during the Fischer era, seen all of the videos of the Cavett interviews and snippets of Fischer over the years, read the books, and been immersed in the history of the Cold War, the movie will likely be disappointing if approached like a fact checker. The first time I see it, I hope I can set all of the little details aside and just watch the drama for its artistic quality and how well the actors performed. Later when the film goes to video, I can slice and dice it for its accuracy. Who knows, the film may hit a deeper truth about the man and the times. We’ll see.
Somehow, I am less troubled about things being done out of order or the liberties directors usually take with history. For the most part, people, even famous, people live boring lives. They still have to buy soap and take out the garbage. It is not always drama and heroics. The movies focus on their more interesting moments to capture their personality. Truth is sometimes hard to put on film.
Sam Sloan’s Review of the Movie Pawn Sacrifice
I was invited to an advanced screening of the movie Pawn Sacrifice held on Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 10AM in New York City, based on the fact that I had been a close friend of Bobby Fischer. I was invited to the screening by Katherine Matthews. Only three other people were there. Two were non-chess players who work for Chess in the Schools. I do not know if other advanced screenings were held. After the screening, I sent my comments on the movie as follows:
The movie was wonderful, marvelous.
It brought tears to my eyes.
I had no idea it would be so good.
It accurately depicted the turmoil going on within Fischer and the turmoil going on outside of him while he was on his way to the World Championship.
The movie is intended to provide entertainment and not to be historically accurate. However, there are mistakes in the movie and it would be best to have them corrected, if possible, before the release of the movie in September 2015.
The movie calls the Chief Arbiter Wolfgang Schmid. His actual name was Lothar Schmid. I see you have corrected it on the website but it needs to be corrected in the sound track too.
Carmine Nigro who was Bobby’s first and only teacher was not one of the top 25 rated players in the country. He was a Class B player but did not have an official rating. The movie depicts him as being with Bobby all the way from the beginning in about 1949 to the Fischer Spassky Match in Reykjavik Iceland in 1972. In reality, Carmine Nigro had only a brief relationship with Fischer lasting only a few years at most.
William Lombardy will not like the way he is depicted but that is his own fault as he refused to cooperate in the making of the movie. It shows Lombardy first meeting and becoming involved with him at the time of the Olympiad in Yugoslavia. That is not true. I first met both Fischer and Lombardy together at the November, 1956 Eastern States Open Chess Championship in Washington DC, so Fischer and Lombardy were together at that time. You scan see our pictures together at anusha.com/post1956.htm
The movie shows Lombardy continuously involved with Fischer from their first meeting until the 1972 match. Not true. Lombardy dropped out of chess in 1961 after deciding to become a Catholic Priest. He did not become involved with Fischer again until the time of the 1972 match. In between those years Fischer was mostly involved with Grandmaster Larry Evans.
It says that Fischer won his first round game against Grandmaster Ivanovich at the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup in Los Angeles. This is not true. There is no Grandmaster Ivanovich. Fischer’s first win in that tournament was against Grandmaster Ivkov in Round 3.
It says Fischer defeated Korchnoi in Round 5 of that event. This is not true. Korchnoi never played in the Piatigorsky Cup. Fischer did defeat Korchnoi in two earlier tournament games in 1962 but never defeated him in a tournament game after that.
It shows Paul Marshall informing Fischer that Nixon had tried to call him three times but had been unable to reach him because Fischer had taken apart the telephone receivers searching for bugs in the telephone. I doubt this is true.
It says that they had found bugs in Fischer’s room during the Interzonal chess tournament in Tunisia. I do not think this is true but I am sure Fischer was concerned about the Soviets and others spying on him.
It shows lawyer Paul Marshall first meeting Fischer in the park and then being involved with him for years leading up to the 1972 match. I do not know when Paul Marshall first met Fischer but I do not believe they had such a long relationship.
It shows Fischer’s mother having a man sleep with her in the apartment disturbing Fischer while he is trying to study chess. I would like to know the source for this. You should not put such a salacious thing in a movie unless you are sure of your source.
It shows Fischer analyzing the moves 1. P-KR4 P-KR4 Ridiculous. You should take that out. Have Fischer studying 1. P-K4 P-K4 instead.
It shows Fischer’s virginity being lost to a street prostitute in Los Angeles. This becomes the love interest in the movie. Fischer’s first known encounter with a woman was with a prostitute but it was in Argentina. Grandmaster Larry Evans brought Fischer to a whorehouse. Fischer lost his chess game right after that and had the worst tournament in his life. Fischer never mixed sex and chess again.
It correctly shows the most famous move ever made, Fischer’s blunder in Game 2 with 29. …. BxKRP. Spassky replied 30. P-KN3. However, the movie shows Fischer resigning immediately in disgust. In reality, Fischer did not resign then and was not yet lost. Fischer made another mistake. He could have drawn the game with 40. … K-Q4. The game continued until move 56. This is one of the most famous games ever played, so every chess player will recognize that you made a mistake when you say that Fischer resigned after 30. P-KN3.
These little mistakes will cause chess playing viewers to deride the movie.
Others will say that this that person or this or that event or incident should be included in the movie. I disagree. The story line should be simple and easy for non-chess players to follow. Having more characters would not help anything. I think the producers of this movie did a great job.
Sam Sloan
Paul Morphy died on July 10, 1884 at age 47 in his bathtub. It has been suggested that he may have committed suicide. The doctor’s report said that he died because of taking a cold bath on a hot day. This seems difficult to believe. If he committed suicide it would certainly have been suppressed because Morphy was a Catholic and suicide is a mortal sin in the Catholic religion. The Catholic church would not bury a person who committed suicide, because a person who has committed suicide is a murderer. Morphy was found dead in his bathtub. If he had committed suicide, his family would naturally cover it up. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery One, so apparently there was no proof that he committed suicide if indeed he did.
The director Edward Zwick is, with all due respect, a master of the formulaic true story. Many of his best-known works—Glory, The Last Samurai, and Love and Other Drugs—are biopics of one kind or another, telling inspirational and dramatic tales of history crammed into neat three-act plot structures. With his latest film, Pawn Sacrifice, Zwick encounters his greatest challenge yet: trying to fit the life of the publicly paranoid, narcissistic chess genius Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) into the most straightforward narrative possible. Like all of Zwick’s works, it’s perfectly watchable fare, but it’s often infuriating for its refusal to dig deeper into its incredibly compelling subject…
theatlantic.com/entertainmen … ic/406048/
Even if he did commit suicide, God, in Her infinite Wisdom, will likely let him in to Heaven. After all, IIRC, he never played the Grob.
Pretty bad box office numbers for opening weekend. I think we’ll see it on Netflix pretty soon. Only seen on 33 screens in the US over the weekend.
leesmovieinfo.net/boxoffice.php?dp=3
Has anyone here, other than Sam, actually seen the film yet? If so, what did you think of it?
Maybe because it doesn’t officially open everywhere until this weekend? It was only in select cities until today.
We’ll soon see. On Rotten Tomatoes most of the reviews are good, but they invariably focus on Maguire’s performance. The negative reviews tend to look more at the overall film. I may be completely wrong, but I don’t see people flocking to this biopic. As one reviewer wrote in New York Magazine, “The suspense of Pawn Sacrifice is getting Fischer sane enough so that he can sit down across from his opponent and focus. We end up as impatient as those poor souls sitting in Reykjavík, looking at our watches.”
I’ll see Black Mass instead this weekend. 
Opened my Kindle and an ad for the movie was there!
Allow me to introduce you to Google, your long lost big brother.
Brought my ticket online to see the movie at 2:50pm on Friday Sept 25.
Saw it today down here in southern Delaware. I thought the movie was great.For those of us who were lucky enough to have been alive back then the film brought back some wonderful memories and I thought really captured the tremendous interest the Fischer-Spassky match entailed. For younger chess fans see the movie -you will be amazed at what Fischer mania was like.
Macguire was brilliant as Fischer. The intensity -the madness best role he has ever played.Schriber was equally compelling as Spassky.
As others have mentioned the chess facts are often wrong but frankly it did not matter.
Now the bad news-I live in a small beach town so maybe this is not at all representative of anywhere but a small beach town-there were maybe 5 people in the theatre. Its a shame that an amazing movie like this one that Macquire apparently spent 10 years trying to get made might end up being a box office flop-ergo another movie like this about chess might not ever be made again as a result.
Sam Sloan is not the only one to have a private showing. My wife and I were the only ones at the movie today for a 2:50 pm show. Thought the movie was fine. Wish I had gone to Vancouver BC during the Fischer match there years ago. Who never he was not going to play again after beating Spassky in 1972. Thinking about looking up the games mentioned in the movie.
Just got in from seeing Black Mass. Amazing performance by Depp. His best in years and a likely Oscar nomination. Cumberbatch was also fantastic as Bolger’s brother the state senate leader. Excellent screenplay as well. Don’t miss it. Pawn Sacrifice has some stiff competition in the biopic realm.
Yeh, I thought Who Framed Roger Rabbit was excellent several years ago, too.
Bill Smythe
I saw it yesterday in Paramus, NJ at 10:15 A.M. and there were about 5 other people besides me that were in attendance. I thought the movie was very well done, and it was a bit of a “tear jerker” to say the least.
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ