Pawn Sacrifice

Luciano Coelho

Opinion Piece

Oct 10 2015

How interesting does it sound to hear someone make a connection between the game of chess and the Cold War? Pawn Sacrifice is based on a true story. Its main character, Robert James Fischer aka “Bobby Fischer”, is based off of an American World Chess Champion of the same name.

           

Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Bobby was very appropriate. He showed us that while Bobby may have been paranoid at times and angry at other times, when there was peace and quiet Bobby was a masterful chess player that simply could not be beat. His angry outbursts were believable and marked the peak of Maguire’s acting in this movie. That’s not to say that he was not believable when he played calm Bobby. Looking back at it, I cannot think of a better actor to play Bobby in this movie. Maguire looked the part and acted the part, even in the scene when he was on the phone talking with his sister and having a nervous breakdown and communicating his paranoia to her.

Behind the scenes shot of Bobby crying to his older sister over the phone.  

All of Pawn Sacrifice had a somewhat subtle Cold War mood, and this mood was captured perfectly by the constant use of blues and grays that were so present in the movie’s environments. Some of the scenes take place in Iceland, during what looks like   the late hours of the day. Iceland’s lack of trees and vast landscapes capture the bleakness and cold that many felt during the Cold War. The two rooms where Bobby broke Spassky in order to become world champion were also filled with the colors blue and grey.

To the right, one of the main characters approaches Bobby
 saying that  he wishes to help Bobby with his problems
 concerning the Russians and beating them.

Not all of Pawn Sacrifice is blues and grays, though. Minus a sunny beach scene where he wakes up and sees the current world champion, Spassky - then proceeds to yell at him “I’m coming for you!” - much of the movie is shown in warms sepia tones. These warm sepia tones make the movie feel intimate, though not intimate in a romantic way. In fact, it is far from it. These warm sepia tones make the viewer feel a warm connection to Bobby’s human side, which mostly consists of concerned, angry outbursts and paranoia. These sepia tones bring us closer to his mad genius self. Though these tones make us feel a connection to Bobby’s inner self, it must be noted that Bobby has no romantic interest throughout the movie. The focus is on his moods and paranoia, all of which stem from his brilliant and masterful involvement with the game of chess.

Here we see Bobby’s hands opening his telephone

 to see if the Soviets bugged it.

There are a few seconds of romantic intimacy in the movie. At one point Bobby is very angry at the way Russian chess players are treated, and while shouting and yelling outside the motel he is staying in, he meets a girl. We very briefly see her a few times in the movie. He agrees to give her his virginity and the movie immediately goes back to chess and Bobby’s personality problems, which again all seem to stem from his involvement with the game of chess. This very brief romantic involvement, if you can even call it that, serves to remind the reader that chess is Bobby’s life, and everything else is merely a distraction or some sort of problem.

The strange thing about the movie is that Bobby’s human side doesn’t seem very human at all. Because the only sign of humanity we see from him is paranoia and concern about how the Russians treat the game of chess and their native players.

Bobby playing chess against several players at once.

The movie mentioned the Cold War as a war of perception, and Bobby went as far as to say that the Russians were more or less cheating in order to keep up the appearance that they were superior and smarter, because their chess players were the best in the world.

At the end of the film, the audience is shown real images and clips of Robert James Fischer along with written text explaining the aftermath of his life after the match with Spassky. It is a very sad ordeal. We learn that Bobby turned down millions of dollars in endorsements and was arrested for vagrancy before being granted asylum in Iceland, a few years before his death.

            All in all Pawn Sacrifice is a decent watch. Maguire was on point playing Bobby Fischer and so were the other two actors who played the men that helped him, one who was a priest and one who handled his publicity and finances. The movie gave us a close view of the type of person that Bobby was. The landscapes and colors captured the mood of the movie, and one could not walk away without feeling some compassion for Fischer. If you enjoy the typical “mad genius” story, this movie is for you.