# Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

### reviewed by
Alex Lopez-Ortiz

                              SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER
                            A film review by Alex Lopez-Ortiz
                             Copyright 1993 Alex Lopez-Ortiz

Starring: Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, Max Pomeranc, Laurence Fishburne. Director/Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian.

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER is a top contender for the best movie of the summer.

It is hard to imagine a more difficult topic for a movie than chess. It is not a popular game/sport, and as countless flicks have proven, sports movies are seldom a success. It seems that the battles of the field in a sports match are already cartoonish enough so as to tolerate another layer of dramatization in the big screen.

And even among the few sport movies that excel there is a common complain: the sports footage is completely unrealistic, thus making the movie insurmountable for sport aficionados.

Director Steven Zaillian took the challenge and passed with flying colours. SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER is a movie that appeals to a large audience and to chess experts alike. Technical assistance by the noted chess player Bruce Pandolfini paid handsomely.

         The drama on the screen and on the board is real.

On a first approach, SEARCHING is a movie about the true story of chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin, and how he and his family adjust to having a wunderkind at home. Even if this is all what you get from the movie, it is worth your time and money to see it.

But there is more to SFBF than what meets the eye. Think about chess as a 8x8 mock up of life ordeals; suddenly it is not just a game. In fact, there is nothing more offending for a professional sportsmen than telling him/her that their sport in question is "just a game". You live and breath through playing.

From this perspective, SEARCHING is also about the extremes of chess (and life) so skillfully represented by Pandolfini, Vinnie, Josh's dad, mom, the chess parents, and Josh's opponent and his trainer.

         -- Which one is you?
         -- What do you mean?
         -- I mean: Which one is you?

         I mean: see the movie.

The last facet of this movie, which has been seldom mentioned in the reviews, is the search for the real Bobby Fischer, portrayed through some skillfully interspersed footage of Fischer during the 1960-1970's.

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER is, in black and white, a search for the past.

         -- What do you want?
         -- I want back what Bobby Fischer took away from chess.

America was strong. It had just beaten Russia in their national pasttime. Those were happier times: "we were young and we were strong". But all this is gone. It just disappeared.

SEARCHING is also about this search, we want back the innocence of our young years, we want back the security of the streets, we want back the comfort of a well paid job. We want our champion past back. Is Josh (this generation) the Prometheus of a new future? Pandolfini hopes it is so....

Rating: **** (out of five) (8.5 out of 10).

    --
    Alex Lopez-Ortiz                              alopez-o@maytag.UWaterloo.ca
    Department of Computer Science                      University of Waterloo
    Waterloo, Ontario                                                   Canada

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