Synopsis
On the board he fought the Cold War. In his mind he fought his madness.
American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky.
2014 Directed by Edward Zwick
American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky.
Tobey Maguire Lily Rabe Peter Sarsgaard Liev Schreiber Sophie Nélisse Michael Stuhlbarg Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick Conrad Pla Aiden Lovekamp Evelyne Brochu Robin Weigert Andreas Apergis Katie Bird Nolan Ilia Volok Peter Janov Spiro Malandrakis Arthur Holden Raphael Grosz-Harvey John Maclaren Vitali Makarov Eric Lee Huffman Brett Watson Shawn Campbell Eugene Nomura Norman Lehnert Edward Zinoviev Serge Martineau Sam Stone Jonathan Dubsky Show All…
Paul Hotte Martine Giguère-Kazemirchuk Daniel Hamelin André Valade Veronique Meunier Jean Gagnon Frédéric Berthiaume
Θυσιάζοντας ένα πιόνι, Áldozat, Ігри чемпіонів, El caso Fischer
eventually, Ed Zwick will make a movie that's entirely comprised of expository post-film title cards. at this point, that almost seems to be his goal.
"In 1972, Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to win the World Championship title in the game of Harder Checkers.
...Today we call it Chess."
1. first off this is my dads new favorite movie of all time he said its a 9.8/10 so honestly u have to believe him because he's like 63 and really likes manhunter
2. i thought tobey maguire was using an iPad even though this was the 70s when really it was a cute little portable chess thing
3. my uncle thought that this was just a dude who looked just like tobey maguire
4. i love the great gatsby (2013)
5. i have been to washington square park therefore i like this movie
6. i went to the bathroom and fell down on my way back that was rough
7. goddamn it bobby
I’m a bit of a chess obsessive so I’ll watch pretty much any chess movie or show, but Toby is awful in this. The move here was clearly to make the movie about Liev Schreiber in cool sunglasses with maybe a very broad cameo by Toby. Not sure how you mess that up. Anyway, download SocialChess and drop your handle in the comments if you ever want to play.
From the director of Glory, The Last Samurai & Blood Diamond, Pawn Sacrifice arrives as a consistently thrilling, wonderfully paced & ably performed picture that attempts to bring on screen the life story of the American chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer, and chronicles the rise & fall of the grandmaster who went on to redefine the game of chess like never before.
Set during the height of the Cold War, the story of Pawn Sacrifice is mainly concerned with the rivalry between Bobby Fischer & Boris Spassky, a Soviet chess wiz who was the world champion back then. The plot overviews Fischer's childhood & meteoric rise in the arena of chess that reaches its pinnacle in the 1972 World Chess Championship and also covers his descent…
me, to myself: why are you watching a movie about chess?
myself, to me, exhausted, with my buttons in the wrong holes, only one sock on and my hair sticking up to the sky, i haven’t been outside in 10 months, my mother has forgotten my name, my only solace is the light of my laptop: god I wish I knew at this point
Spider-man 3 did some harm to my man, Toby....
Another film where the lead steals the show and has the entire movie resting on his shoulder... and that's kind of unfair.
The story itself has its moment, but just like the game itself, the excitement would really depend on whether you are interested in it or not. Personally, I found the movie very tenseless, which doesn't help for a feature that desperately seeks for it.
Zwick does what he can to make this movie interesting, but the results are pretty uneven. There are some nice footages used in between the film to set us in the period, that was good, though at times feels a bit weird.
All in all, if you are a fan of Maguire or Chess or history, you might like this one. Otherwise, you might want to skip this.
Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (14) challenge.
Touted by world media as "The Match of the Century," the 1972 World Chess Championship was held during the summer in Reykjavík, Iceland at the Laugardalshöll Arena. It pitted America's prodigious upstart Bobby Fischer against Russia's dominant Grandmaster Boris Spassky, the reigning World Champion.
I remember all the hype leading up to this showdown. I was a college student traveling in Europe when play started in July and had returned to the United States before it concluded in August. Interest in the face-off was phenomenal on both continents.
Of course, even before the first pawn was moved, the confrontation bore all the earmarks of a cold war thriller. Fischer…
In spite of problems in many areas such as structure and use of montages, cheesy dialogue, unnecessary over-dramatization deriving from slow-motion, music and editing, Pawn Sacrifice was captivating, especially so in the final act. That was also where we got at least few moments with Spassky.
Chess is a game I’ve admired and tried to get into but don’t have the patience or commitment required. I know who Fischer is but never knew what he was like. So whether this film does him justice or not, it has inspired me to find out more about him. And I consider that to be a strong plus. Maguire played his part convincingly enough for me not to know whether I wanted to…
Pawn Sacrifice has a ton of potential, and for the most part, Ed Zwick does a good job with the material. The climatic chess match itself is enthralling, and Bobby Fischer's mentality is shown from an interesting point of view. That being said, the film takes way too long to reach its central conflict and becomes composed mostly of exposition rather than insight. Tobey Maguire's excellent performance makes even the dull points of the film watchable, which helps, but it doesn't fully make up for the plot's overall lack of focus.
In the end, Pawn Sacrifice is a messy but intriguing film about the life of Bobby Fischer. It may not be perfect, but it's solid depiction of Bobby Fischer's mentality during a crucial point of his life.
Pawn sacrifice is an interesting look into Bobby fischer and what he was and what drove him. The film is very reminiscent of the last 10-15 years of American biopics but with a bit less optimism than most of what you might have seen. It has some pacing issues and there’s not enough development in any character not named Bobby to really care about them but perhaps the truth strangles the fiction in that regard.
Truth be told though it does feel like tobey maguire deserves every moment he has on screen he has the most to work with but most definitely produces the most and as a lead he is captivating and makes you understand the mental anguish that…
It was a serviceable dramatization of this scenario. There is a documentary about Fisher I like better.
Before The Queen's Gambit...
An interesting film about a sport that is rarely caught on film.
The script is an average script by the great Steven Knight.
Tobey Maguire is also enjoyable.
3 - Average
Bobby Fisher went nuts! So sad! that he died! 😢 I think Tobey Maguire fits this movie very well, - Spiderman turned into a chess player!
I actually like chess and really enjoy playing it from time to time. So I'm quite surprised as to how a film that revolves around this game, is less than 2 hours long and is even titled 'Pawn Sacrifice', managed to feel like such a drag at times.
I like Edward Zwick as a director, my favourites from him being 'The Last Samurai' and 'Blood Diamond' but this was quite disappointing. What somewhat saved the film for me, was good direction and solid performances for the most part, but the impact of the 'big moments', such as the finale, just did not feel earned.
Aside from the fact that Pawn Sacrifice is one of the few 'chess-based' films or shows,…
This is an interesting character driven biopic, based on real events. Of course its mainly about chess but it's also about getting an idea of the main character's mindset. It's pretty clear from early on that he has some personal issues and paranoia is an obvious factor at play. It's frustrating watching someone with a clear talent take the decisions and do what he does. I did feel somewhat sorry for him, which is perhaps surprising given his attitude but I understand that people don't necessarily realise that what they believe to be true, isn't necessarily so.
I thought Tobey Maguire was a good choice of actor to play the main character, Bobby Fischer. I also thought there was some good cinematography. There are subtitles on screen at times, due to the Russian language being spoken, with Russian media shown reporting on what was happening at the time.
There's going to be a good film to be made about the Fischer Spassky duel and the surrounding circumstances unfortunately this is not it.
It has its moments but always falls back on stereotype and melodrama and never gets to grip properly with internal tensions of the chess games.
This is probably my favourite Tobey Maguire performance. He is just unbelievable and against type as Bobby Fischer, playing him as a really unlikeable flawed genius. The rest of the cast - Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, Peter Sarsgaard as William Lombardy, Michael Stuhlbarg as Paul Marshall, Lily Rabe as Bobby's sister Joan, and Robin Weigert as his mother - are all fine as well. The movie itself is merely ok.
Tobias Andersen 8,758 films
Rules: Generate a number (from 1 to x) via: www.random.org
See how many number of films there are in the…
Gordon 1,690 films
Just a list of some pretty cool movie posters on the LB database. I haven't seen most of these movies.…
Filipe Coutinho 167 films
Range $15-$60mil (give or take a few mil) In collaboration with Ben
MundoF 6,286 films
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the…
Pol 7,313 films
Actualizado el 02/08/2020
(Casi) todas las películas disponibles en Filmin. Esta lista ha sido generada automáticamente con datos de justwatch.com/es…
Pol 3,809 films
Actualizado el 02/08/2020
(Casi) todas las películas disponibles en Amazon Prime Video España. Esta lista ha sido generada automáticamente con…
Alan Silva 2,955 films
Lista de filmes, em ordem cronológica, sobre fatos da História Geral, da Pré-História aos dias de hoje. Para professores e…
Zach Rayman 31 films
Prompts Skipped: 2 Re-watches: 2 _________________________________________________________________________ Top 5 (Non-Rewatches): 1. Mary and Max 2. Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of…
theblcklst 429 films
A definitive list of the more than 400 Black Lists scripts produced to date.
The Black List connects screenwriters, filmmakers…
Jay 44 films
Adam Laiben 842 films
Real stories. Real People. Not always accurate and sometimes embellished for emotional effect, but always interesting. This is the ultimate…