[Voices in the background]: Bobby Fischer is an isolated man....Bobby Fischer is a strange man, people think that there is something wrong with the man...His social life is a vacuum...The most arrogant man you'd ever like to meet...Whatever happened to Bobby Fischer...
"Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer" - Albert Einstein
Liz Garbus's Bobby Fischer Against The World is a documentary feature film on the rise and fall of arguably the greatest chess player to have ever walked on this planet. The documentary shows us real and very old footage of Bobby Fischer. Even though it was clear that he was a child prodigy, Bobby's awkwardness in front of the camera is very evident. Liz Garbus tries to hint at his childhood with an absent father and a mother who was more interested in other affairs as the reason for his strange ways with people. It had obviously started from a very young age and it wasn't the constant media attention and his privacy issues that turned him into the man he became for the later part of his life.
The documentary also captures the famous 1972 World Championship match against Boris Spassky in Iceland that Bobby won. The match received a lot of attention because of the Cold War and Bobby, the darling of the United States, was pitted against Spassky, a product of the Soviet communist regime. Bobby's wayward ways during the match where he arrived late and would make outlandish demands was seen by many as a psychological warfare tactic to annoy Spassky. However, it clearly wasn't about the match and Bobby had already started fighting his inner demons. What followed that famous victory was Bobby refused to defend his title three years later in 1975 and disappeared from all the unwanted attention.
Agreed that Bobby was a difficult child which could be traced to his upbringing, however, it seems weird that a Jew himself would come out and make some of the anti-Semitic comments that Bobby is known for. What the documentary fails to answer is whether Bobby turned into a Jew-hater and had a persecution complex when it came to the United States because of his deep-rooted mental issues or was it something that triggered the sudden change. Was his fall-out with the United States because of his refusal to defend the title wherein he was no more the poster-boy in the midst of the Cold War? Could there have been a propaganda against him to discredit anything he might say? We do see a footage of Henry Kissinger mentioning that Bobby's wins are "Good for America". Is it possible that because he was not good for them anymore that he'd be chased out of every country where he sought asylum (before finally Iceland providing him a home against the politics of the United States)?
The documentary is well-made that would cater to the taste of many as it claims to provide a deeper look into the intriguing life of a mad genius. Still, it is pretty much a one-sided view of the man and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It is a view shared by most of the people since they love cheap thrills out of someone else's misfortunes or the sensationalism in associating genius with paranoia. Though just because somebody is paranoid, doesn't mean that he isn't right and holds no credibility.
Rating: 7/10
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