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Showing posts with label Bobby Fischer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bobby Fischer. Show all posts

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

A case of too much thinking !

Imagine my chagrin, as I was watching "Pawn sacrifice", a week after mentioning it in another blog post, that most of the mentions of Life and other magazines in that post, were actually happening in front of my eyes.

They must have showed it in the promos that I had seen, was what I told myself but what about the creeps that are somehow beginning to look like stalkers to me, who invariably find a seat, (*next or near to me*, without this correction, it sounds quite pompous as if creeps should not find a seat even in a near-to-empty cinema hall) in a near-to-empty cinema hall?

This time the moron was more eager to make some munching sounds (for those not familiar with Indians, these are creepy types that go around thinking that if they 'irritate' others, they are either making them 'cute' to others, when they describe such moronity or that they are 'psyching' others.) as if to make me specially take note that 'it' was making those sounds!

Probably, the nutcase wanted to make a point 'tellingly' that 'it' had read my blog post because there was another similar creep, talking to its friend, outside the cinema, that "These are the kind of people that people hear about" and then repeated it, tellingly, even as the other remonstrated that once was enough! Quite clearly, a case of too much thinking beyond what their faculties could allow them.

The point is while you expect some to respond, if not favorably upon reading a blog, to at least not make my life 'stalked' and 'witch hunted'.

Co-incidentally, this is how the life of Fischer, the American Chess genius, was thought best to be described as by the filmmakers of the bio-pic. Strange!

Nevertheless, the biopic, as they call it, is well made.

Boris Spassky, played by Liev Schreiber, is almost like how we, my friends and I, used to talk about Spassky in our childhood - with awe and admiration.

To be absolutely objective, Schreiber seems to have got stuck with the introverted, controlled-in-a-repressed-manner roles - The Manchurian Candidate, even in the Omen - you name them and he looks "ready to look troubled" like an instant mix of "troubled and haunted by ghosts" pack.

But in all fairness, good enough a portrayal of Spassky to merit an Oscar for the best supporting role. I am sure the Russians would agree, too, and back him for the award.

And hey, in my previous blog post on the same topic, I had mentioned that Tobey Maguire looks more like Karpov than Fischer.

I.stick.by.that.verdict.

Made, then, only with having seen the promos and the ad banner but yet, how right I was.

This was not the Fischer that we used to visualize and probably, not as the screenplay writers must have either, because at many places, the dialogues clearly left me feeling that, "This line should have been spoken by some other type of character, in a lighter vein, but not this person."

I am almost certain that Fischer would have been appalled at how he was being cast had he been alive to see the movie but all credit to Maguire for having produced such a film and for having learnt Chess for the film !!

And they also show the real Bobby Fischer during the credits, bulky, tall and heavily bearded.

Myself, I am almost sure that no Hollywood producer is going to consider me for a role after this or even talk to me for not having praised one of their fraternity or if not praised, at least not have picked on the film at all.

But, as I said at the beginning of the post, the same applies to many blog readers, who are setting stalkers and witch hunters, however harmless they may be!

Friday, 18 September 2015

Pawn sacrifice - Not Fischer?

That heroes, from Bobby Fischer to Za (one of the many unsung heroines), have been treated badly and consistently over a period of time is not such a great concern, but what is, is that even Hollywood did not think it necessary to show a semblance of Fischer at least as how he was physically.

Image source: Wikipedia

Imagine this picture of Fischer almost resembling Captain America and yet Hollywood did not find anyone closely matching the height or appearance, even if fugitive status and franchise start with 'f'!

Image source: Wikipedia

The reason I find such deviations so odd as to warrant a mention in my blog is because many go around memorizing how to respond and how to 'position' themselves with their opinions by memorizing all those personalities, foreign, who may have either a fugitive status or a refugee or some unlawful stain to them and this, they consider as some kind of a patriotic, strategic stance (although mentioning that they themselves may never even have talked to greatness is definitely not demeaning myself) and then pointing out all the other persons' 'mistakes in life', who praise or glorify those 'tainted' greats, as due to them not following 'protocol'.

It is very important, this bloated 'protocol', because there is a coterie that attempts to prove such 'thinkers' right by maliciously causing others who do not fall by the protocol to be shown deliberately and forcedly in bad light, with the excuse that it is meant as a 'lesson' for the younger in the organization and circles.

Sometimes it is also important to think otherwise - some individuals bring an incredible lot with them for the country and Fischer was the one, who brought the Soviet Union to its knees at its own game - Chess and, respect for the US, with his genius.

The legends that the chess manuscripts and the stories that exist about Fischer's impact on the Soviet grandmasters of that time, especially Botvinnik, Tal and Spassky, carry, are simply fabulous fables that only the Chess knowledgeable could appreciate.

Titles like the 'lone American warrior defeating the mighty Soviet Union' also has considerable historical significance because of how the USSR would begin to see this genius, who time and again ridiculed Botvinnik's predictions and derisive remarks. For not only had Fischer tamed the might of the super grandmasters of the era, he had also probably ignited a spirit that paved the way for the end of the Cold War.