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Posted Monday, June 20th, 2011 - 9 Comments »
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DP/30 Emmywatch: Bobby Fischer vs The World, director Liz Garbus

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9 Comments »

9 Responses to “DP/30 Emmywatch: Bobby Fischer vs The World, director Liz Garbus”

  1. Don R. Lewis says:
    June 20, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    I caught this doc on HBO a week or so back and it’s really, really good. Well, the first 3/4ths are. I felt it petered out at the end and Garbus et all dropped the ball on some key interviews. It was almost like they ran out of time or money and just said “we’re done!” But still….amazing, compelling story. I had know idea Bobby Fisher cracked up!

  2. Boris Spassky says:
    June 20, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    “I had know idea Bobby Fisher cracked up!”

    …what’s happening over there at film threat?

  3. yancyskancy says:
    June 20, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    Fischer.

    I’ll keep an eye out for this on HBO.

  4. JS Partisan says:
    June 20, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    It didn’t peter out as much as it represented the descent of Fisher into madness. I could be wrong but that seemed to be an artistic decision, and I agree with Boris. Seriously, what were you doing in the oughties?

  5. movieman says:
    June 21, 2011 at 5:32 am

    Terrific documentary, a fascinating story and I’m not even a chess-head.
    I’m surprised that Fisher hasn’t been given the biopic treatment yet.
    Paging Ryan Gosling.

  6. Don R. Lewis says:
    June 21, 2011 at 9:23 am

    The real irony (to me) of my lack of knowing Fischer freaked out is that I was really into chess as a little kid and read his book.

    As for the “artistic decision” regarding the end of the film (***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***)
    Why was the woman who later reached out to Fischer and got him out of retirement not interviewed? I was also surprised there was not much footage of him wigging out and going all anti-semitic at the end. Granted, that stuff may not exist but the lack of explanation or reasoning behind why that woman reached out to Fischer and got him back to playing seemed odd. There wasn’t even a “Mrs So-and-So refused to be interviewed for this film” type of thing.

  7. yancyskancy says:
    June 21, 2011 at 11:33 am

    movieman: Well, there’s always BOBBY FISCHER LIVE, which sounds like an unauthorized bio of sorts. It’s a vanity project of actor/director/writer Damian Chapa, who has done similar projects in which he plays Marlon Brando and Roman Polanski (both of which have “Unauthorized” in the title).

  8. David Poland says:
    June 21, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    Ugh… double-checked “Garbus”… wrong name screwed up… sorry

  9. movieman says:
    June 21, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Yancy- The material in the doc, most of which was completely new to me (as I said, I’m no chess fanatic), was so rich and compelling that I could easily picture a classy biopic–maybe something like Bill Condon’s terrific “Kinsey”–made from Fischer’s life. And the wildly chameleonic Gosling would absolutely kill as Fischer.
    Btw, I’ve never heard of Chapa’s “BF Live.” Has it ever been released?

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