All this summer, HBO is featuring documentary films in its line up, so all this summer, we’ll be reviewing them.
On one hand, it makes complete sense to create a documentary about Bobby Fischer; he was a child prodigy, the world chess champion, and an insane person. All of those elements can add up to remarkably compelling storytelling. On the other, Fischer is undoubtedly a relic of another time whose 15 minutes of fame seemed artificially stretched beyond their breaking point by a people as obsessed with him as he was with chess.
In Bobby Fischer Against the World, director Liz Garbus pieces together a monumentally beautiful documentary that’s only slightly uninteresting.
The doc does a fantastic job of telling Fischer’s life story inasmuch as it consists mainly of childhood fame, an iconic match to become world champion, and a pathetic downhill slide into paranoia and death. Yes, he is an incendiary figure that helped launch a giant chess craze in the United States during a time where any fight between the Soviets and the Red, White and Blue would have caused a sensation. It’s also true that he was infuriating (and that’s might make him interesting for some). Unfortunately, Fischer isn’t very compelling past his achievements; he’s a cultural marker that maintained a spotlight because he refused to play by the rules, not because he had anything profound to say.
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