Pawn Sacrifice

2014

Action / Biography / Drama / History / Sport / Thriller

81
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 66% · 119 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 66% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 53698 53.7K

russia reykjavik chess cold war 1970s victory

Plot summary

During the height of the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire.

Director

Edward Zwick Photo
Edward Zwick

Top cast

Al Dubois Photo
Al Dubois as NBC Reporter
John Lennon Photo
John Lennon as Himself
John Kennedy Jr. Photo
John Kennedy Jr. as Himself
Evelyne Brochu Photo
Evelyne Brochu as Donna
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
935.47 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 55 min
Seeds 14
1.84 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 55 min
Seeds 50

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by cherold 8 / 10

The intersection of celebrity, politics, mental illness, and chess

When I was a kid, Bobby Fischer was a big deal. He was a brilliant chess player known for his eccentricities. And I was perplexed as to how chess had become a big deal.Turns out it was another cold war proxy fight in which the U.S. and Russia were trying to prove their inherent superiority. This was not Bobby Fischer's idea; he just wanted to be a chess champ. In the movie, he's fairly oblivious to the tides of history, at least until he gets caught up in paranoid theories.This is a very interesting movie with a terrific performance by Tobey Maguire that manages to make chess riveting even if, like me, you have to real idea what's going on. The story it tells is clear and concise, as a mercurial Fischer descends into paranoia while those around him push him forward at any cost.In fact, the story is a little too neat. The movie feels very much like the movie you'd expect to see if you remember Bobby's weird demands and celebrity. But usually life is a little more complicated than a movie. Reading about Fischer on wikipedia, I saw things that didn't fit in with the movie's view. For example, Fischer was unusually athletic for a chess player, working out regularly during the World Championship, and his love life went beyond hooking up with a prostitute; he later married, which is hard to imagine of Maguire's version.Still, this is a fascinating, well paced movie that is constantly engaging. This is one of these movies, like All the President's Men, that has figured out how to bring intense drama to hard work and tedious thoroughness.It also makes me wish I'd actually read some of those chess books my dad bought me; I always just sort of stumbled through without ever understanding the complexities of the game.
Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 7 / 10

A very well made movie

PAWN SACRIFICE is, on the face of it, a film about the famous chess match between American and Russian rivals Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in the 1970s. However, it's not so much about chess, and rather a psychological portrait of a mentally ill man. Fischer was a real character who was adversely affected by the pressure of the international chess scene, and this movie gets inside his head in a very clever and intense way. That's no surprise given that it was directed by the excellent Edward Zwick, who has directed such superlative fare as GLORY and THE LAST SAMURAI in the past. Tobey Maguire gives a very good performance as the nervy protagonist and Liev Schreiber is perfect as his rival; the constantly underrated Michael Stuhlbarg also excels in support. Overall this is a very well made movie, one which kept my interest throughout.
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