Good start, but then it gets ruined

Crappy film

Absolutely brilliant

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

An excellent screenplay by Steven Knight makes chess just about as thrilling as it can get - and you don't need to know anything about chess to enjoy it. Couple with the Cold War backdrop and it works on two levels. It is also a look at Fischer's rather sad decline and it would have been nice to see more of the post-game developments rather than the pre-game story.Some of the direction and/or editing slows the pace a little too much in places and cutting the running time by 15 minutes would have tightened it up considerably, perhaps garnering nother * but it would be churlish to criticise it too much.The actors are all superb with a special mention of Michael Stuhlbarg but that's to single out one gem in a bag of diamonds. And an excellent score by James Newton Howard.It didn't have a wide release but it's well worth watching if you can catch it.

This film takes place during the Cold War with a young American by the name of "Bobby Fischer" (played by Tobey Maguire) setting out to become the World Chess Champion which had been under exclusive domination of the Soviet Union for almost 40 years. Yet, even though he was a most formidable challenger there were several obstacles he had to overcome, which not only included an incredible number of skilled Soviet grandmasters, but his own character flaws as well. To that end, this film provides an interesting--albeit somewhat flawed—glimpse into this person's unique quest. Now, having said that, let me first state that I thought both Tobey Maguire, and Liv Schreiber (as "Boris Spassky") performed in an excellent manner. However, to be fair there were certain aspects which lacked historical accuracy and should probably be mentioned as well. First, I don't believe this film gives an accurate or honest portrayal of Bobby Fischer. Yes, he would often become quite agitated when distracted by noise. But let's be honest, he wasn't the only chess player to voice his displeasure in that regard. Likewise, there were a couple of times he walked out during certain chess competitions. However, it should be noted that Bobby had religious restrictions which forbade him from playing on the Sabbath. So when his legitimate objections were ignored he did what he felt was necessary. Yet rather than giving him credit for putting his religious beliefs ahead of everything else this film uses this fact against him. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Bobby was very shy and socially awkward. Unfortunately, rather than taking this into account this film makes him look like a raving lunatic instead. Now, that is not to say that Bobby didn't eventually go completely insane. But this was a gradual process which accelerated after he won the World Championship due in part to his feelings of betrayal by the same religious institution he had put so much faith—and money--into. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, Bobby was quite shy and as a result he preferred to do things on his own and was very much a loner. That said, this movie greatly exaggerates the influence "Father Bill Lombardy" (Peter Sarsgaard) and "Paul Marshall" (Michael Stuhlbarg) had upon him. Further, it should also be mentioned that Boris Spassky was not the World Champion when he and Bobby sat down at the board during the Piatigorsky Cup in 1966—that honor belonged at the time to Tigran Petrosian and it would be another 3 years before Boris could claim that title. To that extent, these are just a few of the inaccuracies detailed in this film--with several other flaws out there that I haven't mentioned. That being said, those who have followed Bobby Fisher's career will probably be less than impressed with the manner in which he has been portrayed. Ironically, in spite of these criticisms, I still found this film to still be entertaining to a certain degree and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

During the height of the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire. With an impressive performance by Tobey Maguire Pawn Sacrifice is a film with a lot of tension mostly every time there's a chess scene between Fischer and his other opponents as for negatives the rest of the cast is just there and it's pacing is kinda moody and that ruined the whole film for me a bit and i'm gonna give it an 7.0 out of 10. It's still worth your time just for Maguire's performance but if you except something way more you will probably be left disappointed.

Tobey Maguire is best known for playing Spider-Man on the silver screen, while fellow actor Liev Schreiber took on the role of Sabretooth in another Marvel movie – X-Men Origins: Wolverine.It is an appropriate background, because in Pawn Sacrifice the acting duo assume the identities of two of the superheroes of the chess world – Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.The film was out in 2014 but the distribution has been patchy. It received only a limited release in the UK, for example, and has not been available for Brits via iTunes or Netflix. So being based in England I ordered a Polish DVD from Amazon and had to fiddle with the subtitles and language in order to watch it.Was it worth the hassle? Yes, just about.For my full review, see here: https://www.chess.com/blog/thejacka1/pawn- sacrifice-movie-review