"Bobby Fischer Against the World" is a truly excellent documentary by Liz Garbus (first presented-released back in 2011) recollecting the tumultuous Life of tremendously gifted (but equally troubled) Bobby Fischer. Of course Fischer achieved an amazingly unprecedented World-championship win against Russian Boris Spassky, circa 1972.
The historical significance of course being that the Russians had almost completely dominated the Chess-World for half-a-Century, and it was well-known that the Soviet-system spent/ lavished exorbitant amounts of time & resources to cultivate a veritable army of young chess-masters => and the Lone American genius Bobby Fischer would seemingly single-handedly thwart the perceived totalitarian Goliath, thus making the World safe for democracy? (at least, that is how the modern 'Mythology' was told. But it later turned out that some of the former-Soviets, like Garry Kasparov especially, had highly-individualistic and free-spirited personalities themselves!
To this day, I think a number of experts still consider Bobby Fischer (in his prime), to be perhaps the all-time 'best' i.e. most statistically unbeatable/ strategically imaginative chess-master (but I am certainly not any kind of expert on this matter - so please judge for yourself)
Liz Garbus' superlative documentary also shows that as time went on (i.e in the decades following Fisher's miraculous Win) and especially during the time of Bobby Fischer's 're-emergence' in the 1990's, much of the earlier 'mystique' and his heroic visage considerably diminished (certainly not in terms of the historical significance of his brilliant win in 1972, or his earlier truly one-of-a-kind Chess abilities => but in regards to his deteriorated, seemingly even 'delusional' mental state upon reappearance - particularly the most troubling & virulently anti-American, anti-Semitic statements after 911, etc.
Liz Garbus' film forces us to ruminate on that age-old truism of madness/genius being oftentimes inseparable (and/or the concept of a tightly-wound 'mind' that has absolutely no capacity to slow-down or 'shift' into a lower gear i.e. no gift of even temporary respite), might also somewhat account for the slippage into self-destructive/ self-imposed darkness (but only a first-rate psychiatrist/psychoanalyst might be able to provide accurate diagnoses - and I thought I had once read that at least one psychiatrist determined that Fischer was still clinically 'sane' in the early 2000's.
In totality Grabus' fascinating documentary poses the additional age-old, but most persistent question: How do we separate the astounding achievements of an individual, from the actual life lived (is there a way to isolate the miraculous gifts from the disheartening actions or beliefs embodied by the flesh & blood human being?) This is a most bewildering (and even disquieting) question = one personified by the deep contrast of authentic Genius vs. (equally authentic) 'Madness' that was Bobby Fischer.
The historical significance of course being that the Russians had almost completely dominated the Chess-World for half-a-Century, and it was well-known that the Soviet-system spent/ lavished exorbitant amounts of time & resources to cultivate a veritable army of young chess-masters => and the Lone American genius Bobby Fischer would seemingly single-handedly thwart the perceived totalitarian Goliath, thus making the World safe for democracy? (at least, that is how the modern 'Mythology' was told. But it later turned out that some of the former-Soviets, like Garry Kasparov especially, had highly-individualistic and free-spirited personalities themselves!
To this day, I think a number of experts still consider Bobby Fischer (in his prime), to be perhaps the all-time 'best' i.e. most statistically unbeatable/ strategically imaginative chess-master (but I am certainly not any kind of expert on this matter - so please judge for yourself)
Liz Garbus' superlative documentary also shows that as time went on (i.e in the decades following Fisher's miraculous Win) and especially during the time of Bobby Fischer's 're-emergence' in the 1990's, much of the earlier 'mystique' and his heroic visage considerably diminished (certainly not in terms of the historical significance of his brilliant win in 1972, or his earlier truly one-of-a-kind Chess abilities => but in regards to his deteriorated, seemingly even 'delusional' mental state upon reappearance - particularly the most troubling & virulently anti-American, anti-Semitic statements after 911, etc.
Liz Garbus' film forces us to ruminate on that age-old truism of madness/genius being oftentimes inseparable (and/or the concept of a tightly-wound 'mind' that has absolutely no capacity to slow-down or 'shift' into a lower gear i.e. no gift of even temporary respite), might also somewhat account for the slippage into self-destructive/ self-imposed darkness (but only a first-rate psychiatrist/psychoanalyst might be able to provide accurate diagnoses - and I thought I had once read that at least one psychiatrist determined that Fischer was still clinically 'sane' in the early 2000's.
In totality Grabus' fascinating documentary poses the additional age-old, but most persistent question: How do we separate the astounding achievements of an individual, from the actual life lived (is there a way to isolate the miraculous gifts from the disheartening actions or beliefs embodied by the flesh & blood human being?) This is a most bewildering (and even disquieting) question = one personified by the deep contrast of authentic Genius vs. (equally authentic) 'Madness' that was Bobby Fischer.