Movie Themes

At the heart of the movie, Searching For Bobby Fischer, is a father’s drive to help his son cultivate a natural talent at chess. This movie explores what a woman predicted from Perfect Madness: mothers push their children because they fear that they are not able to do or give their children the best. It is interesting that this idea was initially in the form of a mother’s reaction towards her children, but in the movie the narrative follows the path of a father. I think this kind of hits on a second theme that the class has toyed with; gender roles.
The father is the breadwinner of the household, the mother seeming to play every bit the housewife. We see her cleaning, preparing dinner, transporting children to and from school etc. while the husband works as a sports writer/commentator. What’s interesting is that the movie doesn’t play up the gender specific roles; instead it focuses on the emotional roles of mother and father. In part I think we have not read about this because it is more of a spectacle than anything else. A writer would also not be able to carry his/her own agency if he/she were to imagine or infer what his/her spouse was feeling. The emotional characteristics of the mother seem to fall on the stereotypical nurturing persona of motherhood. Thus the mother is seen as an intermediary between her husband and child. In one particular scene the mother breaks her shell of normal complacency she when she tells her husband that the child will not stop playing chess with the bums in the park. The father’s emotional characteristics involve his father/son bond. In the sports field we see the father root for his son’s success in baseball. In one particular scene the father/son bond is really clear when the father helps his son fix a baseball glove. The emotional background of the father isn’t necessarily typical of the father, but perhaps the stereotype stems more from the image of a father throwing a baseball with his son.
As an audience member we see the frustration of the son in his transformation from chess being just a game to something more of a competition and pressure to be the best. I actually can really identify with this boy’s emotional conflict. When you are good there is a pressure to stay on top. However, there is always a fear of losing and what the consequences are for that failure; what does that mean not only to oneself, but also to those who support you? In a way I’m glad that the boy threw the game in the end, if not to prove his unhappiness as a way to show his father that there is more to life. However, I also think that the boy will always have a fear of success. Does this mean that every time he does well he gives up? This is just something to think about.
Lastly, I would just briefly like to mention that the sibling relationship and how that is stereotypical, but at the same time diverges from that stereotype. The initial stereotype is that the boy plays baseball, while the girl plays house. The mother virtually shows the girl how to be a mother by taking her shopping for groceries, while the son is left to play chess or baseball. In part this is because the girl is young. The stereotype divergence occurs a little bit when the brother takes the time to play with his sister and also her communicative skills via words and hugs/kisses towards him. It is not often, at least in my experience, that children want to be with the one other. But then again, this might turn out to be a stereotypical big brother protection.