“Searching for Bobby fischer” is a Movie filmed in 1993, about Josh, a chess prodigy’s struggle in finding his meaning of playing chess. Throughout the movie, parents and other authorities figure in his life influenced him to think of chess in different perspective, some views it as a recreational game, while some views it as an art: something to take seriously. A clear theme was presented in this film: The struggle for parents to apply pressure on their child to ensure the quality of their future or to give the child freedom and a happy childhood.
The theme of Parental pressure was something also present in many disney movies, like classic fdsf sleeping beauty. In the film, after Princess Aurora was cursed by maleficent, the King sent her to live with three fairies in the woods. Princess Aurora was restricted to the woods and couldn’t explore the town. The King did that out of love, to protect her from maleficent, but because of this, Aurora’s only made friends were forest critters and three winged elderlies. While Josh’s restrictions weren’t as extreme, he had to spend a lot of time taking lessons and studying chess; he also had to avoid going to washington square to ensure that his chess skills stays on par.
Unlike Josh in the movie, I see myself in a completely opposite situation. When I was young, my parents did not give me any pressure at all in my extracurriculars; the only lesson I had outside of school was taekwondo classes every saturday. I spent most of my free time playing lego and being unproductive. In “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, however the opposite scenario was presented. Josh found himself a talent in chess, and his parents forced him to improve his skills, in which he was able to win a national competition in the end. Looking back, I kind of hope my parents would give me pressure to really master a skill, so that I can learn discipline at an early age and be more hardworking.
While I have never experienced it first hand, I know many people that were pressured by their parents to work and develop their talents and in doing so, didn’t have much time to play. When I was a child I had a close friend called Marcus, he was very talented in the piano, and I admired him dearly for that. However, Marcus would often skip school or play dates because he had to attend a competition or take piano lessons.
Back then, I didn’t understand why his parents would do such a thing to him, but seeing his fluency and skill in the piano now lets me understand that it may have been all worth it.
In conclusion, Searching for bobby fischer was able to portray the parents applying pressure to their children to ensure a brighter future impressively. The pros and cons of this parenting style was also emphasised in this film.
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