Subject: The Magic Movie Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 17:14:09 -0400 From: "Jamie & Mare" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Did you know that they have already MADE a movie about Magic? It requires a little bit of imagination, but it is, in a sense, true. Alan Webster told me that if you substitue "Magic" for "Chess" in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" you can see the amazing amount of paralells. I had seen the movie about five years ago, liked it, and then never thought of it again. Then Alan asked me the other day to watch it again with the above mindset. It was hilarious. At the begining of the film, it looks like late nights at a pro tour with all the guys money drafting - except this time - they're in a park playing chess for money. The trash talking and body movements are identical as well. Its interesting to see such a parallell, and realize that magic is not alone. That in any mental activity where competition is available, people will act as if they are beating someone down. The way people "SLAM" the pieces when they take them, keep up a running dialogue to throw someone off balence, and how they react when a "pro" shows up. Lawrence Fishburne is taking on "some guy" for money, and is doing the usualy trash talking, and the crowd starts to whisper. Then they start to gather around, and Fishburne knows something is up. Perhaps this isn't "some guy?" "Pikula" someone wispers from the crowd. "Its Chris Pikula," someone else murmurs. Fishburne stops in play, looks to a friend, who nods knowingly. The trash talking resumes. "So Grandmaster. What brings you to the park? Come to show me what you got Pikula? Here - have a little of this." Pikula and Fishburne continue to fight it out and the camera pans away, leaving the audience unsure of who the victor is, because it doesn't matter. What matters is seeing the players react to a grandmaster in their presence. I look at the guys in the park, and I see a lot of us reading this here. A lot of us may still be playing Magic when we are sixty and seventy. What else are we going to be doing? I can see myself hanging out with the playa's, at a picnic table in the park, having fun. Better than rotting in front of the TV I guess. It was also interesting the parallell of playng fast and playing slow. I do not remember seeing a chess game played fast before this movie. Its like magic. You play a lot of games for practice, and you play them fast. You play a lot more careful in tournaments, and when something is on the line. The food was identical as well. Bagged sandwhiches, and junk to eat between rounds because chess championships are help in the same places at Magic Tournaments. Large halls, and vacant buildings where there is no place to buy food. "Searching for Jon Finkle" Great movie. If you haven't seen it - rent it. If you have seen it - perhaps it was before you got into magic? Rent it again if you haven't seen it since you started to compete in Magic. You'll get a lot more out of it. later Jamie C. Wakefield King of the Fatties Inventor of Naturepotence, Secret Force, and The Brothers Very Grimm. Hopes to be a Grand Master Magic Player some day :-)