gavin6942 A look at the obsessive world of competitive Scrabble.The interesting thing is that Scrabble is actually a game of math and not of words -- although it appears to be about vocabulary, to win you have to understand how to score. Sure, there is definitely an advantage to knowing how to rearrange letters in your head to make words, but you never actually have to know what any of the words mean -- just whether or not they are valid.One of the players (Marlon) is the least like the others, and has some interesting comments about the English language (and language in general). To add to his mystique, one scene appears to show him being involved in prostitution (though it is somewhat ambiguous).Another guy (Joe) is like a cross between Woody Allen, Larry David and a Buddhist monk... which is more neurotic and less entertaining than you might think.

MartinHafer This film is about a small group of professional Scrabble players. Well, professional in that they play in tournaments for money and occasionally play each other for money, though the money they actually win is almost always minimal--certainly in most cases NOT enough to pay rent or have a family. Despite this very limited payoff, these folks travel the country participating in very, very serious games--at least as serious as any high-stakes poker game! As a psychology teacher, I probably got a lot more out of this documentary than the average person. That's because instead of focusing on the games, I was fascinated by the personalities of the players, as the elite players were NOTHING like I'd expected. I had expected that they would all be great intellectuals--such as professors, Nobel Prize winners and brainiacs. However, the opposite was usually the case. Many were unemployed or worked dead-end jobs. None of them were successful in a traditional sense with jobs or family. Instead, the players were usually misfits--people lacking social graces, having severe personality disorders, filled with anger and in a few cases the players seemed on the edge of sanity. How this game dominates their lives and thinking is amazing and all-consuming--and it's truly an obsession. For the most part, I found the players to be very unlikable (especially, but certainly NOT excluding Marlon) and lacking a fully formed personality--and, interestingly enough, this didn't seem to bother these hyper-competitive players. I was also surprised to see that many didn't even seem to like the game--and one, in particular, was physically miserable during the tournaments! Yet they still played--day in and day out even though there was almost no financial compensation for doing this--even with the top players!! Fascinating, but also ultimately very sad.By the way, the language is pretty rough in spots--parents might want to think about this before letting kids watch this documentary.

ivescharles I just watched "Word Wars", which is about tournament Scrabble players. I really enjoyed "Spellbound", a similar documentary about the national spelling bee contest, which also tracks the trajectories of 4 competitors, so I thought I'd be equally enlightened. The Scrabble enthusiasts turn out to be largely unemployed, geeky, and with limited social skills. The game has consumed their lives, and they spend almost every waking minute memorizing anagrams for given sets of letters. (Did you know that Narcoleptic is an anagram for Eric Clapton?) Making matters worse, the top prize in the national Scrabble competition is $25,000; smaller competitions pay far less. Not a lot of money is at stake, so most of the "pros" scrape by on a meager existence (usually living off their families.) One of the film's subjects explained that his brain was now conditioned for one purpose, and that he had no other skills or abilities, and thus could not contribute to society in any meaningful way. Rather than making me more interested in the game, it somewhat horrified me; it seemed more like crystal meth or crack cocaine in its debilitating drug-like effects on those smitten with it. I actually would recommend the film; I did find it fascinating to watch, but at the same time I was depressed by it.Perhaps the most poignant moment in the film occurs when one of the film's subjects (the one who previously explained that he was no longer capable of any socially or economically redeeming activity, someone racked with medical ills brought on by the anxiety of his condition) sits at a piano, and in a perfectly beautiful voice accompanies himself as he sings the Lennon/McCartney song: Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, They slither while they pass, They slip away across the universe. Pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting thorough my open mind, Possessing and caressing me.Jai guru deva om, Nothing's gonna change my world...And by the way: The Q without U words accepted in the U. S. Scrabble list are: QAT, QAID, QOPH, FAQIR, QANAT, TRANQ, QINDAR, QINTAR, QWERTY, SHEQEL, QINDARKA, and SHEQALIM (alternate plural of SHEQEL). The combined US/UK list (SOWPODS) adds (from Chambers Dictionary), with their plurals: BUQSHA, BURQA, INQILAB, MBAQANGA, MUQADDAM, QABALAH, QADI, QAIMAQAM, QALAMDAN, QASIDA, QI, QIBLA, QIGONG, QINGHAOSU, QIS, QIVIUT, QWERTIES, QWERTYS, SUQ, TALAQ, TRANQ, TSADDIQIM, TSADDIQ, TZADDIQIM, TZADDIQ, UMIAQ, WAQF, and YAQONA. If you'd like to spend your waking hours memorizing useless crap like this, take up a Scrabble addiction.Otherwise, watch "Word Wars".

Tilly Gokbudak Films are won and lost in the editing room. This fact is even more apparent with documentaries. I think the subject is amusing, but the film does not have the suspense of the spelling bee doc "Spellbound" nor does it capture the humor of those who are ultra-obsessive about their hobby as well as "Barbie Nation." I think better editing would have raised the quality of this film. And, there is too much emphasis on Stephan Fatsis. I think there could have been more interviews with neutral observers, such as hometown reporters who have covered the respective subjects. The film does however show a degree of objectivity, which at times had to be a challenge given the overwhelmingly ridiculous lifestyles of those in the film. I think the bigger question, which was better addressed in "Barbie Nation," is what drives this obsession? Is the nature of our commercial society, that some people will just never know when to 'say when?' On the other hand, one must also admire the determination of the subjects to achieve what they have. In the most competitive country in the world, perhaps there is no other way to win!