True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Word Wars
Just as Spellbound (p.162) made the spelling bee cool, Word Wars lifts the
invisible world of championship Scrabble into the spotlight. But rather
than cute kids, the champs of Scrabble are lone guys without jobs or
relationships. They are misfits who neurotically memorize words, and
word orders. Their competition is less the joy of winning and more a
compulsion. The joy of this film, then, is less the drama of who will win,
and more the pleasures of following an odd obsession to see where it
takes us. We go deep into a subculture, one of many hidden from the
mainstream, and discover strange guys who find the meaning of life in
the order of words.
By Eric Chaikin and
Julian Petrillo
2004, 81 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
The former champion practices Tai-Chi on his
lawn to ready his mind for the upcoming contest.
Thousands of players will converge in a hotel
ballroom to play Scrabble for a $20,000 prize. They
study endless word lists (top right). And when
they are not in a game, they play each other on a
wager. Here (right) one contestant is in the middle
of losing a $1,000 game, and begs mercy for a
$500 early concession. When they aren’t playing
Scrabble, they are practicing and when they aren’t
practicing Scrabble they are talking about it, and
when they aren’t talking about it, they are thinking
about it.
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