I was never a player of video games, still lose interest too quickly to really dig in and learn, let alone master, any game. And when it cost a quarter to play, you had to have a lot of quarters–and an obsessive slant–to sit and become anything like good. I grew tired of such antics after the initial blast of interest in the graphics or style wore off.
And my experience of those obsessive players who got really good at games–in the arcade or at home–was for the most part equally trying. I couldn’t empathize with their obsession. And while most were members of the same geek posse I got lumped with, it was hard to get past the arrogance of many game players. I mean, if I wanted boys with big attitudes about bullshit pasttimes, I could have just hung out with my brother and the athletes.
So I came at King of Kong as an ethnographer familiar with the culture, not a current or former citizen. Such distance accounts for the relative limits of my pleasure; others have raved about this documentary, recounting the rivalry between a very, very likable schlub named Steve Wiebe and a very, very unlikable slug named Billy Mitchell. Each wants to be recognized for the highest score in Donkey Kong. I loved watching the film, found these people and the filmmaking to be engaging. The film is artfully edited, and really zips in pace. It also glosses over the surface, interested in documenting the pursuit of the crown, not so intent on revealing anything substantive about what drives one to the games, what kinds of sub-cultures developed around the game. We see that latter–we’re privy to the group dynamics and infighting–but the film’s not really about analyzing, or even paying too much attention. It has its hero and its villain.
Which is a shame. Mitchell is intensely annoying: full of aphorisms gleaned from business books, Star Wars films, sports culture; overtly contradicting his own statements with some petty, if not downright dishonest, actions. He’s a ready-made shitheel, ripe for the plucking. And Wiebe couldn’t be easier to empathize with. But in both cases, I really wanted to know more — don’t just show me how Mitchell’s a prick, give me some tools to make sense of how he got there, and even as we fall in love with Wiebe, let’s stop and think about the point his young daughter makes (who would be so crazy as to put so much time into the Guinness Book of World Records?). Or let’s pull back and look at this entirely white, middle- to lower-middle-class group of boys now men…
Instead, the film sticks to the surface structure of the competition itself. Okay, even as such–it was a very fun film to watch. (And I’d bet for those gamers, former and current, it’d be even more of a delight.)
OK, so what you are saying is you don’t have an obsessive slant?
…about video games.
Saw this last night and thought it was just excellent. Really wonderful editing.
Mike’s criticisms of all the things left out of the movie are the things that everyone else would have complained about if they’d been left in. And putting in more would have weakened the movie.
It was necessary for the story to keep the focus on these two and their rivalry. There’s some decent expansion in the bonus stuff – for example, Wiebe is a hard-core Christian: all of his music is based on his faith, and I’m sure it plays a big part in how he views his life, his family and so on. It wasn’t part of the final cut at all. They needed to keep the focus on the story, and they did. They mention in some Q&As that they had 350+ hours of footage I think.
There’s also a scene in the extra stuff where they show the tapes of both players side by side to look at their strategy, which is interesting, but less universal, and would distract from the human side of it all.
I loved how often they were in the right spot at the right time. For example, in the over-rated Wilco documentary, most of the story is told by the characters describing what happened: “The label said this”; “we fired him”; “they said that.” Meanwhile there are several great scenes they caught on tape beautifully here:
-Billy entering the arcade while Steve is playing, and each of them giving little glances at one another and each rubbing his eye.
-The Wiebe-recorded stuff of his kid screaming to have his butt wiped while he breaks the world record on Donkey Kong.
-The daughter’s comment about how some people ruin their lives trying to get into the Guinness book of records…
I also loved how the secondary characters gradually come out from under Billy’s spell, when they see someone better, and realize that the guy they worshipped is kind of a jerk. In a way, it reminded me of a Western – maybe even Bad Day at Black Rock. The townsfolk love the gunslinger who rules the town and takes out all bad guys.
But then along comes the good guy, with all of his own faults, and they slowly see they’ve been duped…
I just got back from lunch where I played some pinball and a game of Donkey Kong, which I was never good at. I got to the first elevator stage – which is about as far as I ever got. You won’t beat me in pinball though.
Mark is, indeed, a pinball wizard. There has to be a trick. Such a supple…. ah, never mind.
Billy Mitchell gave the Onion AV club some different accounts, challenging the movie–particularly in that scene where he appears to snub Wiebe. But the filmmakers respond and say, no, Mitchell’s wrong. Interesting. Find the link your own dam self.
I agree with Mark’s refutation of my critique. It’s a good flick.
Darkon is another strong documentary about game-playing self-described geeks, attentive to the tense (and dense) power dynamics of the community. These folks put on costumes and head out to state parks to play at kingdoms, war, etc. What I liked best about the documentary is the effective integration of all this stuff about various lives, as the players are pretty astutely self-reflexive about their enjoyment. There’s one scene that is close to great, where two old friends now confront one another at Denny’s over a rupture in their characters’ alliance.
Overall, enjoyable and somewhat insightful–not as much fun as Kong but you get a better sense of context and motive. The film is weakened by way too much battle footage. “Battle”? Watching guys whack themselves with pillowsticks is only of mild interest, and the frenetic handheld attempt to be in the action wears out its welcome very, very quickly. (You could pare 30 minutes off the runtime here.) Still, I think it’s worth a view.
But 30 Days of Night felt like it, and is not worth a view, although I’m the only dolt here who had any interest, I imagine. Hope, instead, for the dvd release of what will surely be a far, far better and spookier Alaskan horror film (Larry Fessenden’s The Last Winter).