The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Jun 13, 2016 17:32:33 GMT -5
Superb Owl 🦉, Yuri Petrovitch, and 7 more like this
Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jun 13, 2016 17:32:33 GMT -5
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Dir. Seth Gordon
Premiered August 17, 2007
The 2000s weren’t just a golden age of documentary for the likes of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock. The sudden box office success of the genre also gave rise to a whole new wave of populist documentaries that were downright fun. Forget the Civil War, or global warming, or slave trafficking in Saipan, because as it turned out, there was no shame in showing the world a good time. Such is the case with The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
As soon as the first video games arrived in the 1970s, a new subculture began to develop as people of all ages and backgrounds (albeit mostly Americans and mostly men) began to make their mark on the joystick. Classic gaming became a sport, with all the logistics, all the tedious behind-the-scenes business, and all the personalities that a great game brings.
Perhaps the biggest personality of all is Billy Mitchell, who set the world’s highest score on Donkey Kong, the hardest of all first-generation arcade games. As the film begins, Mitchell’s 1982 record still stands, and though he has rarely played in public since, Mitchell has used his niche fame to turn himself into a semi-mythical figure, a self-conscious embodiment of an increasingly cutthroat American dream. Now, however, his record is in danger. Steve Wiebe, a multitalented science teacher, appears to have beaten the decades-old record, setting off a race to the top that brings classic gaming into the spotlight like never before.
What stands out most in The King of Kong is the variety of real-life characters that these games attract. On first glance, most are exactly the type of pasty, pudgy nerds depicted in old movies, but stark contrasts begin to emerge between them; spiritually-minded self-appointed official Walter Day; the Bond Villain-esque Mitchell; the plainspoken underdog Steve, even the bitterly jealous, aggressively creepy Roy Shildt, who would try anything to take Mitchell down a peg. But bringing them all together is the love of the game, the thrill of competition, and the constant need to remind themselves that games are supposed to be fun.
Next Time: Superbad
Dir. Seth Gordon
Premiered August 17, 2007
The 2000s weren’t just a golden age of documentary for the likes of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock. The sudden box office success of the genre also gave rise to a whole new wave of populist documentaries that were downright fun. Forget the Civil War, or global warming, or slave trafficking in Saipan, because as it turned out, there was no shame in showing the world a good time. Such is the case with The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
As soon as the first video games arrived in the 1970s, a new subculture began to develop as people of all ages and backgrounds (albeit mostly Americans and mostly men) began to make their mark on the joystick. Classic gaming became a sport, with all the logistics, all the tedious behind-the-scenes business, and all the personalities that a great game brings.
Perhaps the biggest personality of all is Billy Mitchell, who set the world’s highest score on Donkey Kong, the hardest of all first-generation arcade games. As the film begins, Mitchell’s 1982 record still stands, and though he has rarely played in public since, Mitchell has used his niche fame to turn himself into a semi-mythical figure, a self-conscious embodiment of an increasingly cutthroat American dream. Now, however, his record is in danger. Steve Wiebe, a multitalented science teacher, appears to have beaten the decades-old record, setting off a race to the top that brings classic gaming into the spotlight like never before.
What stands out most in The King of Kong is the variety of real-life characters that these games attract. On first glance, most are exactly the type of pasty, pudgy nerds depicted in old movies, but stark contrasts begin to emerge between them; spiritually-minded self-appointed official Walter Day; the Bond Villain-esque Mitchell; the plainspoken underdog Steve, even the bitterly jealous, aggressively creepy Roy Shildt, who would try anything to take Mitchell down a peg. But bringing them all together is the love of the game, the thrill of competition, and the constant need to remind themselves that games are supposed to be fun.
Next Time: Superbad
