Directed by Seth Gordon
You know, I'd heard this was the documentary of the year, but when you hear that about a movie that is just generally unappealing to you, it's really hard to believe. But make no mistake about it, this really is the documentary of the year. I'm fairly sure that No End In Sight will win for Best Documentary at the Oscars, and while I haven't seen that (it's in my pile of shit to watch) I can easily say King of Kong is the triumph of the documentary form, and it deserves the award like no other documentary before it.
This film is about competitive arcade gaming, which reached national attention in 1982 when Life magazine did a piece on the best gamers in the country. Two of the young men featured in the Life article were Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders, who are still very well known in the world of competitive arcade gaming, and the first part of the film explains their relationship and how they became friends through the Life photo shoot. It's a good story, and one I won't spoil here outlining the plot.
The movie goes on to explore the life of Billy Mitchell, arcade gaming's singular prodigy, a man who has held, at one time or another 5 World Titles in games such as Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. It follows Billy Mitchell's gaming career, and how he has grown up to become a successful restauranter and hot sauce manufactuerer/seller.
The other half of this documentary is about Steve Wiebe, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher in Redmond, Washington, also commonly known as Bill Gates territory. Through the backstory, we learn that Steve's life has been a series of failures, he couldn't play baseball beyond high school due to his bad elbow, even though he had the potential to make it to the pro level. One day he was laid off from his cushy Boeing job, due to budgetary setbacks within the company. With little to do while he looked for work, Wiebe went out and bought a Donkey Kong arcade game. It is explained he has a slight obsessive compusive disorder, and he easily becomes fixated on small things, such as becoming the next Donkey Kong World Champion.
Enter Walter Day, owner and operator of TwinGalaxies.com, and head referee of competitive gaming. He's so well known and trusted that even the Guiness Book of World Records, who always have to see things themselves to believe them, trust him to submit scores for their upcoming record book. He becomes the centerpiece in this drama that unfolds, of ultimate good vs legendary evil.
Right away it is shown that Billy Mitchell is a cocky champion, he boasts about his hot sauce (Ricky's World Famous, which I'll never use nor buy, even though I'm a big hot sauce enthusiast), his nice life, and his many records in the world of arcade games. Some argue that he documentary form can be subverted through editing to make a person look better or worse, and while that is true, I think that this portrayal of Billy Mitchell is an honest one, especially when you see his actions later in the film.
On the other hand, Steve Wiebe is the ultimate hero. School teacher, father, all-around stand up nice guy, there would be no way to paint a better picture of Steve than he paints of himself. He is modest, kind, and graceful, he has a loving family, and his biggest vice is the harmful video game which he loves so passionately.
Steve shakes the world when he sents Walter a tape of himself playing Donkey Kong (which Twin Galaxies encourages you to do), to the extent of scoring over a million points. The video is shot over Steve's shoulder as he plays, with all the noise of his son in the background, proving there were no manipulated stats or anything, he is playing the greatest game of his life. Walter Day sees this tape and wonders if it is legit, so Billy Mitchell and Kong uber nerd Brian Kuh travel to Steve's house to check out his machine to see if it is legit.
Along his path of video game destruction, there are many people who have incurred Billy Mitchell's wrath, and one of them is the bitter Roy Shildt, who just so happens to have befriended Steve. Due to Steve's lack of a lavish lifestyle, there is a point where his main motherboard on his Donkey Kong machine breaks, and as Shildt knows that Wiebe has the potential to dethrone Mitchell, he helps them both out and buys Steve a new motherboard. When Billy Mitchell and Brian Kuh inspect Steve's system (without Steve's knowledge, after they were asked to leave by his wife who was home alone) they find the box Shildt sent Steve Wiebe's motherboard in, and cry foul, claiming Shildt preprogrammed the board to work better for Steve somehow. Of course, this is ridiculous, Steve takes pictures of the old board and the new one, and they are identical, except for a little bit of extra grease.
It's enough for Walter Day to discount Steve's score and say his score is not valid, that Billy's will stand as top Donkey Kong score. Well, every year, there are multiple tournaments around the country where these gamers meet to go head to head, and despite his lack of expendable income, Steve flies from Washington state to New Hampshire to participate in one of these tournaments, where he easily bests Billy's score, all in front of a live audience on a community machine.
Billy can't be bothered to go, instead he sits at home in Florida, where he is much closer to New Hampshire than Steve, has much more money than Steve, and even is his own boss. (In one funny montage, they play clips of Billy, his wife, his parents, and his best friends all commenting on how Billy can take off whenever he wants, because he makes his own hours as his own boss, and they even cite examples of when he does so, very often. Later, Billy claims he is too busy to take any time off.)
So the long travelling Steve never even gets to play against Billy, but Billy sends a fellow competitor out to the tournament with a suspicious tape, which he tells Walter to play in front of everyone. Well, he does, and since Donkey Kong games can go on four up to 2 hours and 30 minutes, and Steve is engrossed in a game, he doesn't get to see the tape. The tape is recorded directly from a VCR, with no audio, and it shows Billy scoring higher than Steve's previous score. The problem with this tape is that anyone with knowledge of video editing knows what it looks like when a tape is edited VCR to VCR. This is one of those tapes, and one of the resident nerds, Robert Mruczek, can see plainly that the tape was edited to achieve such a high score, especially since one of the static jumps is RIGHT before the million point mark. Billy cheated, it is plain as day. Walter calls him on the phone, and by way of explanation, Billy says it's like that because it is a copy.
Now, anyone with a brain realizes the immediate hypocrisy in this. Billy said that Steve's taped score doesn't count (even though it was plainly obvious he was actually playing, during the record breaking game Steve's son is calling for Steve to stop playing the game and come wipe his 4 year old bottom) but that his taped score should count. Since he is such a celebrity in the world of the game, Billy's word is somehow law, and Walter makes the grevious error in judgement of submitting Billy's score officially. Steve is crushed.
This goes on for a while, with Billy taunting Steve from afar, and Steve making not one, not two, but THREE trips across the country to try to play Billy live, to beat his score in person in front of everyone. However, every time, Billy manages to not be there. Until the third time. The tournament is held in Billy's hometown of Hollywood, Florida, so there is no excuse for him not to be there. Billy is often on camera at the event, he drives by multiple times, usually to pick up his friend Steve Sanders, yet he never stops to play Steve Wiebe at Donkey Kong.
Throughout the film Billy talks big about his company, his success, and how a champion is only measured by how he is willing to show up, play on demand, and produce world-champion scores, live in person. However, throughout the course of the documentary, he never does this. His friend Steve Sanders says it is because he is too busy, even though Billy is constantly lurking around the tournament, he even walks in while Wiebe is playing with his wife, and promptly leaves. Wiebe goes to eat at his restaurant as a show of good sportsmanship, but a callow individual such as Billy never shows the same respect in return. He hides in the shadows and pulls the strings on Walter Day.
I won't reveal what ultimately happens, because that would ruin half of the fun, but Billy Mitchell does end up in the Guiness Book of Records. However, despite all of this, the documentary focuses on how Steve Wiebe is a decent and honest human being, and how that good ultimately trumps Billy Mitchell's evil deeds. It portrays these themes in the most honest, straight forward ways, Steve fights hypocrisy and cowardice, travels far beyond his own budget, all the while the rich Billy sits on his ass at home, submitting tapes and ranting about how important it is for a true champion to play live.
As a side note, Walter Day sends Steve Wiebe a letter, apologizing for his error in judgement in submitting Billy's score but not his own, and how nothing he says can change the records as they stand, he realizes the error of his ways, and says Steve is a stand up guy and a great player, alluding to the possibility that Billy is just the opposite. And that's the point of this documentary really, it reveals the hypocrisy and backstabbing involved in this microcosm of the world, where arcade games are life, and an honest and noble man fights for his rightful place in the world, only to be struck down by a lying, devious scoundrel. It's a metaphor for modern American life, how the little man can stay noble and true, but never get what he is truly due. Great film, this is what documentaries are all about, don't let the fact that it's about men sitting on stools and playing
arcade games scare you away. Magnificent stuff.
9.1/10
No comments:
Post a Comment