Starring:Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, Walter Day, Steve Sanders, Roy Shildt, Brian Kuh
Director:
Seth Gordon (Fears of a Clown)
MPAA Rating:
PG-13 for a brief sexual reference.
Release Date:
August 2007
Synopsis:
When Steve Wiebe got laid off, he turned to the classic arcade game Donkey Kong for solace. He got so good he decided to challenge Billy Mitchell's long-standing record score. So began one of the bitterest rivalries in history. How far will Mitchell go to retain his crown?
My Two Cents:
This may very well be the best video game movie/documentary ever, even if it’s not really about video games. OK, it is about video games, but not about any game in particular. It’s about the competitive nature of human beings and the never-ending quest some people go through in order to be recognized by their peers. Regardless if you’ve ever played a game in your life, you can’t help but be caught in the drama of one man’s journey into the video game record books.
Back in the early 80’s Billy Mitchell set the world record for the arcade game Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Centipide, and later in the late 90’s he performed a perfect game of Pac-Man. That means he beat all 256 levels, collected every power pellet, ate every ghost, every fruit and didn’t die, ever, for the highest possible score of 3,333,360 points. That’s fucking insane! Billy’s mad skills have been recorded and tracked by Twin Galaxies, a video game records book and website. Pretty much everyone in the game industry knows Billy, and some call him the Michael Jordan of gaming.
Steve Wiebe, married and father of two, had recently been laid off from his job and found himself with plenty of free time on his hands. He’s a former baseball player, basketball player and musician. Every time he pursued one of his passions something happened and he either failed or had to drop out. You could say he is a born loser. A great guy, but a loser, always having to settle for second best. As he spent his days taking care of his kids he got himself an old-school Donkey Kong arcade cabinet and started playing the shit out of it. He got so good that he decided to try and beat the current world record set in the 80’s by Billy Mitchell. He beat Billy’s score by almost 200,000 points and was crowned as the new king of Donkey Kong. Billy Mitchell was so upset he demanded Wiebe’s arcade machine to be revised to check if it was hacked or modified in any way. Although it wasn’t, Twin Galaxies removed Wiebe’s score from their records and asked him to play live to see if he was the real deal. Wiebe accepted, and one of the world’s biggest rivalries was born.
Billy Mitchell is kind of a freak, with his perfect hair and USA ties, and as we see in the documentary he’s also a jerk. He avoids meeting Wiebe and doesn’t recognize him as a top player, because Wiebe is an unknown and Billy is a freaking god. Steve Wiebe travels the country, playing Donkey Kong at different events, looking for an opportunity to play Mitchell live, but the bitch keeps hiding and sending in gameplay videos instead. Since Mitchell and Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, are such good friends, he gets away with it.
You can’t help but feel sorry for Steve Wiebe and want him to succeed at something, even if it is at having the world’s highest score in a decades old video game. This is clearly very important to him and would be for all the other nerds he meets along the way who try to beat his score. The documentary has a lot of archive footage from the 80’s that will bring nostalgic tears to all of us who grew up with Pac-Man, Marble Madness, and Galaga. But even if you hate video games you’ll still be able to appreciate Wiebe’s determination and can relate to his desire to succeed and prove to himself and others he can set a world record if he tries hard enough. How much would you be willing to sacrifice for a chance at glory?
Score:
3 Comments:
I don't even know of any other documentaries about playing games. Or...even about games or game players. :P This one is a first to me. =/
I actually think this movie sounds kind of sad, because I think...what else could or should this guy have been doing with his life? If he wants to play the game, sure, he can have a ball and a half. But...I don't know, I just think it's sad when people make this kind of goal for their life.
I was wondering how this movie would be when I heard about it. I'll try to check it out, too.
By the way, did you know another movie about this is being made? Except...instead of...being a documentary...it's a...'docudrama', basically. In other words, it's a dramatization of THIS movie.
Now, what exactly is the point of that?? Isn't this movie enough?? I mean, you watch it, and you get the point, right? Sure, you can show other things that this movie didn't show, but is all that necessary? And what's THAT movie going to be called? Is it going to have exactly the same title?? That would just be irritating....
I'm not ragging on THIS movie, I just think....making a...docudrama, based on..this documentary is...weird, and possibly even excessive. A lot of people would say 'Why not?', but I still just think it's weird, if you get the idea already from this movie. 9__9
It does seem sad and kind of pathetic that someone would go through so much trouble to get a high score on a game that was released almost 30 years ago. But it’s not so different than risking your life to climb Mt. Everest or windsurfing 5,045 consecutive miles. People set odd goals and they do whatever it takes to accomplish them. At least beating a high score in a video game is something we can identify with.
I did hear someone’s making a movie based on a documentary based on a guy playing Donkey Kong. It sounds very stupid and pointless, but that’s Hollywood. I heard Greg Kinnear is being considered for the role of Steve Wiebe. I really have no idea why they’re doing this.
I saw this film last night and it is truly one of the most compelling movies I have ever seen. Video Games are merely a backdrop to the human drama of competition. Besides the two main rivals, there is the bizarre supporting cast of people who have maintained this de facto status as keepers of the score. Someone else said it was like the cast of an unpublished Christopher Guest movie, and that is a spot on observation. Much like Best In Show, The King of Kong shines the light on those who take an obscure obsession to the extreme.
The only real difference between Pro Football and Classic Video Gaming, from a competition standpoint, is popularity. The elements of rivalry, sacrifice, setback, failure and victory are just as important in both settings.
If you get the DVD, watch the extended interviews, particularly the Mappy champion who talks with incredible intensity about how to play Burgertime. It's jaw-droppingly amazing.
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