Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 03-01-2008, 06:00 PM:

As a teenager beavering away on video games at the local arcade and at home on a Commodore 64, it was necessary to devise a slick moniker commensurate with ones consummate skill. A call sign left behind on the highscore table to inspire awe in those who came after and witnessed your formidable majesty; a kind of digital territorialism. My handle was "SlickStu". It's a handle I've continued to use well into my adult years for the simple reason that it is a wholly inaccurate description of myself. This bygone grand delusion of a teenager big-noting himself has become my own private joke and I've come to like it.

Enter the world of Billy Mitchell, the best classic video gamer in the known universe (he has an award to prove it), and a world where big-noting does not end with the disappearance of acne and the onset of facial hair. Billy is the holder of the highest score in the 80's video game hit, Donkey Kong, it's a record he's held since 1982 and he's been trading off it ever since. With his big-titty trophy wife on his arm and surrounded by his acolytes who practically throw rose petals before him, Billy wallows in his self-importance safe in the knowledge that his intimidating score will never be beaten. "I ought to try losing sometime", he quips.

Steve Weibe is an average Joe with a wholesome family and aspirations of becoming a school teacher. When he loses his job, he stumbles across Billy Mitchell's highscore on the internet and determines to beat it. So he sets up a Donkey Kong machine in his garage and gets to work. What follows is an epic struggle of one small man vying for legitimacy within a revered bureaucracy, he is the allegorical equivalent of a Sunday school teacher trying to dethrone the Pope.

The King Of Kong is not a great documentary in a technical sense. There's no tricky editorial flourishes, no dramatic camera angles or lighting effects, it's just a point and shoot account of its subject matter. But when the subject is this interesting, it has all it needs. Like the Metallica documentary, Some Kind Of Monster, director Seth Gordon (who photographed the excellent Dixie Chicks Doco, Shut Up And Sing) just happens to find himself at the right place, at the right time. Who could have known that this story would have revealed such drama within such an insignificant social sect? Indeed, it is the very fact that these uber geeks take themselves and their trivial achievements so seriously which makes this film so funny and compelling.

9 out of 10

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 03-01-2008, 07:45 PM:

I'm not sure I agree that this movie is lacking technically and just a case of being in the right place at the right time. The filmmakers have said that they were following numerous stories, and had originally thought that it would be a much larger view of the gaming world. But at some point they realized that the Donkey Kong story which was developing was easily the most interesting. They dedicated themselves to following that story for as long as they had to, and this is the end result.

So I'd argue that the movie is great because Gordon and his team had the foresight to realize what was happening and make sure to document it. And they also had enough self-restraint in the editing room to adapt and go with what works.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 03-02-2008, 12:45 AM:

quote: Mike Schindler
The filmmakers have said that they were following numerous stories, and had originally thought that it would be a much larger view of the gaming world.

Thanks, Mike. I didn't know that but I had assumed that to be the case. Given the footage he had it didn't seem possible that Gordon could have known where this story would lead and that it would end up so compelling. It was quite possible, I guess, that Weibe could have been granted his world record or that Mitchell would rise to the challenge and compete head to head. Neither would have been as interesting as what actually happened. I drew a parallel to Some Kind Of Monster because in that doco the film makers only intended to document the recording of Metallica's then new album. Little did they know that they would end up documenting the disintegration of the group. It is in this sense, that I think Gordon was at the right place at the right time. That is, he was there making some kind of general documentary of the gaming world (as you said) or maybe he had a specific interest in following Weibe's challenge. In any case, I suspect he had no idea he would strike gold the way he did.

Regarding my "technical" comment, all I'm saying is that it's basically just a talking head doco; the entertainment is in the story more so than the presentation of the story (think Michael Moore, for instance, whose presentation is entertaining in itself). There's nothing wrong with this, in fact give me Seth Gordon over Michael Moore any day of the week. I'm just saying that Gordon won't be winning any awards for cinematography or editing.