Friday, November 20, 2009

Netflix Friday #4: THE KING OF KONG

Saying the world can seem both very large and very small is hackneyed; however, I believe we've entered a period of time when those two conditions are interdependent.

This is a discussion we have in new media all the time -- who is famous, and what use is fame now? Paul F. Tomkins (thanks Wil) is a fine comic and well-known, but I wouldn't call him famous. And yet, he manages to get enough people in major cities to pledge to see his shows that he can make a living travelling from fan-cluster to fan-cluster across North America, summoned by people's need to see him perform. He has the respect and appreciation of a large enough group of people to fill his perceptual horizon. Does anyone need more? Is it even possible to rationaly understand what more is? Is that why famous people go mad?

I'm getting to the movie, I promise.

So we have Steve Weibe, an average guy who takes to practicing Donkey Kong after he's laid off. Anyone who's spent any time hacking away at video games can understand the impetus -- you spend time, you attain a goal, and the goals come at intervals short enough to reinforce the adrenal hit. I've occassionally floated outside myself while playing a video game at 4am, asking "what are you doing?", and getting the answer "Not failing to solve that Act Two problem."

Weibe gets good enough to consider going for the world record. He needs a damn win, in a way that we all understand.

That's when we go down the rabbit hole. That's when we meet Billy Mitchell, the reigning champion of that particular 80's arcade game (among others). While Weibe comes across as a somewhat obsessed hobbyist, a character all we geeks count among our friends, Mitchell has parlayed mastery --

-- I want to back up and take a run at this. Mitchell has parlayed mastery of an thirty-year old arcade game into a business empire that has nothing to do with that arcade game. A small empire, but one that fills his perceptual horizon. He has used that arcade game world record to fuel his own confidence, his own drive, his own success. That record may only be acknowledged by a small world, but its power within that world gives Billy Mitchell the lodestone he needs to survive and thrive in a big world where others become lost. Every morning, he wakes up "Billy Mitchell, world record holder in Donkey Kong", and that sustains him with a fierce power that would shame the faith of a Jesuit priest. In a world of losers, the lost and the damned, Billy Mitchell is a winner.

And Steve FUCKING Weibe is not going to take that from him.

You know what that is? That is the recipe for great. goddam. drama.

The relentless grind of small indignities. The cumulative blessings of small victories. Honor, cheating, ego, sacrifice, suspense ... The King of Kong is available for your Netflix Streaming enjoyment even as we speak.

63 comments:

Danny said...

I love this movie.

It's one of those gateway drugs for non-fiction filmmaking, the kind you can give your parents, have them watch and look back in awe "saying, there's no fucking way that was real," and get to knowingly nod and say "yes, it was."

It's a great drama with some of the most convincingly drawn characterizations between good v. "bad" you can find.

AND IT'S ABOUT A 1980's ERA ARCADE GAME.

I love it. Just totally wonderful as a piece of capture, non-fiction narrative.

BUT THEN...if you're willing to geek out enough about it...you can pull back the curtain further.

This is not a "captured moment," even though, technically and kind of and from a certain perspective, it is. This is a piece of film, edited to serve a story.

You can spend time learning the context and the timeline and all the other outside stuff left from this particular narrative recollection (none of which takes away from the truth -- emotional or factual or otherwise -- of this film). All of the information is out there. And then you can totally geek out about how this story was committed to a visual medium, how they made this and made this work, and how, at no point, did they lie to the viewers.

It's a triumph of storytelling...nee of FINDING THE STORY.

I love this movie.

I fucking love it.

Anonymous said...

I got to ask, that "SLEEP SLEEP!!!" Comment you put in so many posts. That's a reference to the Venture Brothers, isn't it? Where orpheous hid the fact he kept the portal to the burning nowhere in his daughter's closet.

Sorry to post it here, but I didn't think it was worth an email.

BTW, you made me an Irredeemable fan/subscriber. Only comic I get... Aside from Deadpool.

wcdixon said...

King of Kong has been one of my go to favs for the past year as it has repeatedly aired on the Movie Network. And have recommended to more friends than I can count.

Unknown said...

There's some interesting controversy about the film and in particular about its' merits as a documentary as opposed to its' merits as a work of fiction.

This is as good a place to start as any. This is a follow-up, written after the storm that the first piece started.

Simon Underwood said...

Great movie. I understand a lot of its drama was more than likely a biased construct, but it works nonetheless.

On a related subject, BBC4 recently showed a one-off comedy drama, Micro Men, about the rise and fall of the home computer market in early 1980s UK, and the battle between two of its patriarchs. Starred Martin Freeman (The Office, obviously) and Alexander Armstrong (currently heard as Sarah-Jane's spousally named computer)

Lovely use of archive footage, great acting and some wonderful humour - highly recommend a look if you can track it somewhere.

GinaFan said...

Wil Wheaton said, re whether he would be at ConCon:

"I'm not sure they're interested in bringing in guest stars (and, honestly, if you had to choose between me and Mark Sheppard, I'm obviously staying home) but if they are, yeah, I'd love to be part of it."

That got me wondering if Jeri, Frakes, Spiner would like to go. At least if they would like free tickets for them and family. I suppose they wouldn't go unless they get paid. It might also turn into a Trek convention.

I was also wondering, what if people get to liking Jeri on the show? Could you increase the shows aspriation from dual to triple babes?

GinaFan said...

Or, spinning the triple + Tim off into Charlie's Angels, and taking Aldis + Christian to do the Riggs + Murtaugh show. :)

PS: You don't need to change a thing.

David Hunt said...

Interesting film, but the real mind-flip happened when I looked up the IMDB entry afterwards and was that it was labeled as a documentary!! The Wikipedia page also treats the people and events as true-to-life. Does anyone know if this is some elaborate hoax? Was I just turning it into fiction because that was what I was expecting? It seemed to me that the events fit so well into a dramatic narative that they had to be made up. I know that you can do wonders with editing, however...

GinaFan said...

I recently saw an episode of "It Takes a Thief" with Robert Wagner. I was surprised at the complexity of the mechanics used to decieve, and also got the eerie feeling that they might actually work. In the episode, they patched into wired phone lines and used phony hand delivered messages on paper. Ok that would never happen.

Pronoiac said...

David Hunt: See Jumpp's comment for better commentary. It was presented as a documentary. The story just isn't very true.

David Hunt said...

james young: thanks for the tip, but I got a warning from my virus software that the site that jumpp linked to was an attack site and got out fast. But thanks for the info.

Pronoiac said...

Weird - Google Safe Browsing, at least, doesn't show anything unusual there.

LB said...

Finally saw this on your advice. It's a great narrative, even if it there were counter-arguments the really snide moments showed the true character because boys can be as bad as girls.

What's amazing is how like teenage girls these geeks are, except it's not about a boy; it's about things, not relationships. Lots of subtle intrigue and good dramatic moments in this film.

Thanks for the good recommendations. Jekyll looks good, too. And that Gina can sure act.

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