2/2/10 Spotlight on Documentaries: Part 1 – The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

DVD Spotlight on Documentaries: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Nerdcore Rising, Spellbound, and Jesus Camp.

Not too long ago, I got on a bit of a documentary film kick. I love a good sci-fi or fantasy movie, a good action flick with plenty of violence, a scary horror movie, or even a light, fluffy romantic comedy once in awhile, but I also love to watch a good documentary as well. The best thing about documentary film is that you can’t make this stuff up. These are real people doing real things – and the films are full of characters as rich and different as any Hollywood feature, often times more so. So I thought I’d talk a little about four documentaries that I have seen recently.

Part 1:

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters – Directed by Seth Gordon.

This might be my favorite documentary of all time. King of Kong focuses on the trials and tribulations of one Steve Wiebe – a relatively normal middle class guy – husband, father, and teacher. While Wiebe is unemployed, he buys an old stand up arcade machine of the original Donkey Kong, and proceeds to become very good at the game. At some point he starts to notice patterns in the game, and he decides that he wants to try and break the all time record high score (yes, there are records for almost any video game you can think of, and an organization dedicated to maintaining these records). Who holds the Donkey Kong record, you may be wondering? A cat by the name of Billy Mitchell, who is the veritable Jesus Christ of this gaming community. All of the people associated with this record keeping organization revere Billy as the greatest individual that could ever be.

This is where the fun really begins. You can’t believe some of the characters in this movie – Billy, who at some point decided that the 80’s look that he has cultivated is the best look that will ever be, and sticks with it well into the next century. Anyone who ever hung around video arcades back in the day has seen this guy. He has the “hot” wife that he parades around the arcade for all his nerd-followers to gawk at, and he is pretty much the king of the castle – the castle being the world of 80’s video games. There’s Walter, who oversees all of the record keeping and is the official “witness” when someone attempts to break a record – he even wears the black and white referee jersey at points. There’s the little guy who walks around the arcade all day and acts as Mitchell’s spy, checking up on what’s going on in the “kingdom.” And who can forget Mr. Awesome, another game record holder who is the arch-nemesis of Billy Mitchell.

It is absolutely amazing the journey that Steve Wiebe has to undertake in order to get his record realized. A record that sounds totally inane to 99% of us, but by the end of this film, if you’re not cheering for Wiebe, then you probably wanted Apollo Creed to beat Rocky, too. If you like movies about the underdog, you’ll love The King of Kong. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Overall rating: 5 cheeseburgers.

Stay tuned for Documentary Spotlight Part 2: Nerdcore Rising.

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