By Marshall McClean
(Moving Pictures Summer Blockbuster issue, summer 2007)
"Work is for people who can't play video games." -Billy Mitchell
Long before Xbox and PlayStation, video arcade machines ruled the gaming landscape. "Pac-Man," -"Centipede," "Donkey Kong" and "Missile Command" provided gamers the battlefields to establish digital domination within the hierarchy of geekdom. The games were revered for their difficulty, and those who mastered them enjoyed a microcosmic celebrity captured, in 1982, by Life Magazine, which gathered the video game players of the year for a photograph. One of these gamers, Billy Mitchell, would go on to be named Gamer of the Century.
King of Kong is set in a now that is stuck in those '80s, and focuses its enlightened eye primarily on two men: Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe.
In 2003, 20 years after that picture was taken, Steve Wiebe, a then out-of-work father of two, stumbled upon Billy Mitchell's "Donkey Kong" score and sat down to beat it. But what could have become a Jobs-Gates rivalry became, instead, a story of David and Goliath. It is easy to root for the soft-spoken Wiebe who, according to his wife, has "always seemed to come up short" in his life. A gifted musician and former athlete, he comes across as a likable guy just trying to gain recognition in an arena where he has some control. But to the gaming community, he was the Johnny-come-lately who'd set out to depose their king.
Director Seth Gordon depicts Billy Mitchell as the arrogant yet insecure incumbent, clinging steadfastly to the past (and to a classic '80s mullet). Mitchell followed his '80s gaming with helming his family's successful business in condiments, and it seems that hot sauce is not the only thing Mitchell is full of.
The supporting character at the heart of this community is Twin Galaxies, the organization that maintains the official records of high scores and reports the records to the Guinness Book of Records. And while Mitchell's long affiliation with Twin Galaxies creates issues in their reliance on Mitchell's recording his own scores, it is Wiebe who, through tremendous scores and self-effacing humor, begins to win the respect of the organization's members.
Even if there were no conclusion to this story (there is), Steve Wiebe would emerge as the better man. He is a respected gamer, yes, but he is also a teacher, husband and father, and he is all of these things without the simplistic "never surrender" attitude displayed by his counterpart.
Seth Gordon has painted a portrait of rivals within the extraordinary world of classic gamers, and the fashion and music deftly serve up reminiscences some would rather forget. With the pervasive grip of gaming now outreaching cinema's earnings, Seth Gordon has bridged the cultures with a story that makes us fully aware that "Donkey Kong" is one game that will never be over. -MPM
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