The King of Kong

Normally I only talk and write about video games but the other day I was musing about my first experiences with video games and the fact that the first arcade game (I think - twas a long time ago) I ever played was Donkey Kong and there is this fantastic independent film that was made about people that really really liked Donkey Kong that was made and if you are a gaming fan, especially if you are a fan of the truly old school and very beginnings of gaming.

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The characters in this movie, especially the person who is presented as being the main character are such caricatures that when i was watching it I thought it was a fake documentary or "mockumentary" as they call them, but as it turns out this was a genuine thing that happened back in the 80's between a group of people that were all striving to be declared the best King Kong player in the world.

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While he is not presented as such, Billy Mitchel is meant to be the "world's best gamer" at the time that this film is encapsulating. While it was a long time ago and it is understandable that trends have changed and so have styles, this man clearly thinks a lot of himself not just in relation to Donkey Kong but just in a general sense. Although he is a real person in real life, the documentary does an absolutely fantastic job of painting him as a villain whereas the challenger, named Steve Wiebe is the absolute opposite of him: he is a subtle, shy family man who just happens to be really good at Donkey Kong also.

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This documentary is not fake, even though at times it appears to be because Billy Mitchel is seriously plastic an fake seeming the entire way through the film. He obviously thinks that he is God's gift to the world not just in a gaming sense but in an overall sense. Even though this show is totally about something that most people wouldn't really care about - who is the best at Donkey Kong, we are really quickly able to identify who it is that we should be cheering for and all of this is apparently (IMO) just the happenstance of captured footage from the 80's.

The film was made in 2007 abut it was a massive hit Sundance Film Festival and for anyone that even slightly appreciates video games this is a must-see film because honestly, it is extremely entertaining from start to finish.

I somehow managed to not see this film for many years after it was made and to be honest with you I don't know how that managed to happen. If you enjoy video games and especially if you remember the competitive nature of gaming in the 80's and 90's this film is a must watch movie. I would say that it is probably really entertaining to people who don't even like video games.

It is extremely well made and I am happy to see that such a small production managed to get the attention of a major film festival like Sundance. If you haven't seen this, it is still in the Netflix library for a lot of regions (it is in mine) and if not, well.... you know how to get stuff of the internet right?