Fistful of quarters: king of kong

[petemoss]

Wow.

This is probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in the last 5 years.

If only because the characters are real.

Some of the lines in the movie are just unreal.

I loved this movie...

It reminds me of a Christopher Guest movie, except the characters are actually real, lol.

[NightOfJoy]

I concur.

[Sir Stewart]

[OOO]

I really really really really loved that movie, and me and my friends quote the characters all the time, but after doing my own research online about the events of the movie and the characters, its become clear to me that many parts of the movie are heavily editing for dramatic effect. Lots of stuff is taken out of context, put out of sequence, or staged to make the story better. Billy Mitchell is full of himself, but he's not as sinister or whatever as the movie makes him out to be.

 

And yet somehow, even though I know all this, I still can't help but love the movie. If it was a documentary about something that mattered, I might be angry about the filmmakers distorting the truth...but since its all about Donkey Kong...its just sweet.

 

Just briefly, from wikipedia:

 

-In 2000 Tim Sczerby reached a high score of 879,200 points. Steve Wiebe beat both this score and Billy Mitchell's 1982 score.

 

-Billy Mitchell was not always avoiding Steve Wiebe. They met and played together on several occasions before the time period of the film, notably the 2004 Classic Gaming Expo, and they were on very friendly terms — even giving interviews together.

 

-Steve Wiebe actually held the high score record for almost 3 years, and when his videotaped score of 1,006,000 points was rejected, the record actually reverted back to Wiebe's own previous record reached in 2003 — it did not revert to Billy Mitchell's 1982 score as implied by the film.

 

-Mitchell's videotaped record sent to the Funspot event was actually discarded after the event, and Walter Day apologized "for the mistake of approving this videotape without the benefit of a complete verification process". The score was reverted to Wiebe's score achieved at Funspot.

 

Director Seth Gordon has also admitted to skewing facts and altering time-lines during various interviews concerning the movie. Through careful editing and instigation, Seth Gordon was able to create a storyline loosely based on reality. However, Gordon contends that the movie would have been "darker" had he not played with the facts; a 2008 interview/article by Retro Gamer Magazine, 52nd issue, with Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, and Steve Wiebe suggest otherwise.

[petemoss]

I really really really really loved that movie, and me and my friends quote the characters all the time, but after doing my own research online about the events of the movie and the characters, its become clear to me that many parts of the movie are heavily editing for dramatic effect. Lots of stuff is taken out of context, put out of sequence, or staged to make the story better. Billy Mitchell is full of himself, but he's not as sinister or whatever as the movie makes him out to be.

 

And yet somehow, even though I know all this, I still can't help but love the movie. If it was a documentary about something that mattered, I might be angry about the filmmakers distorting the truth...but since its all about Donkey Kong...its just sweet.

 

Just briefly, from wikipedia:

 

I know what you mean.

But I read an interview with Seth Gordon where he said that Billy Mitchell was actually a lot worse in real life then what ws included in the film.

 

It is such a complicated conversation. The way we painted Billy and his actions is so much gentler that we could have, that it makes it hard for me to stomach the tiny little details that they are choosing to fight about, because his true actions were so ugly that we couldn’t use the complete truth, meaning we didn’t show him as dark as he really is.

 

To have them take issue with these tiny, tiny little things makes me want to unveil the darker stuff, because it would silence them forever. But it is not worth my time. I don’t think it is worth the kind of bad blood that could bring to start really opening Pandora’s box.

 

I could tell you off the record some of this stuff, but the dude is so much worse than we painted him out to be. So we just included the stuff in the movie that was necessary to tell the story and to understand Steve’s fear of him and his reputation, but we didn’t go into any of the stuff we could have.

[Elixir Sue]

I LOVE this movie, and I think I need that t-shirt. ^ Billy Mitchell...what a guy.

[GtrPlyr]

Regardless of it being constructed like a Michael Moore film, it's the story and the people--and how serious they take things--that make this film great. I enjoyed it way more than I expected I would.

[yermom]

but after doing my own research online about the events of the movie and the characters, its become clear to me that many parts of the movie are heavily editing for dramatic effect. Lots of stuff is taken out of context, put out of sequence, or staged to make the story better. Billy Mitchell is full of himself, but he's not as sinister or whatever as the movie makes him out to be.

Loved the movie. This is very disappointing.

[Guest Hollinger.]

Fantastic little movie.

[anthony]

Saw it loved it.

 

You couldn't make that stuff up. Those characters seem so cliche it is hard to imagine that they are real.

[Sir Stewart]

You couldn't make that stuff up.

 

According to some they kind of did.

[Moss]

 

That was my favorite part of the movie. That guy was running around more excited about the kill screen then he will be when he finally manages to get some tail.