Document
Visitor’s Guide
Adam Thies
MACS 104
Ms. Tavares
8 December 2013
Videogames rival movies and music in today’s popular culture in terms of wide-spread appeal and revenue. Videogames have inspired the creation of feature films such as The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Tron, and Wreck It Ralph while breaking records in the entertainment industry with successes like Grand Theft Auto 5. The videogame behemoth broke Guinness World Records as the “Fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion” and “Highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours” outpacing Hollywood blockbusters such as Avatar and The Avengers for the titles by ranking in one billion dollars just three days after its initial release (Lynch). Also videogames have inspired orchestral concerts such as Video Games Live and Play! A Video Game Symphony, which have sold tens of thousands of tickets at concerts around the world. Videogame soundtracks are even available to purchase alongside the popular film and music soundtracks in electronic music stores such as iTunes and Google Play Music. The importance of gaming in today’s society has even inspired filmmakers to document the way videogames impact our culture and to show their relevance to our daily lives like in Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The documentary focuses on adults playing classic arcade videogames solely for competition instead of for personal amusement. Just as professional basketball and football players compete against one another for fame and fortune, gamers, professional or nonprofessional, constantly contest for global dominance and name recognition in a digital environment through organizations like electronic sports (eSports) and official record holders such as Twin Galaxies. Seth Gordon’s documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters demonstrates videogames are a competitive sport.
Videogames as Documentaries
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a low-budget, limited release documentary performs more similar to a big-budget summer blockbuster instead of the average documentary film in terms of character development and a simple narrative. Many documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth, Fahrenheit 9/11, or Supersize Me all attempt to inform the audience on a specific issue regarding modern society through facts, interviews, and sometimes humor. While The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters does include the aforementioned techniques, the film strays away from the documentary norm and presents them as minor details in building up the personas of the two main rivals involved in the film to create a more entertaining and relatable nonfiction film comparable to character development in summer blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda. Reviews from the Chicago Sun-Times, Variety, and The New York Times (all in print and online) rant on the various aspects of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, focusing on different pros and cons of the critically acclaimed documentary based on an arcade game. All three reviews, which were published around the documentary’s August 17th, 2007 release date, comment on the depiction of hero and villain of the film in that one character, Steve Wiebe, acts as the likeable underdog while the other, Billy Mitchell, performs as a Machiavellian-like residing champ in a fiery yet infinitesimal showdown. The documentary released during a very prosperous year in gaming in terms of sales and quality releases, in which the high popularity for video games at the time might have contributed to the release date before gaming season started.
Roger Ebert’s review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters gave the film three out of four stars but criticized how few people actually cared about arcade gaming and the absurdity of intensity adults give to video games meant for children or teens. Ebert comments, “This isn’t fun for these men. A world championship is at stake, and only gradually do we realize how very few people give a damn.” The review focuses on the two rivals and describes them as if in preparation for a boxing match. I’m not convinced by Ebert’s argument that video games aren’t meant for adults or to be played religiously since today’s popularity of video games rivals and sometimes surpass sales of Hollywood films with titles like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and World of Warcraft selling millions of copies and gaining billions of dollars in revenue. Ebert keeps referring to other sports though in describing the conflict between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. For instance, Ebert references the streak Barry Bonds set in Major League Baseball (MLB) while defeating former record holder Hank Aaron in comparing Wiebe’s struggle to beat Mitchell’s record. The two instances both involve grown men competing for a title, one in which is baseball and the other in which uses videogames in a sports-like way.
Ronnie Scheib of Variety labels The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters as a manipulative but “wildly entertaining” documentary determined to skew the audience’s opinion to the underdog versus the residing champ. Scheib does comment that in all the seriousness and political intrigue the document contains moments of ludicrousness that remind the audience the quirks of reality. For instance, Scheib describes when, “…as the moment Wiebe, on the brink of breaking the world record, is loudly summoned by his little boy to help him wipe his rear end.” I am convinced, though, by Scheib’s review of the documentary in that the film mostly acts a propaganda vehicle for the underdog since the review did mention all the behind-the-scenes antics produced by the sinister Billy Mitchell, like sending in men to examine Steve’s arcade machine and sending a lady carrying Billy’s new, unseen Donkey Kong high score.
Matt Zoller Seitz of The New York Times favorably reviews The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, emphasizing the arcade game’s addictiveness but criticizes the film’s standard documentary structure of building up the hero versus villain notion. Seitz expounds on the idea the film abides to an uninspired documentary model but adds, “…the movie’s Rocky formula proves irresistible anyway….” The review does convince me into thinking The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters stands as a by-the-numbers documentary tale but for good reason; the documentary model is standard because it works with audiences.
All reviews emphasized the standard documentary style of the good guy versus bad guy while unabashedly building up the main character’s personas as favorable or unfavorable. Ebert passes the film off as an entertaining tale of regular people involved in a mostly trivial pastime. Scheib’s take from the documentary involves political intrigue mixed in with priceless moments of everyday life while Seitz focuses on the technical aspects of the documentary in terms of style and structure. They all focus on the main elements of characterization and structure within the documentary, and they didn’t really deviate from the main aspects of the film. Ebert, though, did focus on the background history pertaining to the subject matter of arcade gaming while Seitz focuses on the technical aspects over the actual material. Scheib touches on a little bit of everything in relation to the documentary.
Overall, all reviewers emphasized the development of each of the main characters, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, in a standard portrayal of good versus evil, or a David versus Goliath story. The entertainment value appeared enjoyable enough to receive positive reviews, even though the subject material in the unique film seemed only mildly important in today’s popular culture. The low financial payout of the film (around $790,000 worldwide, $678,000 domestically) did match up with its social value in that the film’s subject material doesn’t excite a massive audience in comparison to a major summer blockbuster like Kung Fu Panda, which shares the same narrative aesthetics as The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters in that both build up a David versus Goliath story (Box Office Mojo). Even though the documentary received critical acclaim with 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film failed to pass the $1 million mark in its limited release as an independently-made film from nothing. Though, talks of remaking the documentary into a mainstream feature film were even considered with actors and a script given the high popularity of the film with critics and its viewers. While the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters portrays two real-life persons in a competitive battle for arcade history in a low-budget limited release, the film nevertheless acts like a big-budget summer blockbuster in terms of straight character development with a simple plot meant to appeas2e to massive audiences rather than most other documentaries that give insight on a controversial topic or social commentary on a real-world issue.
Devil’s in the Details
Film music helps solidify a moment in a scene with a unique and memorable soundtrack that transforms the scene into a defining moment within a film. Music from the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is utilized to emphasize the motivations and actions of the main characters in the film. Two scenes in particular employ music to echo the ambitions of the main characters Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. One scene introduces the most well-known arcade museum in the world called Funspot in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire with the song “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito where all arcade gamers travel to if they want to beat world high scores in arcade games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. The other scene involves the song “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen when Steve Wiebe and Steve Sanders discuss if Billy will show up at Funspot. Both scenes use montage sequences with their song while showing the arcade atmosphere in their mise en scenes to heighten the scene of competition and the importance of winning at the arcades in a promotion-like video for sports games or special events. Both scenes also contribute to the main argument of the film in that hard work is more rewarding than devious effort in reaching the top.
Obviously shown in the two clips is their use of nondiegetic sound in the form of popular songs curated specifically for the documentary’s use to help establish mood and characterize the scene. For instance, during the scene when Funspot is introduced, the lyrics “You’re the best…around! Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down” repeat throughout the scene in stressing the importance of winning for these hardcore arcade gamers including the main protagonist Steve Wiebe. The Joe Esposito song comments on the shots of adult gamers gathering at the New Hampshire arcade museum to attempt a new high score on their beloved arcade cabinets in that this “sport” of arcade gaming is just as intense and time-consuming as any other sport like football. Like football, gamers practice and hone their skills through repetition and developing a strategy to ensure a stronger chance of winning the game, though a sport like football might appeal more a mass audience as an entertainment medium bulky men running around tackling each other for the ball versus men sitting on stools staring at a screen in the most intense stare one could provide, rarely moving any body part except for the eyes and hands. Both sports show the need for dedication to the art in becoming a top player, especially for a newcomer like Steve Wiebe who has to prove himself at the Funspot arcade, a place equivalent in importance to the stadium where the Super Bowl is shown. The background music in the documentary scene expresses the significance of the Funspot building with arousing lyrics and an upbeat rhythm to the song.
Another technical aspect relevant in two clips from The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is the use of continuity editing in the form of montage sequences. Just as the film Rocky combined a short series of shots to show the passage of time within a narrative, the filmmakers for this documentary linked shots of related images to reinforce the message being conveyed to the audience. For example, during the scene when Leonard Cohen’s song “Everybody Knows” is playing in the background while images of Billy Mitchell preparing for work, the Donkey Kong arcade game in action, Billy at work, close-ups of Billy’s hot sauce and Steve Sanders with Billy looking through their strategy book for Donkey Kong are presented in rapid succession to imply a connection with Billy and the Donkey Kong game. The specific shots shown in the montage relate directly to the lyrics of the song played in unison while implying Billy Mitchell’s scheming actions and questionable morals through phrases like “Everybody knows the fight is fixed” and “The poor stay poor, and the rich get rich.” Those phrases coupled with shots of Billy Mitchell and Steve Sander looking over their Donkey Kong notes and shots of Billy Mitchell’s hot sauce accentuate the narrative purpose for these scenes edited together in a short montage in defining Billy Mitchell’s character to the audience. In defining Billy’s character, the scenes relate to the film’s argument of an honest path versus a route covered in deceit and cunning.
One more technical aspect utilized to great lengths is the scenes’ cinematography. The scenes involve close-ups on certain objects like the arcade cabinets, hot sauce bottles, or people being interviewed, which all relate to the overlying argument of winning the right way over the easy way. By first setting up an establishing shot of the Funspot building in the “You’re the Best” scene and cutting to close-ups on the building’s sign, gamers, and arcade cabinets, the camera steers the audience’s attention into connecting the separate shots as one big event. Each close-up shows a part of the main point that highlights the efforts of gamers traveling across the country to Funspot to claim a title for an arcade game, with close-ups on gamers’ faces giving the shots a personality since audiences can clearly view gamers’ expressions while striving to reach a new record. Likewise, in the scene with the song “Everybody Knows,” the camera zooms in on medium close-ups to close-ups on Billy Mitchell himself while he combs his long hair, Billy’s hot sauce covering a basket of wings, and the Donkey Kong notebook Billy and Steve Sanders keep for tips on the arcade game to connect Billy with the Donkey Kong game and his hot sauce business into one impression of Billy taking advantage of his dominant score for the Donkey Kong game and keeping his high score through Machiavellian tactics. Due to the short time each shot is shown in both scenes’ montages, the camera mostly remains in one place with few if any tilts or pans and mainly zooming in and out to give audiences a subject to focus attention on.
The two scenes from The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters are constructed similarly and serve the same purpose in promoting the documentary’s focus on competition and the rewards of claiming the number one spot on a ranking system. Both use discontinuous editing in the form of montage paired with nondiegetic sound through the film’s soundtrack while focusing on similar cinematography in terms of close-ups and little movement. Through these film techniques, the audience’s discovery process is carefully nurtured into siding with the honest, simple main protagonist against the clearly defined antagonist who plays unfairly.
Criticism Essay
Direct cinema has the ability to manipulate people into believing and appreciating a cause many would initially scoff at while remaining true to direct cinema’s approach of a more observational study of real people, events, and objects through the means of creative control filmmakers have on a documentary. Director Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters acts as a piece of direct cinema, a type of ethnographic cinema in which the documentary focuses on specific persons or cultural revelations which appear invisible to the mainstream culture. In regards to Seth Gordon’s film, the battle over the highest score for an old arcade game like Donkey Kong remains mostly irrelevant in today’s popular culture. The advantage of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters being direct cinema, though, comes from its undeniable power to influence any person viewing the documentary into gaining an understanding for the subject matter while revealing the truth behind said subject matter.
Sharon Zuber critiques direct cinema by characterizing its effect on audiences through its techniques and practicality. Zuber recall past directors’ use of handheld cameras to “capture reality spontaneously, to put a viewer in the moment,” while employing their creative stamp on the viewer’s experience. Filmmakers like Albert Maysles and Robert Drew act as the observers and capture the truth of their subjects. For The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters director Seth Gordon and his crew also act as the observers and record the truth behind the competition between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. A problem with acting as the observers, though, involves subjects acting up in front of the camera since the prospect of being on a feature film could promote unnatural behavior from the subjects, as opposed to behaving naturally off-screen. In The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, for instance, Billy Mitchell and his accomplices act cautiously and sneakily while in front of the camera implying that Billy could be plotting something wrong or indecent. Also the director’s decision to include specific scenes could influence audiences’ feelings towards Billy. Billy could have been a much more decent and friendly person towards Steve, but for Hollywood purposes Billy needed to behave like a villain to help gain interest in the documentary. In the end, the audience affects the final film in terms of the familiar structure of winner versus loser while the film in turn affects the audiences’ attitude towards the narrative into actually caring for Steve the underdog and despising Billy the crook.
Aaron Taylor also writes about the purpose behind direct cinema through its observational style of filmmaking. Taylor rants “Observational filmmakers seek to record their subjects candidly in the hopes that a social actor will reveal a truth about his/her situation” while attempting to remain anonymous in the face of their subjects. The problems of direct cinema are also described in terms of how the subjects are unable to control their representations in the final film with the audiences believing the film. As suggested earlier, Billy Mitchell could have actually been respective to Steve Wiebe behind the scenes of filming The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters while in the actual documentary Billy is portrayed as the sleazy champion of Donkey Kong who will remain number one at any cost. Taylor differs from Zuber, though, by stating there’s a bond between the audience and the subjects provided by the filmmakers in creating a responsibility and responsiveness the audience shares with the subjects through direct cinema. It’s the filmmakers’ duty to construct the social interaction between the subject and audience while implanting his or her creative mark on the film.
Dave Hoskin expands the idea of how filmmakers take responsibility in creating a bond between the subjects and audience through direct cinema in that the documentary could trick people into believing and appreciating a cause many would deem to be unimportant or absurd in practical terms while presenting the material in a very observational manner. Hoskin emphasizes the irony “that The King of Kong is a film that is explicitly about how people perceive importance” in which reviewers laugh at the documentary’s ridiculous concept of adult men competing on old arcade cabinets for the glory of the highest score. They don’t even sympathize with the film’s essential subtext of being able to regard a person with respect no matter what his hobby is. Many don’t realize the true meaning of director Seth Gordon’s documentary hidden underneath the shell of a sports film since protagonist Steve Wiebe is carefully drawn out as the underdog preparing to face off against the remaining Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell. The documentary, though, actually reveals significant depth to classic arcade gaming competition with insight on the rules and regulations provided by Twin Galaxies, the scorekeepers. On top of the hours of footage waiting to be seen, Twin Galaxies must be able to trust the arcade gaming contenders in playing fair or just like the person well enough.
Seth Gordon’s documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters plays out as direct cinema/cinéma vérité in that the documentary films real people and events in an observational manner in order to represent reality truthfully. The documentary’s final perception can be altered by the filmmaker’s creative decisions to include or exclude certain scenes while audience film preferences could also shape the final film product in terms of genre conventions and an easy-to-grasp narrative. The documentary, on the other hand, influences the audience’s view of the characters and story into truly caring about the outcome regardless of its subculture context. Even with those pitfalls of direct cinema, along with the risk of subjects consciously aware of the filmmakers following their every movement, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters revels in its power to spellbind audiences into developing compassion for the main subject Steve Wiebe and the subculture he participates in due to the techniques and methodology of direct cinema.
Conclusion
Cinema can create the illusion of anything the director creatively wishes to convey to the audience. Whether the idea videogame competitions act out like sports games or direct cinema methods showcase a more observational style for the film, Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters relays its message to the audience that videogames are a form of competitive sports. Professional gamers score hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash prizes from winning competitions while gaining a name for themselves. Professional basketball players likewise score many points in a game and develop a reputation with the audiences. Football and soccer follow the same pattern as do most sports, but professional gamers compete on computers rather than on actual fields. All sports, though, rely on competition achieve success in their respective games.
Works Cited
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“The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007).” Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster, Inc. N.d. Web. 16, Sept. 2013.
“The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.” Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com, Inc. N.d. Web. 16, Sept. 2013.
Ebert, Roger. “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.” Chicago Sun-Times. 15 Aug. 2007. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.
Hoskin, Dave. “Us and Them: The King of Kong.” Screen Education. 2008: 50-54. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Lynch, Kevin. “Confirmed: Grand Theft Auto 5 Breaks 6 Sales World Records.” Guinness World Records. Guinness World Records Ltd, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
Scheib, Ronnie. “Review: ‘The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters’.” Variety. 15 Aug. 2007. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.
Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Kong-Heads for Life.” The New York Times. 17 Aug. 2007. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.
Taylor, Aaron. “Angels, Stones, Hunters: Murder, Celebrity and Direct Cinema.” Studies in Documentary Film (SDF). 5.1 (2011): 45-60. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Dir. Seth Gordon. Perf. Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, Brian Kuh, Steve Sanders. Picturehouse Entertainment, 2007. Web.
Zuber, Sharon L. “David Holzman's Diary: A Critique of Direct Cinema.” Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities. 28.3 (2009): 31-40. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.