Mar 01 2009
Movie Review: The King of Kong
image of Steve Wiebe from Wikimedia Commons
The King of Kong is not a movie about the autism spectrum, but I’m reviewing it here because throughout the 79 minute running time, I couldn’t help but to be overwhelmed by how many of the people in the documentary exhibited characteristics of OCD (and I really thought at least one guy had Asperger’s). While I am in no position to say for sure that any person featured in the movie had such diagnoses, there were certainly a lot of symptoms being displayed. The story was about the rivalry between the top two Donkey Kong players in the world (both have made the Guiness Book of World Records ) Steve Weibe and Billy Mitchell.
This was much more than just a story of video-gamers. It became a truly epic story of a rivalry that’s gone on for years. Mitchell originally broke the world record for Donkey Kong in 1982 and held the record until Wiebe broke it in 2003. Last year, Mitchell reclaimed his title (in a public venue), and Wiebe as of last October became the second person to ever achieve a score over 1 million points in a public venue, but did not take the number 1 position back from Mitchell.
The most interesting thing to me about this rivalry is the level of intensity and obsession both men have with this game. Yet, it has not impeded them from having successful lives (Mitchell owns a successful restaurant chain and Wiebe is a Science teacher in Washington). Both have families, but if the film is to be believed, Wiebe at least has had times of putting his complete focus into his game. His first record-breaking videotape has his son in the background screaming at him to stop playing (which he couldn’t if he was going to break the record).
On the other hand, the film depicts some apparently underhanded behavior from the Mitchell ‘camp’ in order for his record to stand. Twin Galaxies, the organization that officiates these records, sent two people to take apart Wiebe’s game in order to verify that it wasn’t tampered with - initially against the permission of Wiebe’s wife. I kept wondering how any of these people held jobs if they were so wrapped up in this competition.
At any rate, whether they have OCD or not, one bright spot that strikes me is that they’ve used their special skill set (and Donkey Kong is an extremely hard game to master, which I have on good authority from my game-obsessed husband) to achieved greatness within their own niche. The movie goes from just a movie about ‘gamer geeks’ to a truly engaging underdog story. Definitely well worth a watch. And who knows, maybe one day Gus will win a world record for playing Pokemon.
