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These documentaries get high scores
July 24, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
You could track how video games figure into the public imagination simply by watching what movies say about them. When games began to be acknowledged as a storytelling medium and — dare I say it? — art form, the movies about them underwent a telling transformation: They’ve evolved from quick, thoughtless cash-ins on a fad (à la Super Mario Bros.) to analyses of the medium’s impact on the cultural landscape.
Perhaps that’s to preserve their own sense of legitimacy; in its first week, Grand Theft Auto 4 raked in $500 million, numbers the film industry could only dream of. But whatever its cause, the past few years have seen a slew of documentaries seeking new understandings of the past and future of video games.
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Once Upon Atari (2003)
About 25 years ago, Atari had a short-lived stint as the first video-game powerhouse before succumbing to interdepartmental rancor and the infamous failure of E.T., a game often acknowledged as one of the worst ever made. Directed by former designer Howard Scott Warshaw, this collection of videos traces the swift rise and fall of the company, which now exists as a subsidiary of Infogrames. The talking-heads format and low production values ensure it has the aesthetic value of a 2 a.m. infomercial, but the content delivers.
Come for the games, stay for the: recreational drug use. Atari joins such cultural juggernauts as Robert Louis Stevenson and Poison when former employees divulge they used mind-altering material as a creative catalyst. In retrospect, it’s not really a surprise — did you really think somebody sober designed Centipede?
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Transplant an underdog sports narrative into the world of competitive video gaming, and this is what you get. Everyman Steve Wiebe and hot-sauce tycoon Billy Mitchell (whose bluster and ill-considered facial hair recall Ben Stiller’s character from Dodgeball) compete for the world-record Donkey Kong score. The soundtrack — featuring ’80s gems “You’re the Best” and “Eye of the Tiger” — both evokes the heyday of 2-D gaming and supports the overcoming-adversity story.
Come for the games, stay for the: strength of the story as an allegory. As Wiebe learns, these high-stake competitions are rampant with cronyism and entrenched with obstacles to success. Just because he’s pursuing a pixelated ape doesn’t mean we can’t relate.
Nerdcore Rising (2008)
In the upcoming film’s trailer, Weird Al Yankovic insightfully identifies the charm of nerdcore hip-hop as the “ironic juxtaposition of two very disparate cultures” — the mintiest of the white drawing on a traditionally black form of expression. After earning the support of popular online comic and gaming mecca Penny Arcade, MC Frontalot became the voice of video game nerds. The film is funny, but when Frontalot says, “I can do this at the cost of everything,” he soberly confronts the importance of following even the unlikeliest dreams.
Come for the games, stay for the: sociology lesson. Because nerdcore borrows from hip-hop influences, some question whether the dominant culture’s scavenging black culture is harmful to the community, and the film doesn’t shy from allegations of racism.
