'King of Kong' -- Has anyone seen this?

watched it last weekend. What a weird sub-culture of video game records.

I read some more info on the web, and it sounds like the filmmakers made more of the controversies than was shown. Two sides to every story.

But the long-time champion was an ***. No doubt about that.
 
billy_mitchell_player_of_century.jpg
 
Documentaries are about story telling, too.

There have been at least two threads about it. One when it was in theaters, and another one with the title PSA: King of Kong, which was posted last week when it came out on DVD.

It's a heck of a compelling documentary, and highly entertaining, although not one of the best ones I've seen in awhile. Deep Water is the best one I've seen in a while. That was released on DVD about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and In the Shadow of the Moon just came out a couple of days ago, which is well worth seeing.

Billy Mitchell ranks up there with the greatest villains ever.
 
Great film....hate to sidetrack the thread, but SL - you have any more documentary recommendations? I don't have near enough on my netflix queue
 
I watched it just last night and really enjoyed it. I had never heard of it before, but I saw it On Demand and it was either that or nothing. I might watch it again today because it is oddly hilarious, that Billy Mitchell really has some issues.
 
Great movie. King, here's some other documentaries I would recommend (though my list is not going to be as extensive as SL's):

Spellbound
Grizzly Man
Wordplay
Capturing the Friedmans

Here are some that I haven't seen yet, but they're in my queue:
Jesus Camp
This Film is Not Yet Rated
Hoop Dreams
 
Another good documentary is Stevie. Made by the guy who made Hoop Dreams. The director had been a big brother for a troubled youth while in college. He goes back to see what has become of that boy.
 
Thanks Bayou - I actually have all those on my queue. I don't think I need to tell you how great Hoop Dreams is, but the other two are definitely worth watching. A few that I have seen fairly recently that I would recommend:

Street Fight
Why We Fight
No End in Sight (ok, so the last two are a bit political, but I enjoyed them)
Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter

Only one that I really didn't like was Confessions of a Superhero.
 
Back on the King Kong movie, I couldn't help to wonder if Billy Mitchell was financing that video game club. They gave in to his every whim.

They had to know they had a massive double standard regarding the video tape and that Mitchell flat out refused to play the game in front of anyone. They even had the convention in his hometown, hoping he'd be there.

Sure, the gamers idolized Mitchell but he seemed to have something else on them.
 
It looks like you've got a really good list, already, but I'll try.

I'll tell you right now that Deep Water movie is one of the most impactful movies for me personally that I've ever seen, of any genre.

Little Dieter Learns to Fly --- directed by Werner Herzog, this documentary ends up being the basis for his underrated flick Rescue Dawn, which came out last year with Christian Bale.

Murderball, which you've probably seen.

Mad Hot Ballroom --- they made a feature movie based on it with Antonio Banderas which I didn't bother seeing. Basically inner city New York kids are taught ballroom dancing and then enter in a competition. The interviews with the kids make it worth seeing.

Heart of the Game --- if you like Hoop Dreams (and who didn't?) you'll love this, too. The documentary follows a girls' high school basketball team for FIVE!! years, but don't let that fool you. I'm not exactly enamored with girls basketball, but this documentary is incredibly compelling, with a storybook ending. The documentarian really lucked out on that account, although it would have been awesome even without it.

The coach of the team, Bill Resler, is just as compelling as Billy Mitchell in his own way, although as a somewhat eccentric man who takes up coaching on a lark, loves his kids with a passion, but has some unusual approaches.

Cats of Mirikitani --- this is the very moving story of a filmmaker documenting the effects of September 11th on the homeless, and the personal relationship she develops with a fascinating homeless old man of Japanese descent. His story, and how it's uncovered, is incredible, as the viewer and the filmmaker are brought into the life he's led which has brought him to the point where he's homeless, making these strangely compelling drawings of psychedelic colored cats.

I've got some more, but I'll list them later.
 
Another good documentary is God Grew Tired Of Us. Wife and I watched it a few weeks ago and really liked it. Recommended.
 
I watched it and thought is was okay but not great.

I could not help but wonder why the guy was always sitting in front of a Donkey Kong Junior game in his garage but when they showed him playing it was always the original Donkey Kong game.

I used to play Donkey Kong a lot and scored in the 150,000 range back when you had to go to arcades to play those games.

The best documentary I have ever seen, by far, is When We Were Kings. It also has some of the best music too. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it.
 
I was looking at that Twin Galaxies website yesterday and noticed that Billy Mitchell still holds the high score for Donkey Kong, looks like he did live in front of a referee a few months after Weibe sent his tape in.
 
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