As entertainment, King of Kong is quite good, portraying a strange insular world of video game fanatics and a good vs. evil story of a scrappy newcomer fighting to win the record from its sleazy holder.
But as a documentary, it is quite possible that almost everything in it has been twisted in pretzels to fabricate a story.
After I saw the documentary I looked in up on wikipedia, where I saw some fairly shocking claims regarding what the movie altered and left out. I went to the Twin Galaxies website and read more.
Of course, since Twin Galaxies and Billy Mitchell (I found an interview with him in AV Club) are portrayed negatively in the movie there's a possibility that they aren't telling the truth, but since some of the most important claims would be common knowledge within the classic arcade gaming community, they would ruin their reputation by lying, and be instantly refuted, so I have to lean towards believing them.
This is quite frustrating. The movie is entertaining. And it is fascinating to see how seriously people take this tiny little world. But if what Twin Galaxies claims is true, then I was totally mislead on what was going on, and I basically can't trust a single thing in the movie.
Documentaries, in my opinion, should strive to tell the truth more than to tell a good story. King of Kong tells a good story, but its relationship to the truth is highly suspect.
But as a documentary, it is quite possible that almost everything in it has been twisted in pretzels to fabricate a story.
After I saw the documentary I looked in up on wikipedia, where I saw some fairly shocking claims regarding what the movie altered and left out. I went to the Twin Galaxies website and read more.
Of course, since Twin Galaxies and Billy Mitchell (I found an interview with him in AV Club) are portrayed negatively in the movie there's a possibility that they aren't telling the truth, but since some of the most important claims would be common knowledge within the classic arcade gaming community, they would ruin their reputation by lying, and be instantly refuted, so I have to lean towards believing them.
This is quite frustrating. The movie is entertaining. And it is fascinating to see how seriously people take this tiny little world. But if what Twin Galaxies claims is true, then I was totally mislead on what was going on, and I basically can't trust a single thing in the movie.
Documentaries, in my opinion, should strive to tell the truth more than to tell a good story. King of Kong tells a good story, but its relationship to the truth is highly suspect.