The King of Kong: Old-School Arcade Gamers Go to War

Gordon thinks so. He sees a retro appeal in the revival of arcade gaming generally, Donkey Kong included. The original phenomenon was not exactly analog, not exactly digital, but a kind of in-between cultural phase between the two—not unlike adolescence.

Gordon insists that Kong and its future remake are grounded in the essential modesty of the hero.

Bootsy Holler

Wiebe in action.

Details

The King of Kong Egyptian: 6:30 p.m. Sun., May 27; 1:30 p.m. Mon., May 28. Rated PG-13. 79 minutes.

Related Content

• Steve Wiebe, Seattle Teacher and World Record Donkey Kong Score Holder, Unseated by Nemesis Hank Chien
  January 11, 2011
• Horrible Bosses: Oh, Jason Bateman, We'll Almost Forgive You This One
  July 6, 2011
• Freakonomics: Read the Book Instead
  September 29, 2010
• Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show
  June 2, 2010
• The Making of a Rhythm Section
  November 25, 2009

More About

• Steve Wiebe
• Seth Gordon
• Ed Cunningham
• Video Games
• Documentary Films

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

"In a lot of ways, he is a classic Northwest type," says Gordon. "Once I'd met Steve and Billy, I knew it wasn't going to be a movie about video games, but a movie about two different guys—and therefore the nature of competition." Wiebe is at once obsessive and normal, someone whose brain is wired in such a way—and probably augmented by his drumming, baseball, and engineering backgrounds—that playing Donkey Kong, says Gordon, "he's like a scientist. He will dynamically group and rearrange the obstacles and bad guys on-screen." It's a matter of seeing the patterns, "diagramming the randomness," without being all Rain Man about it.

On a more human level, the documentary Kong is about a guy "trying to get a fair chance," as Wiebe says in the film. And now, at SIFF and beyond, the filmmakers are looking for theirs.

bmiller@seattleweekly.com