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trailer

Oh, how I love the "you can't make this stuff up" brand of documentaries.

In addition to being as exploitative as it's made out to be in the trailer (Billy Mitchell, for one, is made out to be a total goon), this film is an unexpectedly compassionate depiction of the impetuous nature of competition.

Word is next year will see the remake.

I saw this last night and can not get over how truly amazing it was. Such a poignant and truly HILARIOUS movie. I thought after seeing Superbad that I wouldn't see a better comedy this year, but I was pleasantly surprised... this movie is uproarious. I recommend everybody see it and boycott the narrative remake film which will obviously be shit in comparison to this fantastic documentary.

Interview with Seth Gordon on The Treatment.

how wide of a release is this gonna get. it's getting the best reviews i've ever seen for a film (admittedly, i almost never read reviews). is it getting legs? is it likely to see a wider distribution?

abuckley89 wrote:I recommend everybody see it and boycott the narrative remake film which will obviously be shit in comparison to this fantastic documentary.

A narrative remake is completely and utterly unnecessary because the film is already structured using the simplest good guy/bad guy dichotomy imaginable, making it tremendously satisfying to the spectator. The fact that it's happening in a documentary context only adds to its effectiveness.

Great flick--see it with an audience.

I don't want to spoil anything but the ending has been superseded. Wiki Billy Mitchell for the TRUTH.

Saw this tonight and loved it. Was way more thrilling and involving than I ever expected, and if you rent the DVD, be sure to watch "The Saga Continues" for the real ending.

The latest issue of Harper's has a profile on Billy Mitchell.

Damn good documentary, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Steve Wiebe's trying to break Billy Mitchell's record right now.

So there is actually going to be a movie dramatization of the film. Is Danny McBride going to play that guy who's a dick? I'm thinking of Billy Mitchell, right?

oldsheperd wrote:So there is actually going to be a movie dramatization of the film. Is Danny McBride going to play that guy who's a dick? I'm thinking of Billy Mitchell, right?

holy shit yes

I recently saw this flick, but I was surprised that I didn't really like it. Not sure why it got so many accolades; its over-extended, over-simplified, and pandering to and not very respectful of its audience. Billy Mitchell may have an outsize persona, and Steve Weibe may be a sadsack average guy, but the whole relationship seems fictionalized and simplified so we don't have to think in a nuanced way about either person. The director practically turns on the "boo" sign whenever Mitchell is onscreen, and I would be outright embarrassed to have everyone in my life talk about how depressed I am, as Weibe's friends and family seem to do. Why do we need one of these people to be a hero and the other a villain? Do these two men not represent two different but not necessarily opposing worldviews and play styles? As a document of the two events where Weibe tries to dethrone Mitchell, it is interesting and compelling; as a clash of personalities, it is puffed up fantasy. There were too many stylistic flourishes and empty montages that just seemed to pad out the already very short runtime.

Also, as a gamer, though it was nice to see games presented with much more seriousness than usual, it still felt at times patronizing toward gamers in general (pandering to those in the audience who feel superior to these two guys) and again oversimplified as if those who haven't played games couldn't possibly understand what the heck a joystick is. There's maybe 25-30 minutes of direct-cinema material here, but the attempts to "create an atmosphere" by interviewing and narrating are just shallow talk. We don't learn much by the end of the flick that we wouldn't have without all the extra titles, montages, special effects, and recaps.

So, noting that, bring on the remake. In order for it to be ANY good, it will have to have more depth than this flick.

In case anyone's wondering, Wiebe ran into a kill screen. He did manage to break the 2nd highest score before that, though.

Here's a half-hour video that goes over what he did, how he did it, and how he got caught. Although people had suspected Mitchell of cheating for a long time, it was probably the spectacular downfall of Todd Rogers (another Twin Galaxies hall of famer) that opened the floodgates for people to really start openly questioning Mitchell's status. Twin Galaxies' reputation is now pretty much in tatters.

Still haven't seen this

I really need to revisit this film - I discovered it when it first came out on DVD and watched it dozens of times, but it’s been a few years since my last viewing. It’s a fantastic film, and I imagine the knowledge of Mitchell’s cheating would only add to my enjoyment of it. He was already a phenomenal movie villain, now he’s even more so.

I've actually seen this and honestly this couldn't be more of a Hollywood ending for the doc (though to be fair, as the article mentioned, well after the film came out, a third person came along and completely demolished both of their records).

I won't give anything away, but this news is no surprise when you see how this guy (wrongfully) got back his record - it comes off as incredibly sketchy.