According to the interviews that MTV had with the two popular Donkey Kong top scoring players, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, there are many opinions and thoughts on different aspects of this documentary. Some of the different things that the articles bring out are the mixed feelings that people had about those two characters and the way they dealt with the situation. In addition the articles point out at how some believe that the directors of the film had inaccurate information put into the documentary. Also the articles show how some people, especially Billy, believe that the film makers were biased in favor of Steve.
In the article about Steve, there were mixed views of Steve’s success and ability to beat Mitchell’s high score that was set for many years. “To us there was that question: Did he cheat, whether knowingly or unknowingly?” the movie’s producer Ed Cunningham, told MTV news. Even though both the producer and the director of this film followed Steve and Billy for 2 years, they are still questioning and aren’t sure if the score that Steve has managed to achieve real. Those who side with Billy wonder if the support that Steve got from Roy Shildt, Twin Galaxies’ rival, had to do anything with his achievement. On the other hand, those who are siding with Steve believe that he truly did achieve that high score without any cheating done, neither from his side nor from the hardware that he bought from Roy. Not only that, but also Steve’s fan would probably leave the movie feeling pitiful for Steve, since most of the people that he dealt with were siding with Billy, and they did everything possible to prevent him from claiming the record long help by Mitchell.
There are plenty of examples in the two articles that show how people believe that the information that was in the movie was inaccurate. For example, in the Ex- ‘Donkey Kong’ Champ Finally Speaks After Getting Bruised By New Doc article mentions that Walter Day remembers that Billy agreed that a tape he sent from his home, tape with a “Donkey Kong” performance that trumps a new world record Wiebe had just set there in person — was an official submission for a world was an official submission for a world record. This then explains why we see Day going over to the computer and inputting Mitchell’s score. On the other hand, Mitchell doesn’t even remember having this conversation with Day.
Day objects, in the article, about the way the film makers made it seem like Billy and his friends are the evil one while Steve is the saint. In an interview with Billy, he showed how distressed he was about the way the filmmakers portrayed him to be the bad guy -“They paint Steve as the family man and I guess they paint me as a son of a gun.” Also Billy’s best friend, Steve Sanders, thinks that the movie is true but is not fair at all.
All in all, I would personally believe that the film makers might have exaggerated a little bit, left out some information, or even put in inaccurate ones, giving the audience the impression that Wiebe is the saint while Mitchell on the other hand is the evil one. Nevertheless, I would say that the movie, to a very large extent, is true and fair and that the film makers where only giving us a general idea of the different personalities of the two characters- Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe .
