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Gamespotting: El Rey de la Montana
This was a great instance of gamespotting for a couple of reasons, but unfortunately, I can't really get into them without spoilers. The title of this Spanish horror/thriller from Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego is translated to English as "King of the Hill", and it's no coincidence that the phrase is a gameplay mode in a lot of videogames. The movie has a lot in common with other recent European horror/thrillers, but I can't discuss those either without spoilers.
Suffice to say El Rey de la Montanas has a powerful but subtle message about videogaming. I recommend it. It's available on DVD as part of Dimension's "Extreme" line-up. And if you're really curious, I'll go ahead and spoil it a bit after the jump.
(Huge thanks to Erik for recommending it specifically for the gamespotting.)
Spoilers after the jump.
The first inkling that there's something different going on here is a wonderful discussion about Shadow of the Colossus that never actually names the game. Writer Javier Gullon deserves credit for not explaining the conversation and just letting it play out from the middle. If you don't know the game, you're not going to get the dialogue. It's as simple as that. This little bit of character development is for videogamers, and it does far more credit to the game than all the gratuitous shots of Adam Sandler fussing awkwardly with a game controller in Mike Binder's Reign over Me, where the game is named, discussed, and even shown.
But then there are the shots in the movie clearly taken from first person shooters. The first one, over the twin barrels of a shotgun, is quick enough that you might not even catch it. "Wait, was that...?" you might ask yourself, but the movie just charges ahead. However, by the time the final scene is playing out, you can't mistake what Lopez-Gallago was getting at with the way he shoots the view from behind a gun. He does the equivalent of an idle animation, with the gun raised. There is strafing. There is even a friendly fire "indicator" where the muzzle lowers when it's pointed at a non-valid target. We've all seen these in videogames, and the movie is talking to us. The final location even looks and plays like a multiplayer level in a shooter, perhaps one of the ruined villas in Call of Duty 2 or something made with one of Epic's lush textured engines.
Whether you're on board with where El Rey de la Montana goes from there, and what it ultimately does with that, is another story entirely. But you can't deny this is a great candidate for gamespotting in popular culture.
By mandaya at 6:49 AM ON 01/30/09
SPOILER WARNING: powerful but subtle???? come on. videogames made these kids violent and murderous - that's the message. where's the subtlety? were you too doe-eyed by shadow-of-the-colossus-talk to notice that this movie is almost thompson'esque in its simple-minded linking of youth violence to the alleged desensitizing effect of videogames??
in my opinion this kind of completely stupid ending (and explanation) ruined an otherwise moderately interesting movie. I'm more than a bit surprised about your praise. this movie is ammunition for those who wish to ban video games.
By Tom Chick at 6:56 AM ON 01/30/09
There is nothing in the movie implying that videogames *made* these kids do what they did. If the movie implied any sort of cause and effect, I might be inclined to agree. But there's no such thing there and I'm surprised you'd come away with that impression. Instead, it simply showed two psychotic killers from a generation that interprets things through videogaming. It speaks volumes that you assume the games made them do it.
As for your comment about "those who wish to ban videogames", I see now where you're coming from. However, I'd like to recommend that instead of assuming people want to "ban" videogames, you instead take a look at what they're actually suggesting. There is not now, and there never had been, a mainstream attempt or even suggestion to "ban videogames".
But that's a whole other derail. I'd much rather talk about the movie. :)
By mandaya at 12:17 PM ON 01/30/09
re: Banning: I think you deliberately misunderstand my point here, but okay: nobody wants to "ban videogames". what I was getting at is the construed (and, through filmic means, alleged) connection between violent behaviour in kids and the influence of computer games, mainly FPS.
and your first point: you are right. NO motivation for the violence is offered, but that leaves us with the filmically implied well-known thesis of "these kids can't differentiate between their ultraviolent games and reality, so they kill people real, ZOMG". as the movie does not comment on this explicitly, the viewer is inevitably nudged in this direction by all the aesthetic video game metaphor.
no offense, maybe we just agree to disagree. I remember being immensely annoyed by this movie for the above reasons, so this is just my 2 cents.
By budgethero at 4:55 PM ON 01/30/09
lol, touche` (or however it's spelled) with the not spoiling.
By Tom Chick at 7:41 PM ON 01/30/09
Mandaya, firstly, I think it's important to establish that *blaming* videogames certainly isn't the movie's intent. My friend who recommended the movie send me this link to an interview with the director:
http://twitchfilm.net/incoming/KingOfTheHill.MP3
It's terrible quality, so I can't blame you for not bearing with it, but about half way through, he answers the question of whether he blames videogaming for what these kids are doing. He doesn't. It's a good interview, although it sounds like it was conducted in the mess hall of a prison while a riot is brewing.
Secondly, I understand your concerns that the movie might be misconstrued, but for a couple of reasons, I don't see it as a problem. 1) It's an obscure genre film that no one is going to see, much less anyone who's got the ulterior motive of establishing a link between gaming and youth violence. 2) It's foreign, so it gets to play by different rules.
But I find it interesting that you think it "nudges" the viewer towards a causal link between videogaming and violence. Well put, but if any such nudging happens, it says more about the viewer than the movie. I can see why you might be annoyed, but I think you should save that annoyance for the more influential and less thoughtful causal links drawn in other media. Leave these poor arthouse horror films to their own devices. :)
Tom Chick:
Mandaya, firstly, I think it's important to establish that *blaming* videogames certainly isn't the movie's intent....More »