Ed.: Image is of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D???-CT), from documentary, as he explains how the industry has to censor itself or he'll get the government to do it for "us."
From Danny Ledonne, filmmaker and creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
Around the time Slamdance festival director Peter Baxter pulled my videogame from the Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition (early January 2007), Spencer Halpin uploaded a trailer for his forthcoming documentary, Moral Kombat onto YouTube. The page was immediately flooded with almost roundly negative reactions -- calling for a boycott of the film and sometimes even attacking the director personally. Indeed, I myself viewed the trailer and was immediately incensed; it was full of the very anti-game hype that had prompted me to create my videogame critique of the "school shootings caused by videogames" issue to begin with. It was around this time that I began production on my own documentary, Playing Columbine, and was determined in the process to counter the anti-game spin furthered by the Moral Kombat trailer.
Yet as the months wore on, I began to think more carefully about the trailer and the entire situation surrounding Moral Kombat. I had been in touch with Hal Halpin (head of the Entertainment Consumer's Association [ECA]) and asked why the heck his brother Spencer would make a film so heavily misinformed about the videogame industry. I likened it to a Shakespearian knife in the back from loved one. Hal chuckled; he was clearly used to this question. "You should really see the film," Hal assured me. Not long after this I contacted Spencer himself.
"I figured you would call me sooner or later" Spencer said. "Why is that?" I asked. "Because there aren't many people out there who are making films about this subject." And with that, Spencer sent me a DVD preview copy of Moral Kombat. I eagerly sat down in front of it, prepared to rip it apart or simply write it off. Neither ended up happening.
I had never posted a YouTube comment or spoke out against Moral Kombat prior to viewing it and as I sat there watching the film itself, I was very glad I had all but bit my tongue up to that point. By the time my DVD drive had spun down as the disc reached its end, I had summarily concluded that Moral Kombat is beautiful and engaging. More importantly, it is a summarily decisive blow to the anti-game critics of the world. It seamlessly blends together the history of the medium, highlighting the colors and textures of early videogames, the controversy-sparking 16-bit era, and the graphical sophistication of the modern platforms. We hear from many developers, publishers, critics, academics, and journalists of interactive media - all the while cruising the glamorous beaches of Vice City, the exploits of Leisure Suit Larry, or the disturbing imagery of Silent Hill. The film is a visual treat from first frame to last, positioning the audience in an entrancing cyberscape of pixels, polygons, and people. The soundtrack will make you swoon and cheer, wince and wonder, dream and aspire. Through it all, you may realize that perhaps the videogame violence debate has already been won; society is simply not aware of it yet. To my mind, this is certainly the case.
If its detractors have anything to say about it, it will be that the film is too condensed, too hurried, too visually complex, and too eager to delve into the videogame violence issue with virtual guns blazing. There may be merit to this criticism but for me that has amounted to watching it many more times (the film has a replay value that exceeds many of the videogames it features). In terms of content, all of the token arguments against games are well-represented: they are murder simulators, they train kids to kill, they normalize antisocial behavior, their makers market mature products to children. Against all of these are touching personal anecdotes of tragedy, loss, reconciliation, and redemption. Never before have audiences been so humanely reminded that game developers are parents, too.
Moral Kombat promises us a very bright future for videogames - one filled with innovative designers who define the medium of doing. May the many talented developers featured in the film and those inspired by it make good on this promise. When it is released, I think audiences will conclude as I have that director Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat is tremendous and inspiring; indeed it has so moved me to make my own film the very best it can be. So please don't judge a book by its cover and don't judge a film by its trailer on YouTube. This is the film every gamer should own - and buy a copy of for every non-gamer they know.
Danny Ledonne is currently in post production on Playing Columbine: a true story of videogame controversy. He believes documentaries like Moral Kombat and his own will rouse the public awareness of the potential of videogames as the premiere art form of the 21st Century.
