September 28, 2007
Moral Kombat, a documentary about the game violence debate, was screened for the first time last night at the University of Southern California.The film was produced and directed by filmmaker Spencer Halpin (shown at left during production) and was shown as part of USC's Business of Gaming conference.
GP had a chance to view the movie earlier this week and was quite impressed. Both sides of the issue are fairly represented.
Critics like Sen. Joe Lieberman, Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media & Family, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and, of course, Jack Thompson get to have their say.
Industry types appearing in the film include former ESA boss Doug Lowenstein, game designer Lorne Lanning (Oddworld series), IGDA head Jason Della Rocca, EA founder Trip Hawkins and others.
Also featured are reporter Dean Takahashi of the San Jose Mercury-News (who has a very personal perspective - I won't give it away) and Prof. Henry Jenkins of MIT.
Anyone with an interest in the topic should enjoy the film. No news on distribution plans yet, but GP will keep you posted.
FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: Spencer Halpin is the brother of ECA president Hal Halpin. The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
Comments
The trailer is meant to be as sensationalist as possible on purpose.
Isn't that the point of any trailer? :) To generate interest.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
BTW Dennis, good job leaving the Full Disclosure there.
"I wish we could more from the European academics, I think they can provide a completely different perspective on video games. like the people at the IT university of Copenhagen."
I agree, would be refreshing.
The trailer is meant to be as sensationalist as possible on purpose. It's the only way to get people from BOTH sides of the argument to show an interest to the movie.
Once they get the audience they needed, all they needed to do was show the actual documentary, which (unlike the trailer) is actually fair and balanced.
It's an old trick used by Newspapers. Sensationalist headline, but fair balanced article.
I think with that kind of confusion, they might want to watch out for Midway's lawyers. Or maybe I need to get more coffee in the morning :/
Does this movie take any measures to openly debunk some of their claims?
~Otaku-Man
Also, if they’ve fixed the inaccuracies in the trailer (bullet holes in Myst IV, etc.)
After hearing about this, I checked out the trailer again. And holy crap, there is is. A clip from Myst IV, showing a view out of a typical transport, and suddenly the glass is overlayed with bullet holes, something that didn't happen in-game. the 0:56-0:58 mark.
I sincerely hope that was done purely for shock value in the trailer alone, and that in the actual documentary such shooping is not present...
Likely to snag those willfully ignorant people that wouldn't watch this if it painted games and gamers in ANY positive light
Lucky for you, this is a country in which you can choose to see both - or neither.
I've been in touch with Spencer and thus I saw Moral Kombat a few months ago on DVD and was very impressed. It is an aesthetically beautiful, engaging, and driven work. It offers many perspectives but, in the end, is clearly pro-game (people like David Walsh aren't really anti-game, they just want GTA out of the hands of their children). Certainly worth viewing.
Spencer's film focuses almost exclusively on the issue of videogame violence and is also representative only of the mainstream industry - retailers, developers, etc. In my documentary ('Playing Columbine'), I pay special attention to the independent developers who I argue are pushing the real innovation in the medium - and of course focus much more on the nature of school shootings. Certainly there is some overlap, as well; Spencer and I each interviewed Doug Lowenstein, Hal Halpin, Jason Della Rocca, and the indispensable lawyer from Miami.
Certainly this is a subject big enough for more than one movie. ;)