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I watched Darkon this weekend (thanks Miles) while the Olympic cycling events were on and it’s gold. A documentary about LARP’ing (live action role playing), Darkon closely follows the warring kingdoms of Mordem and Laconia and the two dorky-by-day, pathetic-by-night leaders, Keldar and Bannor respectively.
Now I don’t want to sound like I am bashing their hobby, in essence it doesn’t sound so bad. You get to play dress up and hang out with friends all day. However, these guys take things to a whole new level of nerd. They’re building castles out in the woods, training for hours in their backyard and making deals with evil elf mercenaries in the middle of the night…and that’s where they lose me.
The film offers honest, almost too honest, confessional moments from the highlighted players and it left me feeling sad, confused and mesmerized all at once….it was like what I imagine watching Zelda Rubinstein shower would be like.
I’m really grateful for this genre of documentary though; the genre that includes King of Kong, Darkon and Confessions of a Superhero. They all share a special tragic genius that I love.
On that note, back to work. I am no better than Keldar or Bannor. At least they are free to roam the forests and talk among the elder beings of the netherworld. I sit here shackled to my modern day wheelie throne, forced to write like a whore-slave turned sour from too many nights spent with the tree people.
Filed under: Film/Television | Tagged: darkon, king of kong, larp, zelda rubinstein
I think there’s another doc about LARPers called Monster Camp or something like that. From the trailer it looks to have all the pretend might and magic and even a wheelchair-bound LARPer.
I agree though, wholeheartedly. Definitely weird, yet unshakably intriguing.
Wheelchair-bound LARPer? That sounds like a little piece of Heaven all in itself.
I’ve heard of Monster Camp (that is the name, by the way) and I feel like I need to continue my journey into hell by watching it.
But seriously, Darkon is kind of amazing in a way. It reminds you of a time when you and your friends could run around the soccer field at school and pretend that you were ninjas or super heros (or Jedis or whatever), casting death spells on each other and writhing around on the ground when someone “shot you.” The fact that the subjects of this particular documentary are grown men–some of them with children and mortgages–is at least as much sweet as it is pathetic.
Okay, perhaps it’s a little more pathetic than it is sweet, but you get the idea. These guys and girls are doing something that makes them happy and their complete lack of inhibition is kind of contagious. Honestly, I’d give anything to go back to a time when my most dire concerns in life revolved around securing the allegiance of a group of Dark Elves–and let’s pause for a moment and ponder the clusterfuck of logic involved in a black man wearing the D&D equivalent of blackface, complete with milk-white eyebrows–a group that will help you storm a bolsa wood castle in the hopes of toppling a faux evil empire.
Simply put, if you’ve recently downloaded the lightsaber app to your iPhone or imagined that your frizbee is a glaive, then this movie is for you. And if you haven’t done any of those things, then there’s a lot to laugh at in this one. Either way, you win.
This is why I love hosting a podcast:
We’re getting a screener copy of Monster Camp. The guy is mailing it to me on Wednesday, so it should be here within the next couple of weeks.
Jawesome.
That’s great news! I can’t wait.
Oh my lord. I definitely want to get a look at that.
I just got the DVD in the mail! Booya!