Documentary Film Analysis - Atari: Game Over

Documentary Film Analysis – Atari: Game Over

Atari: Game Over is a participatory documentary that was directed by Zak Penn and released in 2014. The purpose of this film is to uncover all the Atari 2600 game cartridges of “E.T. Extra Terrestrial” that were tossed into a landfill in the 1980s. The point of the film is to discover what happened to this specific game and why it was so unsuccessful. Another reason is also to find out why it provoked a collapse in the game industry. The impact of Atari: Game Over is to help the intended audience learn a lot more about the ex-directors of Atari, former employees of the company and analysists with sufficient experience to adopt a to the authentic effect of “E.T. Extra Terrestrial. The reasons of the collapse in the game industry were superficially covered in documentaries such as Indie Game: The Movie, but Penn deepens on them.

In terms of camera shots there are various establishing shots and close up shots. The establishing shots are mostly of the landfill site where all the Atari 2600 game cartridges were buried and the official Atari headquarters. Archival footage is used from the early 1980s and they are all in black and white. The footage is of the landfills before they were uncovered. The reason that they are in black and white is to show the time lapse of how long ago they were buried. It could also represent the collapse that Atari caused in the game industry. The close-up shots are of the different areas in the landfill where the cartridges were buried, the layout plans of the landfill, the footage of all of the games that Atari produced, images of Atari’s game consoles and children actually playing the Atari games. The interviews are done with the interviewee as the main subject and the background out of focus. The interviewee also talks through the footage playing.

Location-wise, the documentary is filmed at the landfill site and in offices where the interviews take place, as well as the Atari headquarters. Penn did not use multiple locations to film, as he wanted to focus more on the intended aim of the documentary and not on the aesthetics.

The interviewees were not afraid to express their true thoughts on Atari as a company itself. Many strong opinions were voiced and the inside story of what really happens inside their headquarters was finally revealed. This could be one of the main reasons for the collapse in the game industry. Howard Scott Warshaw said many thought-provoking things during the viewing of the Atari Headquarters. He was also very sarcastic, clearly suggesting that he completely blames Atari for producing “the worst game ever”. For example: ‘This is a great lesson for people on their first day of work. If people are doing drugs bring your own so you fit in’ and ‘The company motto was we take fun seriously but it should have been we take fun intravenously”.

During the editing process, the names of each person as well as their job appears, so that the intended audience sees them talking to clearly show everyone involved in this plan to discover what happened to all the game cartridges and whoever played a significant role in the company, Atari. There is a montage of pictures showing the evolution of technology. The point created by the technology shown is that the younger the generation, the more modern the technology they use. A short clip of Indiana Jones is shown to tell the intended audience whom Joe Lewandowski compares to. Time lapses are included of the landfill site showing days passing by after all the cartridges were buried.

For sound, futuristic upbeat music and music from video games Atari’s video games are used keeping in theme with the documentary.