Darkon

Darkon (USA, 2006, Director: Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, 89 minutes): An immersive film about an immersive hobby. Darkon shines a light into the little-known world of Live Action Role Playing (LARPing). Darkon is a fantasy world where groups of people gather every two week­ends and fight real battles over ima­ginary land. Dressed in armor and armed with foam swords and shields, they do battle as an escape from their everyday lives. While there are plenty of laughs in the film, they’re never at the expense of the people who play the game, who turn out to be reg­ular folks searching for a little excite­ment in their lives. People play to let off steam, to con­nect with the big themes of good and evil, honour and bravery, loy­alty and betrayal. One of the recur­ring themes is that people in today’s world feel pretty power­less. They’re part of a society that tells them what to do and how to do it. In Darkon, many of these indi­viduals feel in con­trol of their lives for the very first time, and while it can seem a little bit sad, they’re having a blast.

Unavoidably, real life seeps into the game, and people’s char­ac­ters are often informed by the things shaping them in their lives out­side the game. When stay-at-home dad Skip Lipman (or Bannor of Laconia, as he’s known in the game) decides to lead other small nations in a revolt against the imper­i­al­istic nation of Mordom, it’s hard not to see him aven­ging his own exclu­sion from the family busi­ness by an older brother. And it comes as no real sur­prise to learn that Mordom’s arrogant leader, Keldar (Kenyon Wells), is actu­ally in man­age­ment at his company.

Some of the best scenes in the film are the battle scenes. Though often looking like some­thing out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they’re shot with mock epic ser­i­ous­ness, with the players reciting lines of awkard Arthurian prose. With the addi­tion of a stir­ring score swelling behind them, the battles actu­ally look pretty exciting.

Though I’ve never par­ti­cip­ated in a Live Action Role Playing game, I was an avid RPG (role-playing games) buff for sev­eral of my teenage years. I feel like I have some level of under­standing for the sub­cul­ture, and it provides a much-needed com­munity for people who often feel out­side the main­stream. The film pre­serves their dig­nity while still allowing us to laugh a little. After all, it’s a game. And it’s play. And play is sup­posed to be fun.

Visit the film’s web site

Visit the site of the Darkon Wargaming Club

(10/10)

EYE Weekly: **** (out of 5) (review)

9/14/07 UPDATE: The film is finally get­ting a lim­ited the­at­rical release in the US, only 18 months late! Go and see it on the big screen if and while you can.

Tagged as: #hotdocs06, Documentaries, Hot Docs, manhood