[piano music]
So about a year ago, an excavation
crew sponsored by Microsoft
dug up the famous Atari landfill
in Alamagordo, New Mexico.
Supposedly, Atari buried
millions of E.T. cartridges there
and the excavation crew wanted to know
if that was true.
They were also filming a
documentary at the same time.
Well, I made a video about the whole ordeal
basically saying the excavation was overblown
because there's plenty of evidence that tells us
exactly what was buried
in the landfill back in 1983.
And of course,
when the excavation crew dug
up the contents of the landfill,
they found exactly what I thought:
a bunch of random Atari parts...
and games from a warehouse dump.
If you'd like to check out that video,
I've got a link in the description below.
Well, it's been about a year
and the documentary on the excavation, 
entitled "Atari: Game Over,"
has been released on Netflix.
I decided to watch the film for myself
and provide some thoughts on it.
Now I will warn you,
this video does contain spoilers.
So turn back now...
if you want to experience the film for yourself.
"Atari: Game Over" is a documentary
suffering from an identity crisis.
Half of the movie focuses
on the rise and fall of Atari,
and contains some really insightful interviews
from Nolan Bushnell,
Howard Scott Warshaw
and Manny Gerard.
This is easily the best part of the movie.
The rise and fall of Atari is a fascinating story
about an entire industry being born.
It was so interesting hearing about Howard
Scott Warshaw's experiences working at Atari
and making E.T.,
as well as the business insight provided
by Warner executive Manny Gerard.
And then there was the other half of the film...
which focuses on uncovering
the infamous Atari landfill,
which was supposedly full of E.T. cartridges.
However, as I said before,
this is all completely false,
so watching this part felt...
pointless, I guess?
It's comical, in a way.
And that's my biggest problem with this movie.
Director Zak Penn purposely misleads the viewer
and has them believing that Atari did
actually bury all of these E.T. cartridges.
And he does it for the sake of entertainment.
The film repeatedly gives the viewer false information.
They claim Atari denied the whole dumping,
which is not true.
They even used newspaper clippings in the movie
that PROVE what was actually dumped!
And of course, at the end of the movie,
they don't find millions of E.T. cartridges.
In fact, E.T. made up about only 10 percent
of the entire landfill.
So the payoff in the end was...
pretty underwhelming.
The truth about the landfill isn't exciting.
But being dishonest to the viewer feels irresponsible.
According to IGN,
there's an interview with an
Atari warehouse manager
that was completely cut from the movie.
Apparently in 30 seconds,
he completely debunks the
entire premise of this movie.
The production values, however,
are really good.
It's a well-shot film and has
some really good editing.
It keeps you watching and
doesn't overstay its welcome,
clocking in at 1 hour and 6 minutes.
Some of the graphics and transitions
they used were... kinda corny
but overall, it's well done.
So in conclusion,
"Atari: Game Over" is...
okay.
The segments on Atari and
Warshaw are really good,
but the rest of the documentary
is based on a false mystery.
It's an entertaining movie, don't get me wrong.
Just don't watch this movie
expecting to learn tons of information
about the rise and fall of Atari...
or the Video Game Crash of '83.
By the end of the film, you'll really
feel bad for Howard Scott Warshaw
and the predicament he was in,
trying to make a complete game in five weeks.
You'll also feel like maybe E.T.
isn't the WORST game ever made...
and didn't single-handedly
cause the video game crash.
I'd say "Atari: Game Over" is worth a look
if ONLY for the segments
on Howard Scott Warshaw and Atari.
It's available on Nextflix,
or you can watch it for free
on Xbox Live.
That's all for this episode of Gaming Historian.
Thanks for watching!
