I was thinking about Grand Theft Auto 6 the other day, and I suddenly remembered that a movie about GTA came out just over a decade ago. And it’s terrible.
Produced by the BBC in 2015, The Gamechangers was supposed to be a dramatic, stylish retelling of the myriad legal battles between GTA developer Rockstar Games and anti-game activist Jack Thompson. What it ended up being was a bumbling, undercooked recreation of a fascinating story.
The Gamechangers is a rebel too scared to find a cause
If The Gamechangers were a math problem, I’d tell it, “You’ve got all the right numbers.” The movie has a lot going for it: rich mise-en-scène, stylish lighting, and two incredibly talented actors helming the cast. Daniel Radcliffe plays Sam Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, while Bill Paxton steps into the Oxfords of Jack Thompson, delivering what would be one of his last performances before his death in 2016.
The film follows two main threads: the tumultuous development of GTA: San Andreas and Thompson’s quest to hold Rockstar Games criminally responsible for the psychological damage he believes GTA inflicts on children who play it. Both sides of the story intersect in the courtroom, where famous legal cases like the trial of GTA-obsessed cop-killer Devin Moore and the fallout of San Andreas‘ Hot Coffee mod play out on screen.
With all this going for it, The Gamechangers could have been a great movie about video games. Unfortunately, it flubs the landing so badly that it sets the airport on fire. Radcliffe and Paxton’s performances are stiff as steel, strangled by a script that cares more about delivering exposition than exploring the debate on violent video games in any way other than grandstanding. Even worse, it can’t even decide which side of the fight it’s on.
In some scenes, the film presents Houser’s unflinching dedication to his craft as admirable. Then, in another, he’s painted as a pretentious auteur who screams at his co-workers when things go wrong. Thompson doesn’t get off any easier; in one scene, he’s quoting Martin Luther King, backlit by heavenly light; the next, he’s so obsessed with winning his cases that he’s letting his family duties collect dust.
For all its posturing, The Gamechangers refuses to actually delve into the fight between artistic expression and censorship. Instead, it tosses out vague platitudes about art and responsibility and runs away before the discussion gets too deep. It leaves the film looking less like a hungry lion and more like a lost lamb.
Ten years later, The Gamechangers’ fears of violent games feel quaint
Over a decade out from its release, I think it’s safe to say that The Gamechangers hasn’t become the talking point it so desperately wanted to be. In fact, it’s straight-up lost media. The film’s all but vanished from the BBC’s catalogue, and only official trailers and scant clips remain as proof it ever existed.
While it may not be a cinematic masterpiece, The Gamechangers stands as a fascinating time capsule. Back in 2015, violent video games’ alleged ability to turn kids into killing machines was the single greatest video game controversy out there. It terrified authority figures, sparked national debate, and led to high-profile legal battles that reached the Supreme Court. Looking back on it now, though, the whole thing seems pretty tame.
In just over a decade, the shape of video game controversy has picked up some terrifying new angles. Researchers have thoroughly debunked the notion that violent video games can cause violence, which clears the way for new controversies about the industry’s practices. From the mass mobilization of AI in the gaming industry to the unchecked spread of child predation in Roblox, we’re way past the point that the scariest thing involving video games is the idea that children might try to re-create a stunt they saw in GTA.
Like almost every GTA game, The Gamechangers reflects the era it spawned from. While it failed to reach its audience or leave an impact, the film remains an undeniably fascinating chapter in GTA history.
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