Special When Lit is a documentary that showcases the forgotten world of pinball.
The basis of Special When Lit is to highlight the fact that during the 50s and 60s, the pinball industry made more money than Hollywood movies but now pinball is on its deathbed. Highlighting the history, the rise and fall, and the people that love, play, and collect pinball machines. Much of the history is given by collectors and fans of the machines through a series of interviews. The film ends with a modern-day pinball tournament.
I watched two quirky documentaries (the first was Make Believe) in one day and so by the time I made it to Special When Lit my attention span was waning. As a lifelong fan of pinball, I was really looking forward to what Special When Lit would bring to the table and was left with mixed feelings. The history of pinball I found fascinating. The people that collect the machines and have literally filled their houses with them were intriguing. There is one guy who literally has parts of pinball machines that don’t exist anywhere anymore. Much of Special When Lit that isn’t a history lesson by the fans is a love letter from the fans.
Therein also lies part of the problem I had with Special When Lit; It turns out the people that are still really into pinball are kind of weird and there were times when I thought the documentary was almost poking fun at their hobby (or hobby turned obsession). This is always part of the problem with showcasing the outliers of society, there is a fine line between giving them your attention and poking fun at them, even if unintentionally. By the end of the documentary, during the tournament, I thought much of the focus from pinball had been lost and the people who still cling to pinball were in the spotlight. Not the we are outwardly laughing at these people but there is a sense of that coming across in the way they are portrayed.
If I could rate Special When Lit in two parts, I would. The beginning of the film I loved, with the rich history of pinball and hearing about its glory days. The latter half of the film kind of just unwinds and focuses too much on people in a way that I simply didn’t find very interesting. Maybe I was just getting burned out on documentaries, but I still wanted more from the film. Pinball fans should still check Special When Lit, it will make you want to travel to the nearest arcade to play.
I give it 3 Twilight Zone pinball machines (my favorite one) out of 5.
Links:
Reviewed this a while ago and agree with your review, the first part is certainly the more serious part and the second half shows some strange people and had me smiling a bit even if that wasn’t intentionally the idea behind those parts. Still enjoyed seeing it.
I definitely enjoyed it on a whole but the pacing of it kind of got to me by the end. Your review made me put this one on my ‘to watch’ list!
I see…nice 🙂
Thanks for the review. I love pinball and I am going to look for this one.
It’s on Netflix Instant Watch. There’s also another pinball documentary out (not sure if it’s also on IW) that I have yet to see.
Just watched this one on Netflix myself, and very much agree with your review. It gets kind of meandering in the second half, but it’s a great subject and definitely worth a look.
Any love pinball can get is a good thing in my book.
It seems you’ve been a bit out of luck when it comes to documentaries lately. You should wash out that taste in your mouth with documentaries like Trekkies or Indie Game: the Movie (which I watched quite recently). They’ve got weird geeky people in them too, but I don’t think they are THAT weird and the docus don’t feel like they’re exploiting them.
http://revoemagblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/the-passion-of-the-indie-game-makers/
I just watched Indie Game a few weeks back – but I agree, I need something good to wash away these so-so ones.
Nice review. Can’t see myself watching this, though.
Thanks – its not really for people that don’t care for pinball.
Hey, this is why I like your blog – you always review stuff I’ve never heard of, so you’re great for good tips! This sounds right up my street.
Haha nice- thanks!
Pingback: My September Movies Round-Up | Andy Watches Movies