Blu-ray Review: King of the Hill (Criterion Collection)

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

It’s interesting to go back and view the early works of a filmmaker, particularly those films you’ve not yet seen. My first true discovery of Steven Soderbergh came with the release of Out of Sight. That may be on account of me being a long-time Elmore Leonard fan, and seeing his work adapted to screen had been a pleasurable experience with the release of Get Shorty in 1995. More of a commercial vehicle than some of his other works, it would inevitably lead to him making the Danny Ocean films with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Yet the director is also known for his odd choices in subjects, which started with his 1989 Palme d’Or-winning debut feature, sex, lies, and videotape. He would follow that two years later with the Lem Dobbs-penned Kafka with Jeremy Irons as the titular Franz Kafka.

For his third feature, Soderbergh again deviates from convention to make a film that is far removed from his independent-filmmaking renaissance debut in the late 1980s. And upon viewing this Criterion Collection release of King of the Hill a thought sprang to mind: Had I seen this before? Surely, I would remember if I had. Well, okay, so here it is. I can recall when I rented this movie on VHS (for readers that don’t know what VHS is, ask your parents). I remember bringing it home but for whatever reason I didn’t watch it before taking it back to the Mom & Pop video store where I got it originally. (If you’ve never heard of Mom & Pop stores, again, ask your parents.) Even before I pushed play I knew the film was set during the depression and starred young actor Jesse Bradford. Some may remember him from Hackers, or the forgettable Swimfan, or maybe as Joan Cusack’s son in the Steve Martin/Rick Moranis comedy My Blue Heaven. But that’s where my history with the film stopped.

A.E. Hotchner’s depression-era memoir King of the Hill is a coming-of-age drama revolving around Aaron Kurlander (Jesse Bradford), a 12-year-old boy living with his younger brother Sullivan (Cameron Boyd), sickly mother (Lisa Eichhorn) and ineffectual salesman father (Jeoren Krabbé) in a single room on the third floor of the Empire Hotel in downtown St. Louis during the summer of 1933. As it turns out, the Kurlanders aren’t the only family trying to make a life as a result of The Great Depression. The hotel’s third floor is littered with individuals and families that are biding their time until Ben (Joe Chrest), the toothpick-chewing bellhop with an unsightly grin and with a box full of padlocks pays them a visit for failure to pay rent.

From the start Soderbergh establishes the type of kid Aaron is with his reading of a fictitious story where he recounts the time the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh called him in the middle of the night for advice on what food to bring on his long flight across the Atlantic. In some respects the amount of creativity in his story is reminiscent of the one James Leer crafts in Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys. Maybe not as far as the colorful wordplay goes but in as far as Aaron’s ability to spin an implausible tale and have it come across as genuine, full of hope and optimism, itself fitting considering his despairing life.

Pinching pennies trying to save on weekly expenses the Kurlanders send Sullivan away to live with his uncle. This is the first blow Aaron must endure. The second is when his mother is committed to a sanitarium for consumption, thus briefly leaving him and his father to make the most of the homestead. However, it’s not long before Mr. Kurlander is gone, having secured a sales position with a watch company. Now Aaron is truly alone fending for himself.

As a remedy to Aaron’s isolation are the Empire Hotel and its denizens. Among the occupants we have Mr. Mungo (Spalding Gray) and his alluring companion, Lydia (Elizabeth McGovern), Ella McShane (Amber Benson), the cat-loving girl down the hall who suffers from seizures, and a young Adrien Brody as Lester, who serves as Aaron’s surrogate older brother. Each one has their own peculiarities as if sprung from Aaron’s imagination. Sadly, his new surrogate family is taken from him, leaving Aaron to fly solo when dealing with problems that are much too big for him.

With each new wrinkle becoming direr and more hopeless the film still brims with the same optimism as evident by Aaron’s story about his phone call from Charles Lindbergh. This all crystallizes through Soderbergh’s direction and astute cinematography, where he uses warm colors to convey the sweltering pre-air conditioned depression setting of St. Louis. Much like Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me, King of the Hill shows a level of maturity in its coming of age depiction of each story’s protagonist, though in different guises. Gordie Lachance (the protagonist of Stand By Me) is the spitting image of Aaron, going as far as being a talented writer and the feeling of being alone. Only instead of hotel residents acting as a surrogate family, Gordie has his friends who, forlornly, become just another face you pass in the halls of high school, adolescence. When King of the Hill reaches its conclusion cheerfulness exists signaling that independence cherished comes through the self-actualization of having been left to fend for yourself.

King of the Hill is part of Criterion’s new dual-format line that contains both a Blu-ray and DVD with the release. Because of the amount of content we get a three-disc set containing a single 50 GB Blu-ray disc and two DVDs. Coming with a nice cardboard outer sleeve the discs inside are housed on a plastic tray; the box also includes a thick 40-page booklet with an essay from critic Peter Tonguette, a 1993 interview with Steven Soderbergh, and an excerpt from Hotchner’s 1972 memoir.

Seeing that Criterion is meticulous when it comes with its video and audio, and also knowing that Soderbergh is his own cinematographer, I had no doubts that the presentation with this release would be strong. A new 2K digital film transfer supervised by Soderbergh delivers a bright, richly colored image and picks up all the detail in the film’s production design. Probably not since its theatrical release in 1993 have viewers been able to film’s rich color palate.

On the audio front we get a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that was supervised by sound editor and rerecording mixer Larry Blake. Like the picture, we get a rich experience with crisp and clean dialogue throughout. Most comes through the center channel, but there are instances where the front and rear channels come into play. The rears, mostly, are for atmosphere and ambient sounds that occur in and around the Empire Hotel.

Never one to hold back when it comes to supplements, Criterion has essentially made King of the Hill a two-fer offering. Not only do you get Soderbergh’s third feature film, but you also get his fourth directorial effort as a bonus.

The Underneath was Soderbergh’s attempt at making a feature that can best be labeled as neo-noir. Based on the novel Criss Cross by Don Tracy, which was originally adapted into a 1949 noir of the same name, the feature stars Peter Gallagher as Michael Chambers, a son who returns home to witness his mother’s marriage. Gambling indiscretions made him a pariah around town with overwhelming debts, so he left both the town and his girlfriend to make a clean escape. His coming back home means reassimilation, and renewing relations with family, friends and past enemies.

By its very nature the film is a slow-moving affair. Steven Soderbergh admits this much with a lengthy interview (22 minutes), where he says it has a “sleepy” feel. If you’re familiar with the phrase “phoning it in,” that’s how Soderbergh felt during the film’s production. He had an unpleasant feeling, yet he was able to deliver a feature that delivers both visually and aurally (frequent collaborator Cliff Martinez did the score).

Those with an interest in familiar faces but not familiar names will be able to spot a few among the cast. This includes Paul Dooley (who played Molly Ringwald’s dad in Sixteen Candles), William Fichtner (of Contact and The Dark Knight), and Joe Don Baker, who recently made a small appearance in Mud, starring Matthew McConaughey.

While it may not serve as a proper companion to King of the Hill a film like The Underneath probably wasn’t going to get a proper high-def release on its own so now this underseen Soderbergh can build a new audience thanks to The Criterion Collection.

For extras that have commonality with King of the Hill we have interviews with Steven Soderbergh (19 minutes) and A.E. Hotchner (21 minutes).  Both men discuss the film. In the case of Soderbergh, particular interest is how it is viewed twenty-one years after its release. As for A.E. Hotchner, he reads from the text then moves on to the film adaptation. And for those who read for entertainment, Hotchner is a strong believer in creating a wonderful imaginary world to combat the ugly world that exists outside.

Up next is Against Tyranny (11 minutes), a visual essay in which filmmaker kogonada discusses the manner in which Soderbergh approaches the mental states depicted in the film. This includes the use of nonlinear sequences and a hallucination scene.

The six deleted scenes (9 minutes) that are included as an extra don’t really add much to the plot, but Soderbergh wishes he didn’t have to cut them as they give further insight to the characters, especially Aaron and little brother Sullivan.

Finally we have trailers for both King of the Hill and The Underneath.

For fans of Steven Soderbergh, this Criterion edition of King of the Hill is an easy recommendation. I’m still kicking myself for not having watched it when I rented it back in 1993. But back then I was twelve and probably wouldn’t have been able to understand the movie’s themes. Now older, and having seen a number of different of coming-of-age movies, I know the tropes offered and see here that Soderbergh’s third film honors A.E. Hotchner’s original memoir to make an entertaining feature that includes some early acting performances by the likes of star Jesse Bradford, Adrien Brody, Katherine Heigl and Lauryn Hill. You can’t go wrong with the film. Everything else Criterion included just makes it that much more worth devouring.

Universal Pictures and The Criterion Collection present King of the Hill. Written and Directed by: Steven Soderbergh. Based on the memoir by A.E. Hotchner. Starring: Jesse Bradford, Jeoren Krabbé, Lisa Eichhorn, Adrien Brody, Spalding Gray. Running time: 103 minutes. Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements). Released: February 25, 2014.

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!