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King of the Hill



For his first Hollywood studio production, Steven Soderbergh (whose independent debut, sex, lies, and videotape, had won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival a few years earlier) crafted this small jewel of a growing-up story. Set in St. Louis during the Depression, King of the Hill follows the daily struggles of a resourceful and imaginative adolescent (Jesse Bradford) who, after his tubercular mother is sent to a sanatorium, must survive on his own in a run-down hotel during his salesman father’s long business trips. This evocative period piece, faithfully adapted from the memoir by the novelist A. E. Hotchner, is among the ever versatile Soderbergh’s most touching and surprising films.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED EDITION:

- New high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Steven Soderbergh and supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer Larry Blake, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interviews with Soderbergh and A. E. Hotchner, author of the memoir on which the film is based
- Against Tyranny, a new video essay by ::kogonada in which he explores Soderbergh’s unique approach to character subjectivity
- The Underneath (1995), Soderbergh’s follow-up feature to King of the Hill, with an interview with the director
- Trailers
- One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Peter Tonguette, a 1993 interview with Soderbergh, and an excerpt from Hotchner’s 1972 memoir

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On the one hand, Soderbergh is one of the best directors at doing commentaries, and it's always a disappointment when a release of one of his movies doesn't have one. On the other hand, The Underneath has to rank with the best special features ever, so it seems churlish to complain.

Gonna do it anyway, though. Man, I want commentaries on these.

If The Underneath is in HD, definite purchase for me.

The site suggests yes.

One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats

The Underneath is better than King of the Hill but Soderbergh doesn't like it so I imagine he asked Criterion to do this rather than have sister spine releases. Looks like Soderbergh's widescreen defense video essay thing from Universal's the Underneath DVD isn't carried over

Also, who or what is ::kogonada?

This is like several Christmases rolled up into one (I know you couldn't possibly guess that for me). I don't even care that Underneath isn't getting its own release, because I'll just be happy to own an anamorphic copy.

The Underneath may be my favorite Soderbergh flick, and King of the Hill is a decent enough special feature to make for an excellent edition despite the otherwise meager supplements. No I'm not confused.

domino harvey wrote:Also, who or what is ::kogonada?

:: kogonada is a filmmaker and regular contributor to Sight & Sound. His projects have been featured on NPR, The Atlantic, Canal+ and Der Spiegel, and have screened internationally. He was born in Seoul, Korea.

I'd have much preferred to see The Underneath paired up with the film it is remaking, Robert Siodmak's Criss Cross (which is very similar to Siodmak's/Lancaster's version of The Killers in many ways), but to see both King of the Hill and The Underneath get Blu releases is still great news.

Interesting to see that this ::kogonada has done video essays on Hirokazu Kore'eda - I'd expect there to be some comparisons between Nobody Knows and King of the Hill because of that.

I suggested in another thread that Criss Cross might be 699 for that reason!

domino harvey wrote:I suggested in another thread that Criss Cross might be 699 for that reason!

I can see that, but I think it's less likely because The Underneath wasn't actually given a full release. Of course, I'm speaking as me, and if Kafka doesn't get that spine number, I will riot.

Very happy to see this released on blu-ray. The laserdisc release was ok and the only way to watch it here in the states besides seeing it on video tape. The region 2 PAL dvd disc from Universal has a very good anamorphic image but no extras and i had to use my all region player to watch it so this will be a easy purchase for me when this comes out.

Excellent - I've been waiting for KOTH to be released for years as well. I saw this for the first time this year, and feel it's one of the most underrated films of the '90's.

Also quite pleased that The Underneath is finally getting a good release - the non-anamorphic DVD that came out in the late '90's was sub-par when it was released, and is completely unacceptable these days.

Never understood why Soderbergh has such disdain for The Underneath. From what I remember of Getting Away With It, it seems like it was more a bad time in his personal/professional life overall and just not where he wanted to be as a filmmaker. Then again, maybe he's just unconsciously internalized the idea of there being B-sides to his canon from this forum and decided to put that idea into practice for this release...

Given the reams of stuff Criterion has taken on from Universal, I'm surprised it's taken so long for these to make it out; methinks maybe the re-do of Kafka (which surely has to be on its way as well) was at least part of the reason for the delay. As for Siodmak/Criss Cross, the fact that Cry of the City remains a no-show and The File on Thelma Jordan went to Olive makes me think it is not in the cards.

It was probably a precursor to his retirement now, where he just grew completely tired of the studio system and working for it.

Cronenfly wrote:Never understood why Soderbergh has such disdain for The Underneath. From what I remember of Getting Away With It, it seems like it was more a bad time in his personal/professional life overall and just not where he wanted to be as a filmmaker.

I think this happened when he got divorced. I feel like directors have bad relationships to films made when they had marriages ending. David O. Russell talked about this recently with "I Heart Huckabees".

Cronenfly wrote:Never understood why Soderbergh has such disdain for The Underneath. From what I remember of Getting Away With It, it seems like it was more a bad time in his personal/professional life overall and just not where he wanted to be as a filmmaker. Then again, maybe he's just unconsciously internalized the idea of there being B-sides to his canon from this forum and decided to put that idea into practice for this release...

I really enjoyed The Underneath & it's actually one of my favorite Soderbergh films. I found it very polished & compelling, with flashbacks that are used quite expertly. And, the ending is as brilliant as it is unexpected.

I remember Soderbergh discussing his disdain for The Underneath at the TIFF screening of Schizopolis. He mentioned that Schizopolis, itself, was his own personal film craft antidote to the previous picture, which he felt was too cold and controlled. Not enough life in it. He hadn't, at this point, fdiscovered the experimental/populist balance found in his next film, Out of Sight, so this was his way of excising too much form from his filmmaking system. He said he wanted to enjoy the process more - to get back to having fun while making a movie, or at least the kind of fun they seemed to have while making Cannonball Run. That got a big laugh.

All that being said, I love The Underneath. I'm actually quite touched by a lot of the relationship and family conflicts in the film, and I think it's beautifully crafted. Kafka, too, and King of the Hill, and I can't wait to revisit them once these new editions arrive.

DVDBeaver

Well, The Underneath is in HD (thank god, the DVD had some of the worst aliasing I've ever seen), and the Soderbergh interview for it is 22 minutes long. Also, there are some previously-unmentioned deleted scenes.

Would have liked to see some caps for The Underneath...

The Underneath looks pretty good, not great. Some compression is obvious and it's not as razor crisp as King of the Hill (which looks really good) and could be an older master since there are no notes on the transfer, but I think most will be pleased with it, especially since the other option on disc is the non-anamorphic DVD. Audio is also Dolby Digital 5.1, not DTS-HD. Both films obviously share the same Blu-ray, but each film (and their respective supplements) get their own DVD. I included a few grabs (PNG files) below for The Underneath.

Underneath 1
Underneath 2
Underneath 3

It looks indeed like a dated master, and is treated as an extra (poor bitrate, DD 5.1), but still a neat upgrade from the previous DVD...

Thanks, Chris! I figured it wouldn't be of the same quality as King of the Hill, but I wanted to have an inkling.