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Treasure Island
R1 - America - All Day Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Adam Palcher (28th June 2009). |
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The Film
 This movie was originally released in 1999 and won an array of awards including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award. As the cover of the DVD says ‘You’ve never seen anything like Treasure Island’ this diagnosis remains to be seen as a good or bad thing. I can truly say that I have never seen a film like this, but it also reminds me of its influences. It’s like if David Lynch, back in his "Eraserhead" (1977) days, directed "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) with a tinge of Todd Solondz strangeness that will never be explained. As the director Scott King addresses in the liner booklet of this DVD this film is not for everyone, I may go out on a limb and say this is not for 98% of the people out there. It is a strange and weird journey that I guarantee a huge chunk of people would not understand or be disgusted by. The story is about the World War II naval base called Treasure Island that was located in San Francisco Bay. Set in mid WWII, two code specialists are trying to decipher Japanese messages as well as sending confusing messages to deceive the Japanese, creating fake letters, codes and dead bodies along the way. It’s a more internal and personal story of these specialists lives than about WWII, showing their strange relationships, sexual obsessions and situations. The sexual realm of this film is where it really turns strange and is an easily accessible topic for an independent film to exploit. To me this subplot doesn’t really add much to the story, most of the time seeming unnecessary and only there to bring shock value to the celluloid. It does give us more of a personal side to the story but it’s nothing I could truly relate to. The story aspects of the film I really enjoyed; the hallucinations with the imagined dead body they created in the letters questioning their intentions, professionally and sexually. This is a very original story and idea but for me didn’t seem fully executed. Many people will downright loathe this movie, some will see it as a work of pure art and genius, it really depends on what you find appealing. After all it did win some pretty prestigious awards and is recognized as a cult classic. I will give credit where credit is due and award the director with the balls enough to be dedicated to his art form and make what he believes should be on screen a reality, but the fact that King himself couldn’t find a company to release this film after it won so many awards, therein releasing it himself, should give you a hint that the target audience is mostly non-existent.
Video
This transfer here is presentable, but it’s your basic standard definition release. King uses black and white to set a 1940’s tone to the film works well. The graininess adds to the setting and model cities fit what you would imagine a 1940’s film is like. Presented in 1:33:1 aspect ratio, the final product looks a bit stretched out on a HDTV.
Audio
Nothing spectacular here with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono mix that is mostly front end, I’m guessing due to the budget restraints of the film. No subtitles are available for this DVD.
Extras
All Day Entertainment packed this 'Director Approved Edition' with two audio commentaries, an isolated score, two featurettes, three deleted scenes, storyboards, a theatrical trailer and DVD-ROM content. Below is a closer look at these supplements. Both audio commentaries on "Treasure Island" are given by screenwriter/director Scott King himself, one being as viewed from the aspect of being the director giving much needed help and meaning to the film and reasoning why he made certain choices. I’d highly recommend this commentary if you are obsessed and wondering with what King was trying to accomplish, it sheds some light on certain plot points and was quite interesting. The second audio commentary has King giving viewers a commentary from the cinematography chair and explaining the unique and fun look at the film, going for the 1940’s style and tone seemed to need lots of research and suffering to get to perfection, also highly recommended. King is a very smart guy and seems to believe in his story. Really the only interesting extras on the whole film. You have an option to play the film with nothing but the 1940’s isolated music score. This is an interesting extra that fits the movie in some parts but is just empty and blank during others watching the actors speak without hearing dialogue. I’ve never seen this as an option and there is probably a reason why, even if the score is really good. "Behind-the-Scenes" is an 8 minute and 16 seconds featurette that has interviews with the cast and crew explaining why they chose to do the film, some of them actually hating the script the first time they read it. Most of the cast is nobody recognizable and it seems like they are trying to justify why they chose to be in such a strange film. I would recommend listening to the commentary over watching this low budget featurette. "Sundance" is second featurette, running 8 minutes and 40 seconds, the production designer and director talk to the camera about their experience, also presenting the film and answering Q & A afterwards. It seems half the audience is gone in the theatre and people being confused about what the film is about. Three deleted scenes, these scenes have an optional audio commentary by screenwriter/director Scott King and I don’t think would have added anything to the film, just more confusion. The commentary is really distracting here by actually pausing the scene with wacky sounds to tell us what’s happening. The scenes included are: - “Original Serial” which runs for 3 minutes 29 seconds. - “Port Chicago” which runs for 3 minutes 29 seconds. - “The Body Smokes” which runs for 4 minutes 2 seconds. The original storyboard cards are available to look at for two scenes, you also get the option to play the scene along with everything, pretty lackluster extra with poorly drawn storyboards. You also get some still photography in this extra of some behind-the-scenes stuff. A 2 minute theatrical trailer of the film with its patent 1940’s feel to match the movie is included. DVD-ROM contents included, this option states that it provides you with the original screenplay and promotional materials, such as a fake 4-page newspaper all in PDF format.
Packaging
The packaging for "Treasure Island" is a custom hard sleeve with a book insert with the film. The booklet is very cool and original with over 37-pages with half of them being cut out for a place holder for the disc, unfortunately there is not a solid place for the disc to be secure in there and it may result in scratching of the disc. The remainder of the booklet tells the story of "Treasure Island" with illustrations and chapters named “Preface”, “Overlooking The Island”, The Five Directors + One”, Preparing for a splat”, “You Guys Got a Cot?”, “ The Body Reveals All”, and “What’s That?”.
Overall
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