HX Magazine
February, 1999



Article entitled
Edge of Ninety-Nine

Two films broke the mold of tradition with marvelously unique stories and artistic styles. Not since Swoon, Poison and The Hours and the Times arrived in theaters in 1992 has there been such groundbreaking cinema.

Treasure Island, a first feature by San Francisco director Scott King, was one of Sundance's unexpected finds. A bold spin on 1930s Hollywood melodramas, war propaganda newsreels and spy flicks, Treasure Island tells of two Naval intelligence officers who plot to throw the Japanese off track while battling psychosexual demons of their own. Frank (Lance Baker) is trapped in a pattern of serial marriage, Samuel (Nick Offerman) gets his biggest sexual kicks during three-ways with his wife and another man. King fashions a deft critique about the repressed desire military culture creates and the racism and sexism inherent in the American war machine. Distribution and marketing executives were heard snickering about this 'different' film, but King had the last laugh; the jury awarded him a Special Jury Prize for Distinctive Vision in Filmmaking.