Treasure Island | Dir. Scott King | 1999 | 86m | DCP & Digital
Discriminatory Language, Outdated Cultural Depictions, Racism, Sexual Assault
Synopsis
Frank (Lance Baker) and Samuel (Nick Offerman), two intelligence officers on the San Francisco Bay naval base of Treasure Island – where letters from service men and their families at home were read for code messages to the enemies – are charged with creating an entirely new identity for a dead man’s body (Jonah Blechman). As Frank and Samuel compose letters to be planted on the corpse before it is dumped into the Pacific (in hopes that the Japanese will find it and act on the misinformation), the corpse’s real identity reveals to them – and to us – the true nature of the American identity circa 1945.
Restored in 4K from the director’s own print, Scott King’s Treasure Island is loosely inspired, via Ewen Montagu’s The Man Who Never Was, by Operation Mincemeat (a British military scheme, utilising the body of a homeless man, disguised as a Royal Marines Officer, to hoodwink Hitler). King’s critical favourite aimed to explode the absurdity of imagined pasts, but disappeared soon after a celebrated festival run. Starring Nick Offerman in one of his earliest roles (“an ambitiously strange film that I’m still staunchly proud of”), Treasure Island rejects the often sanitised picturings of days-gone-by, presenting us instead with uncomfortable facets of past and present society. Now, a quarter of a century later, we may view the film itself through a different lens.
Matchbox Cine has worldwide rights to Treasure Island. If you’d like to arrange a screening, please contact: distribution@matchboxcine.com.
Let your local cinema / screening space / festival / DIY exhibitor know you want to see Treasure Island where you live.
Upcoming Screenings
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Previous Screenings
26/10/24 OFFLINE, Glasgow, with Weird Weekend (restoration world premiere)
Access
Descriptive Subtitles and Audio Description are available for all UK screenings of Treasure Island, at the venue/exhibitor’s discretion and depending on their technical capacity. If you have any questions, please contact access@matchboxcine.com.
Press
Treasure Island review (AV Club, 2002)
Unclaimed ‘Treasure’ To Be Revealed (SF Gate, 1999)
Truth Stranger Than Fiction at Sundance (SF Gate, 1999)
1999 Sundance Film Festival Update #5 (ReelViews, 1999)
Treasure Island review (New York Times, 1999)
Treasure Island review (Variety, 1999)
Too Many Cooks: 5 Indie Directors Throw Down for Scott King’s “Treasure Island” (IndieWire, 1998)