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After the post-modern dissection of contemporary sexual mores in “Sex, Lies and Videotape” this touching and elegant film, set in 1933 during the height of the Depression, is a wonderful surprise. Aaron (Jesse Bradford) is a young, imaginative Jewish boy whose father is an unemployed salesman and whose mother is hospitalised for tuberculosis. Initially, Aaron is relatively numbed to the devastations of poverty but as his own family descends further into unemployment, the safe confines of his world are slowly stripped away. “King of the Hill” is a homage to the romantic cinema of Capra and Wellman but it does not flinch from expressing the darker undercurrents of poverty. The supporting cast includes Jeroen Krabbe and Lisa Eichhorn as the parents, Karen Allen, Spalding Gray and Elisabeth McGovern. The soundtrack comprises popular songs of the thirties. Based on the Depression memoirs of A.E. Hotchner.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
305893
Language
English
Audience classification
PG
Subject categories
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Depressions - 1929
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Unemployment
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)