Elvis Movie Review
I have been watching Elvis and impersonators of Elvis for as long as I can remember on big and small screens. On the day Elvis died (August 16, 1977), I was at my Grandma's house, in the bathroom (ironically), when she said, "Elvis died." I couldn't believe it, and I watched reports from the national news broadcasters and live footage of heartbroken fans as they gathered around the gates of Graceland to mourn. 11-year-old me cried with them.
No celebrity death affected me more or since. I idolized Elvis, collected his trading cards, and tried replicating his amazing voice and moves (I failed at both). Grandma Jarboe even made me a white jumpsuit with a wide collar and flared legs, and I completed the ensemble with a wide white belt and bejeweled belt buckle made of vinyl and rhinestones.
When I first saw the trailers for the new Elvis movie by director Baz Luhrmann, I didn't have high hopes. The actor portraying adult Elvis looks like him but not exactly, and this biopic has been done before with varying results.
One of my best friends is the biggest Elvis fans I know. We watched Elvis films as we worked at the now defunct Suncoast Motion Picture Company in the 1990s. I texted her to see if she would be interested in attending this film with me. She, like I, was tepid on the film at first. But after I read the New York Times review of the film, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/movies/elvis-review.html, I knew we had to see it. And I knew that, in a style befitting the King, I had to rent an AMC theater to watch it privately, without a bunch of a-holes checking their phones every 5 minutes.
This movie is a long one, clocking in at 2 hours and 39 minutes. It covers Elvis's childhood to his death at 42, but I watched the entire thing transfixed (with one pee break). Austin Butler morphs into Elvis in a way I have never seen any other performer do. The way he speaks, the way he moves, the way he sings, and the way he drops his head and gazes at the objects of his affection with those baby blues is uncanny.
Tom Hanks plays Col. Tom Parker, who was never a colonel...or a Tom...or a Parker. He was, instead, an unscrupulous carnie of a man who latched on to a poor uneducated family with a uniquely talented son, desperate for a way out of crushing poverty, and parasitically sucked the life and money out of Elvis until he literally killed him.
But this movie is much more than a cautionary tale, with intricate attention to detail and a pounding soundtrack of original Elvis songs, some sung by Austin Butler, some sung by Elvis, and a lot sung by the modern Black artists like the ones who inspired Elvis reminds us how powerful and moving the King of Rock and Roll, at his best, could be.
All of the iconic costumes are reproduced in a way that makes us appreciate what a unique style icon Presley was and removes the taint of kitschy polyester bell bottoms adopted by half-assed impersonators (like me) that turned Elvis into a running pop-icon joke. Graceland too, is shown in a way that replicates how the hipness of a nouveau-rich hillbilly with seemingly unlimited money would decorate with the limited style options of the 1960s and 70s.
Director Baz Luhrmann captures the innate primal sex appeal of Elvis that made young girls scream and throw their white cotton panties on stage, which terrified their conservative repressed parents and government officials. He also shows us the dangers of too much money, too little financial acumen, and too much trust.
Elvis believed those around him would take care of him, including his manager-for-life, his father and the "Memphis Mafia," a group of family and friends he financially supported, and they all let him down. They all chose to shoot him up with amphetamines and handfuls of downers and shove him out on stage, regardless of the cost mentally and physically, to keep the money rolling in.
Elvis, the movie, is also an allegory about how soulless, ethically empty capitalist profiteers latch on to those with talents and work ethics that they are personally devoid of and bleed them financially dry while personally profiting. Col. Tom Parker is no different than any number of modern-day billionaires who ride on the backs of the poor and working class who make them rich. These financial parasitoids literally destroy the hosts that feed them and move on to the next victim(s) with no concern for the shattered lives and families left behind.
This film, I predict, will receive multiple Oscar nominations, including; costumes, original score, best supporting actor (Tom Hanks), best director (Baz Luhrmann), and best actor (Austin Butler). It is a beautiful and touching piece of filmmaking that retells a story we all know from a dazzling new perspective. You should see it in the theater (rent your own if you can, Elvis would approve).
Thank you, Elvis. Thank you very, very much.
Elvis - A+
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