Sunday, I’m going to see Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler as Elvis and a heavily made-up Tom Hanks as the evil and slippery Colonel Parker, his long-time manager.
I’m excited.
This movie will be a blockbuster and is already intensely controversial, as expected. Presley was a myth, cult, and religion all at once; hardly anyone was neutral about him.
I think he died in part because he was never able to make good choices for himself once he became a star.
I was very young when the earthquake called Elvis hit the music and cultural world of America like a meteor landing from outer space. Houses shook everywhere.
I would imagine there are two distinct audiences for this film. Older Americans, those who grew up worshipping Elvis, and younger ones, who are intrigued by his impact on music and popular culture.
Presley started out as a musical radical, mixing different kinds of music into a new form called rock and roll, and ended up being a tasteless, bloated, and dazed junkie, a caricature of his former self.
(I’ve read a number of the Elvis books, the best in my mind is Peter Guralnick’s “Last Train To Memphis.”)
From what I’ve read so far, it sounds like the movie is going for the young, Presley fanatics have never been and will never be happy with any portrayal of Presley, the closest thing to a God in the musical world.
This film is apparently full of fireworks and jumps all over the place, like a piece on Tik-Tok.
As a reporter, cultural writer, and critic, I understand that Elvis Presley changed our culture as much or more than anyone in my lifetime. But I never quite understood him or the explosive and tragic life he lived. I found him fascinating, but I was never a fan.
I appreciated the genius of his early music, but never really came to love much of his work.
The Elvis I read about seemed smaller and more fragile than the Elvis I saw on TV and in the movies. He never seemed genuine to me once he left his roots and inspirations in the poor South, where he grew up.
I always had the feeling that the only person he really loved and trusted in his life was his mother, and when she died, he seemed vulnerable and manipulable.
I had this sense – maybe it was the Vegas stuff and the bloated Elvis at the end – that he belonged to an earlier time, an earlier generation. I was just a little kid when he was at his most exciting and revolutionary best.
I loved the quieter Buddy Holly.
Presley was only 42 when he died. Our country has a special place in its heart for those who die young before we learn how to hate them.
He had deteriorated visibly and tragically for some years before his death, transforming himself from a genuinely revolutionary artist into a Las Vegas freak, sliding from the top of the music world to the bottom.
His adoring fans never let go.
Elvis gave off the aura of being dead well before it was true. Although he sparked a revolution, he was never a revolutionary. He always seemed controlled, obedient, and without a lot to say.
I compared him to Muhammed Ali, another true revolutionary. When Ali was drafted, he defiantly refused to go. When Elvis was drafted, he went quietly and obediently.
The ’60s seemed to weaken and expose Elvis somehow; the time seemed so much more exciting and inspiring than he was. He seemed to willingly shed his role as a hell-raising, sexy, shaking new kind of musician.
His mysterious manager, Col. Tom Parker (who was not a colonel or a Tom or a Parker), was blamed for driving and mismanaging Elvis to his death, pushing him into scary movies and those awful Vegas shows, turning him into a drug addict who almost literally swallowed himself to death.
No wonder said his fans, that he first committed cultural suicide and then, for all practical purposes, the real one.
I never could quite figure out who Elvis really was beyond his early genius in blending blues, gospel, pop, and country and almost single-handedly inventing the music we call rock and roll. That was a pretty huge deal.
Presley always seemed to have a mask on, as if he were always on stage and had lost his real self.
Elvis was a Momma’s boy all his life, and when Gladys died, so did a part of him. I didn’t know much more about him than that.
His legacy is that there is still a lot of mixing, matching, and shaking in the musical world; Elvis may be dead, but the waves and ripples he brilliantly created live on.
I’ll review the movie Sunday night if I have anything original to say about it. Reading about it this morning got me thinking about Presley and what he meant. Perhaps the movie will give me some insights.
He seemed apolitical to me.
I remember he seemed sincerely devastated by the murder of Martin Luther King just three miles from Graceland and the assassination of Robert Kennedy soon after. I remember that Richard Nixon was dying to meet with him.
The new movie’s narrative casts Elvis as the victim of the devious and manipulative Col. Parker (Tom Hanks), who was Presley’s manager for most of his career.
Hanks portrays Parker as a small-town hustler and full-grown Caligula.
“I didn’t kill Elvis,” Parker famously said (the movie suggests otherwise), “I made Elvis.” The colonel said they were “the showman and the snowman.”
I look forward to seeing the movie. It sounds chaotic, over-the-top, a mess that lurches and wobbles, said one critic.
“The ghoulish, garish production design,” said the New York Times Critic A.O.Scott, “is full of carnival sleaze and Vegas vulgarity. All that satin and rhinestone…conjures up an atmosphere of lurid, frenzied eroticism. You might mistake this for a vampire movie.”
Sounds wild.
You put into words my view of Elvis. I am younger than you, grew up with Beatlemania. But the part I couldn’t figure out about Elvis – was why someone so revolutionary in his music/persona became so quiet during the ‘60’s. He wasn’t a leader in the movement – I saw him as a bloated Vegas performer. But loved his early music. A shame, he was so talented.
I feel the same way Anne, I’ve never figured out how someone so creative and daring could have turned into such a pathetic blob. I hope the movie helps explain it. Looks like they think it was the Colonel’s fault.
Any one who thinks Elvis was a flop at the time of his death is simply a jealous person who was insanely jealous of the fact that Elvis was the king. Only non lovers of his music would say he sunk to a low at the time of his death. He was sick when he died. And took too many pills. He had problems just like everyone else does. But his life was an open book for the whole world. Elvis will live on as one of the greatest. All all the jealous vindictive people in this world will always make fun of him
Jon Katz. What turned you into a pathetic blob?
People like you Anna, to be honest…
An interesting tidbit about Elvis and the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor
https://www.military.com/off-duty/2018/12/07/elvis-presley-helped-raise-cash-uss-arizona-memorial-pearl-harbor.html
I saw the Elvis movie this morning. it was excellent. Austin Butler was fantastic as was Tom Hanks.
Glad to hear your thoughts Joan, its getting creamed by a lot of critics, I’m eager to see it..
I’ve read mostly positive reviews about the film. According to the New York Times, Elvis’ family who had absolutely nothing to do with the production of the film, have seen it and say it accurately reflects that period of his life and is a mostly accurate depiction of what he lived through.
The night Elvis died, my boyfriend who was a fan, said “let’s drive down to Graceland”. We left Louisville and drove straight through. I never saw so many upset people.
IMO, Elvis was not a sophisticated person. He was not highly educated or even prepared for what happened to him. His unfortunate situation was exacerbated by a reliance on prescription drugs. Drug addiction can bring the strongest person to his knees—- and Elvis’ addiction occurred at a time when “rehab” was not an everyday word. In fact, in those days it was never spoken about outloud. It was whispered. And, poor Elvis tried to hide it to protect his image.
Well said, Susan, I felt the same way about him. The NYT review I read was not especially positive, but I did read some that were. I’m keeping an open mind, it’s a fascinating subject, and I hope I’ll love it. But I go by what I feel and let it happen. It’s almost three hours, which is annoying in itself and most of the reviews say the make-up and darkness of the Hanks’s character are gloomy and distracting. I’m eager to see for myself. Thanks for the thoughtful words. It’s going to be a good one to review I think. I remember Elvis as a simple country boy who seemed overwhelmed by life off stage. Sad.
Once Elvis left the army and started making movies he was under the control of Parker. Elvis was a simple person and was totally unprepared for his fame. To die from overeating is a rarity especially at his young age.
I didn’t like Elvis because I was head of the Republican Students in high school and a classmate liked him and I didn’t like her because she had her eye on my brother. All that soon changed.
You missed the most important: his voice is magically beautiful and he was the force behind white kids bringing black music into mainstream. Major.
He loved his mom. Yes. Good men do.
He was not the only one bloated: calling yourself “reporter, cultural writer, and critic” is laughable. Elvis was talented.
I haven’t missed anything yet, Jacques, I haven’t seen the movie. I know his voice was beautiful once, that was never in question.
Jon…
I was raised in the “silent generation” (1950s). Although Elvis was a contemporary performer, I never was into him. But I have memories. Elvis was an unavoidable part of my life. At our high school, he caught on with the leather jacket biker-types. In the lunchtime hangouts, school kids clustered along a nearby narrow street near apartment buildings close to the sidewalks. When the hangouts’ jukeboxes played “Heartbreak Hotel,” they created a loud echo ranging for blocks down the street: “Well, since my baby left me . . .”
My wife was – and is – an Elvis fan. When “Love Me Tender” came out, it soon played at local drive-in theaters. One was located along a Dallas highway. As we passed, she had me pull off to the shoulder, so she could watch a few scenes (without sound).
In the mid-1970s, we traveled from Dallas to Starkville, MS. With a long layover in Memphis, we rented a car and drove into town to see Graceland. My wife said Elvis looked out the window.
I hold no grudges against Elvis; although historically groundbreaking, his music didn’t interest me much. I never understood all that teenage screaming and fainting.
But as a personality, he understood poverty. He seemed polite and generous. Although his stance on military service was exemplary, this was before the Vietnam situation reached its peak.
It’s regrettable that Elvis couldn’t better handle his fame. They said we silent generation kids had no voice. Elvis and “rock and roll” helped to provide that.
“I believe the key to happiness is someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.” Elvis
There is a youtube video of Elvis singing Unchained Melody not too long before he died. His voice is so beautiful.
Thanks for reminding me of that, Janet. I’m almost afraid to see the movie, but his voice was very beautiful..