Elvis

How is it to watch a movie on a rock and roll star I never was a fan of? Well, pretty good actually. The reviews I read were mixed, although the slightly negative one admittedly was rather elitist, perhaps because the reviewer appeared to be a fan of Elvis Presley and had wanted more out of the movie.

Elvis and me never really got it off. I wasn't around when he broke big, I was to young to appreciated what he did in the late 60s and did not really like most of his 70s hit singles at the time. The whole Las Vegas thing passed me by until years after his death. Elvis and me in a nutshell, to set the stage.

In 2022 Elvis Presley is still a phenomenon, albeit a fading one. A good reason to go and watch the movie and see for myself what impact the man had on music, and life in the U.S. in general.

Looking around me in the theatre that was nearly sold out on a Friday night, not sold out, I noticed how young the audience was. No Elvis fan of old in sight. They may be too old to go to a movie at night by now. Most weren't even closely born in 1977, the year Elvis died at the age of 42. So what could have attracted them? The director is not a hip young one. It is not as if Elvis' music is everywhere on the radio anymore. Hence, I doubt whether Elvis can do for Elvis Presley, what 'Bohemian Rhapsody' did for Queen and perhaps 'Rocketman' for Elton John.

What Baz Luhrmann, the director and co-scenarist, shows extremely well, is how music influenced Elvis. How he lived music and was possessed by it. By joining a jukejoint with a Southern baptist church in one setting, in the dirt poor, rural land of Mississippi, the whole of Elvis' musical career is caught within ten minutes. How he soaked up country blues and gospel and used both to work for himself in the first songs he recorded at Sun Records and RCA Victor. Luhrmann shows the excitement the young Elvis brought with him, the impact this had on girls (and women) and the outrage of the fathers who could see the reputation of their daughters shot to you know what. The conservative backlash it caused, the racism that was part of the outrage: "Negro music is corrupting the souls of our children". The excitement and ecstasy the younger Elvis had seen in the Southern church, he brought to the stage with him and caused a sexual arousing in the whole of the country. All this extrapolates into the intenseness of his Las Vegas shows, when he is finally released again by younger collaborators. Where nothing is withheld and the candle burns at both ends and fast. These bursts of energy are caught on film in a fantastic way. The way he is fixed up time and again by a doctor, brought Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' to mind immediately. "It will keep you going through the show, come on it's time to go". All this comes across so good.

It is not the main story though. In the background is Elvis' relationship with Col. Tom Parker, his manager. The complexity of that relationship is shown in all its facets. The constant hints that Parker, who had never been a colonel, was not a Tom and not even a Parker but Breda, The Netherlands born Andreas van Kuijk and illegally in the U.S., was pressured into certain choices because he could be blackmailed, show a few things. Elvis had a lot to thank Parker for. He brought him where he was, co-made him into who he was. He also held him back tremendously. The army, the movies, not being able to perform outside of the U.S., because Parker had no passport and could not get one (or thought so). Then going back to the other side, Elvis was the only rock and roll star that did survive the 60s in a grand way and started to score hits, huge hits and to critical acclaim from the late 60s onwards. That may well be because Elvis was not competing with the British Invasion and returned at the right moment when the invasion was over and spent its energy. The world was ready for Elvis once again and never got him, because of Parker. He could have been so much bigger now, as in essence Elvis remained an American phenomenon and not a true global one. Can Elvis possibly be bigger? I think yes and that travelling had enriched his career and perhaps even made him see there was more to live for than Graceland and Las Vegas. Perhaps his self-view and appreciation would have changed for the positive.

All the hangers on and leeches living from his pocket, including his father, were not able to stop the candle from burning. They had no interest to do so. The only one who had, his wife Priscilla, had left the building by then. That is the other side of a giant money generator, no one has in interest in the well-being of the chicken with the golden eggs, i.e. Elvis Presley. Pills, drugs and the fabled peanutbutter sandwiches, that are not shown in the movie, culminated in a tremendously overweight, spent, 42 year old wreck. And then the scene changes from the actor to the real Elvis, singing the last song he sang live on stage, a caricature of the man he once was. When he starts singing 'Unchained Melody', the only thing left to do is to sit back in awe at the power of that voice. No, I'm not a fan but have come to appreciate some of his work more over the past 50 years and some songs are fantastic, with 'Suspicious Minds' as my favourite. Many of the rock and roll ones are still great fun to play with the band.

I was left with one question. The Elvis songs I remember from being a smal kid, were the ballads. 'Wooden Heart', 'Are You Lonesome Tonight?', 'Love Me Tender'. Except for an almost psychedelicly warped 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' they are not within earshot. Elvis is a movie about the excitement. There's no room for sentimentality there, until the end that is.

And Tom Hanks as Co. Tom Parker? An Academy Awards shimmers in the near future.

Wout de Natris