Review by Brad Balfour
Film: \u201cElvis\u201d
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Luke Bracey, Dacre Montgomery, Leon Ford, Gary Clark Jr., Yola, Natasha Bassett, Xavier Samuel, Adam Dunn, Alton Mason, Shonka Dukureh
Long a master of the quick-cut, director Baz Luhrmann has made his reputation as a successful filmmaker by mostly making music-related movies full of bombastic, pumped-up scenes and hyped-up performances. A perfect example of this is 2001\u2019s \u201cMoulin Rouge\u201d \u2014 one of his most creative and commercially successful ventures.
The Australian-born creator finds myth-making a large part of his movie-making. So having him tackle the tale of mega-star Elvis Presley\u2019s meteoric rise and sad demise provides a brilliant opportunity for Luhrmann to take on the music legend and add to the mythologizing.
The real Elvis \u2014 the American singer and actor Elvis Aaron Presley \u2014 was dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll” in his day and was regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. He emerged during the mid-\u201850s \u2014 a transformative era in race relations which led to both his great success and initial controversy.
The youthful performer\u2019s energized interpretations of the rhythm & blues songs that he grew up with \u2014 such as his early version of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right” (Gary Clarke Jr. plays the Blues great). His family was so poor that they had first lived in the black district in Tupelo, Mississippi, — and later in Memphis, Tennessee — which otherwise would have been totally segregated. That environment propelled the music he absorbed which the teen soon introduced to white audiences. Coupled with his sexually provocative performance style, Elvis created a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines. At first, he stirred controversy in the South, then expanded his presence nationwide and finally, had a gigantic impact on the global stage.
Into those circumstances came huckster\/manager Colonel Tom Parker who tried, at first, simply to harness Elvis and then, to straitjacket him into being a character that the performer didn’t really like. Parker exploited his talent for millions of dollars in record deals, films and all kinds of merchandise.
Born in the Netherlands, a 20-year-old Parker emigrated illegally to the USA. He changed his name, claimed to be born in the States, and hid his Dutch background. A former carnival worker, Parker moved into music promotion in 1938, working with popular crooner Gene Austin and then country music singers Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, and Tommy Sands. He also assisted segregationist Jimmie Davis in becoming Louisiana\u2019s Governor. As a reward, Davis gave him the honorary rank of “colonel” in the Louisiana State Militia.
When Parker encountered Presley in 1955, he found his ultimate meal ticket. By \u201956, he\u2019d become the singer\u2019s sole rep and, in just a few months, won him an RCA Victor recording contract. That led to a commercial breakthrough for Elvis \u2014 his mega-hit \u201cHeartbreak Hotel.\u201d
In the racially conflicted America of the \u201850s and \u201860s, Presley charged up his youthful audiences \u2014 full of young women bursting with pent-up sexuality — through his deep throated vocals and gyrating hips. That made the Tupelo-born singer a megastar. Of course, this didn\u2019t sit well with the powers that be.
With Elvis rising to become one of the world\u2019s most popular and commercially successful entertainers, Parker grabbed more than half of his income, an unprecedented and much criticized move for a music manager. Besides negotiating Presley’s lucrative merchandising deals, TV appearances and acting roles in film musicals, Parker influenced Presley’s personal life, including decisions to accept military service in 1958 and to marry Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967.
After Parker encouraged him to make film musicals as the focus of his career, he also prompted Presley\u2019s commercial decline in the \u201860s by having him shift from cultural provocateur to a safe and comfortable pop star. Once Elvis rebelled by making his rocking 1968 TV special, he enjoyed a comeback and returned to touring. Parker rarely saw him after that but had locked in his management role until Presley’s death in 1977.
Shortly before the real Elvis was about to start a tour, he was found dead in the bathroom apparently from a heart attack on August 16, 1977. At 42, after years of legal drug abuse, The King was gone. He went from being almost a comic self-parody to a further subject for pop culture idolatry.
What a perfect opportunity for Luhrmann\u2019s amped-up style to be applied to this mythic figure. Since Baz loves to work in extremes \u2014 to Shakespearean proportions \u2014 his tragic hero needed an arch villain and Elvis\u2019 late manager\/svengali Parker (Tom Hanks) provided that to porcine proportions.
In various hyped-up ways