AUGUST 2022:
ELVIS PRESLEY IS IN THE BUILDING…
Moviegoers and fans have waited decades for a film depicting the life and career of Elvis Aaron Presley, and in April 2014 it was finally announced that a project was in the works and that Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann was in negotiations to direct the film, with Kelly Marcel leading as the screenwriter. But it wouldn’t be until March 2019, that further development on the film was announced. Fans started to wonder in those lapsed six years if the deal for a film and licensing rights to his life and music fell through. But on that day in March, it was announced that the film was indeed being produced and that Tom Hanks was cast in the role of Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Luhrmann had reached a negotiating deal and would be directing, but Marcel was replaced as the screenwriter with Sam Bromell and Craig Pearce.
THE FACE OF AN ICON…
In July 2019, the casting of Elvis Presley was still being auditioned and Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Austin Butler, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Harry Styles were all in the running to take on the iconic role of the King of Rock and Roll. Later that month, it was announced that Butler had won the role of Presley for the biographical musical drama film. He won the role out of all possible actors due to impressing Luhrmann with an audition tape that included Butler singing “Unchained Melody” and a call from Academy Award-winning actor-director Denzel Washington recommending Butler for the part. In October of that same year, it was announced that Olivia DeJonge was cast in the role of Priscilla Presley and would play the legendary musician’s wife and mother of his child, Lisa Marie Presley.
CASTING A HISTORY…
In February 2020, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rufus Sewell were cast as Elvis’s parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley, only to be replaced in September 2020 by Helen Thomson and Richard Roxburgh. It was also announced in February that musical artist Yola was cast as American singer and guitarist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was popular in the 1930s and 1940s for her gospel recordings that brought a unique mixture of lyrics with a spiritual nature being merged with an electric guitar. She would be a large influence on the music that Presley would make and ultimately change the world of rock and roll music.
ELVIS’S PANDEMIC WOES…
Filming began in January 2020 but would be shut down and delayed until March 2020. Gyllenhaal and Sewell would have to drop out of the film due to the scheduling conflicts brought on by the shooting delay as a result of Tom Hanks testing positive for Covid-19 during the pandemic. It would then be announced in December of that same year that Kelvin Harrison Jr. was cast in the role of B.B. King. Principal photography would wrap in March 2021, with Austin Butler being hospitalized and bedridden after what presented as appendicitis turned out to be a virus.
A PREMIERE FIT FOR A KING…
ELVIS premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2022, and it was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on June 24, 2022, and in Australia the day before. The budget for the film production was $85 million, the film has grossed $285.7 million worldwide against that budget and far exceeded the production companies’ expectations of the film based on its low budget. With its box office gross, the film has become the second highest-grossing music biopic of all time behind the 2018 film, Bohemian Rhapsody. Since the film’s release, Butler’s performance has garnered him widespread world acclaim, with the attention to detail for the film’s costume and production designs, as well as the musical sequences receiving positive reviews among critics and fans of the iconic showman.
You can watch the 2018 Official Trailer for “Bohemian Rhapsody” here:
MUSICALLY INCLINED AUSTRALIAN…
Luhrmann is known for directing epic films that usually have a musical component to complement the story being told. Therefore, complementing his films with an epic soundtrack album. In the case of Elvis Presley, Luhrmann has a soundtrack full of epic musical acts with original songs made for the film as well as reimagining many Elvis songs for the soundtrack and songs sung by Austin Butler as Elvis Presley. Some of the epic artists that contributed to the soundtrack were Doja Cat who included an original song for the film titled “Vegas”, which incorporates a sample from “Hound Dog” performed by Big Mama Thornton, played by Shonka Dukureh in the film. Italian Band Måneskin and Kacey Musgraves contribute their versions of “If I Can Dream” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” Eminem and CeeLo Green contributed an original song collaboration for the film soundtrack, “The King and I” and it was produced by Dr. Dre. There are also songs contributed by Stevie Nicks and Chris Isaak on a duet, Jack White, and Diplo with Swae Lee. Some of the renditions of Presley songs that Butler sings are recordings of Elvis Presley woven into Austin Butler’s voice singing. The soundtrack album was released on June 24, 2022, to coincide with the film’s release day and entered at No. 1 on the Billboard soundtrack chart.
You can watch the Music Video for Doja Cat‘s “Vegas” here:
You can watch the Music Video for Måneskin‘s “If I Can Dream” here:
You can watch the Music Video for Kacey Musgrave‘s “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You“ here:
THROUGH THE EYES OF A SNOWMAN…
The film is told from the perspective of Colonel Tom Parker, Tom Hanks narrates fading us into flashback scenes that make up a majority of the film while following the life and eventual death of the rock and roll musical icon singer and actor, Elvis Presley. The film’s opening scene begins in 1997, when Colonel Tom Parker suffers a stroke and lays in his deathbed, lonely and destitute from a gambling addiction, he recalls for moviegoers from his hospital room with a window looking out to the International Hotel, where Parker arranged a residency for Elvis, and where he spent a majority of his later years performing. He stares out the window and remembers how he first met Elvis Aaron Presley.
MISSISSIPPI MEMPHIS HERO…
We learn Elvis was born a twin but that brother, Jesse, died the night he was born, Elvis’s parents were poor and as a result, he spent his childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi. When his father tries to pass a bad check for food at the store, he’s sent to prison, and Elvis is primarily raised by his mother. When his family moves to Memphis, Tennessee, where he is ridiculed by his friends for having an interest in African American music. The young Elvis would take comfort in comic books and would escape into Captain Marvel Jr., he would eventually start performing and playing with his band at a Louisiana Hayride. This is where Parker is working as a then carnival hustler, Colonel Tom Parker has come to see about this white boy who sounds black on “That’s All Right”, which is blowing up on radio stations and record sales charts and could be his ticket to fame and fortune. Parker finds his nickname of “Snowman” to be endearing and hopes to use the talented musician with sex appeal as the circus to his want to be P.T. Barnum.
You can watch the clip with Elvis Presley’s First Appearance on the Louisiana Hayride here:
You can listen to Elvis Presley’s First Appearance on the Louisiana Hayride in 1954 here:
A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL…
Parker plays on Presley’s love of comic books and persuades him to fly sky high and let Parker take exclusive control of his career, which quickly results in the Presley family no longer living in poverty. Elvis buys Graceland for his mother, and his family all move into the estate, and when he is not on the road touring and singing, Elvis lives at Graceland with his family and a slew of Cadillacs of different colors fill the driveway. But after Elvis begins his televised performances in 1956, the public becomes conflicted about the singer and differ in their opinions of him. His performances come to the attention of Segregationist Southern Democrat Mississippi Senator, James O. Eastland, who believes Elvis to be violating segregation laws by performing black people’s music and dancing sexually will corrupt white children in America, which results in racial hostility from his fans and the offended black communities he speaks of. When Elvis’s manager and controlling party of his career, Parker is called to an informal hearing by Eastland, in which Parker is questioned about his mysterious past and orphaned immigrant status.
You can watch Elvis Presley on the Milton Berle Show in 1956 here:
THE MOST DANGEROUS HIPS IN ROCK AND ROLL…
Parker is told to calm his musician down and change his act or face legal consequences with the federal government. Parker explains to Elvis that he can’t perform as he used to, right down to the colorful Beale Street suits he would wear, He is to keep the show’s performance basic and the clothes basic or black in color and fitted to his body to make it difficult for the musician to move around or gyrate his hips in any fashion. Elvis was often called during this period, “Elvis the Pelvis” and newspaper front pages would call his hips a national security threat. But when Presley starts to feel boxed in, controlled, and not performing as the Elvis he felt he was, he defies the order of Parker and Eastland with a concert deliberately filled with charged-up dance moves, he faces real legal jeopardy as a result.
You can watch the film clip of the Russwood Park Performance here:
You can watch Elvis Presley at Russwood Park in 1956 here:
IN THE ARMY NOW…
To keep Elvis out of jail as a result, and to keep his piggy bank stuffed, Parker persuades the government to not arrest him and instead draft Elvis into the US Army to avoid any legal liability. But it is due to his forced military service in West Germany that his mother becomes devastated and induces an early death via alcoholism. Elvis is distraught and in pieces due to his mother’s death, and only recovers when he meets Priscilla Beaulieu, played by Olivia DeJonge, while stationed in Germany where her stepfather was serving with the Air Force as a Major. He is discharged from the Army two years after being drafted and returns to his film career and weds Priscilla years later and Lisa Marie Presley is born soon after.
You can watch the Video of Elvis Presley getting his Army Haircut in 1958 here:
You can watch the Video of Elvis Presley’s Discharge and Homecoming in 1960 here:
You can watch a Video of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s Wedding here:
AMERICA’S CULTURE HISTORY AND ELVIS…
While Elvis reaches the height of his career making movies and touring, America’s significant history of the 1960s is occurring around him, Elvis is heartbroken by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Despite Presley wanting to be more outspoken about his politics, Parker denies Elvis the opportunity to speak out and encourages Elvis to record and sing songs that will make people feel good. Elvis reaches his breaking point of being controlled by Parker musically and feeling stifled so he seeks the help of producers outside of Parker’s influence. Presley contacts producer Bones Howe, played by Gareth Davies, and producer and director, Steve Binder, played by Dacre Montgomery, with the hope of revamping his image when the country falls into turmoil over MLK and RFK. Elvis knows he no longer has the effect on the nation as he once did. His music wasn’t what people wanted to hear, his movies weren’t what people wanted to see anymore, Elvis needed a change. And Presley was going to use the Christmas special, along with Howe and Binder, and not Colonel Tom Parker, to bring about that change.
You can watch Robert F. Kennedy Announce the Death of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 here:
You can watch a News report from 1968 on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy here:
A SPECIAL COMEBACK FIT FOR A KING…
Elvis hires, Howe and Binder, to redirect the corporate-sponsored Christmas special that Colonel Parker contracted Presley into and turns it into a career comeback special based on the return to Elvis’s older songs he was popular for, and he wears an all-black leather suit to perform in, to remind viewers of the days Elvis would use his own sexuality in his performances. The film shows the behind-the-scenes of producing, Elvis, or as its now known, the ’68 Comeback Special, and it’s while filming the television special that RFK is assassinated. And moviegoers get to see how the song “If I Can Dream” presumably came together as a result of yet another assassination in 1968, for the closing number of the special. Parker accuses Elvis of being brainwashed by the hippies of America and Presley’s sponsors are infuriated the entire special had nothing to do with Christmas. Regardless of how either felt, the special turns out to be a massive television hit and puts Elvis Presley right back on top where he started.
You can watch the scene featuring the opening medley of the ’68 Comeback Special here:
You can watch the opening medley from the ’68 Comeback Special here:
You can watch the scene featuring “If I Can Dream” from the ’68 Comeback Special here:
You can watch the ’68 Comeback Special performance of “If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presley here:
A COMEBACK HIT MEANT VIVA LAS VEGAS…
The massive hit the comeback special becomes gives Elvis an opportunity to headline a show at the largest showroom in Las Vegas located in, the International Hotel, and follows it with a return to touring. When Elvis decides he wants to spread his wings and go global, Parker persuades him against it by tricking him into signing a five-year deal for a residency with the International Hotel. The film depicts a supposed arrangement made by Colonel Tom Parker and Alex Shoofey, named Meyer Kohn in the film, to resolve gambling debts of Parker and give him an unlimited line of credit at the International Hotel, at the cost of Elvis Presley. He holds Elvis off of leaving for a while, by broadcasting his nightly shows internationally through Satellite. It is brought to Elvis’s attention that Colonel Tom Parker has resisted an international tour due to his inability to travel abroad.
You can watch a comparison of Austin Butler & Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” here:
A SNOWMAN’S BLIZZARD…
Presley discovers that Parker is an illegal immigrant without a state or country of representation since he surrendered his original Dutch citizenship, therefore he would not be able to return to America if he left for an international tour. Elvis becomes infuriated at the lies and deceit and feels utterly betrayed for trusting Parker and making a deal years ago with him that included Parker receiving 50% of Presley’s profits. Elvis retaliates by trying to fire Colonel Parker, and Parker responds by suing Elvis for an impossibly large amount of money that would bankrupt Presley and would force him to have to sell Graceland. The thought of losing the home he bought for his mother enrages Presley and he argues with Parker, who in the conversation manages to convince Elvis that they need each other, and this success only works with the two of them working as a team. Elvis agrees to keep him on as manager because he has no other choice, but the dynamic of their once close fatherly son bond is forever broken, and Presley has little to do with him socially afterward and restricts their dealings to manager and artist relations.
You can watch a short video detailing why Elvis Presley fired Colonel Tom Parker here:
THE FALL OF A KING…
The stress of it all compounds him and Elvis is overtaken by his mental health, behavioral issues, and a prescription drug addiction will further sink him into a dark hole, and Priscilla helplessly watches him slowly kill himself and despondent decides to divorce Elvis in 1973. She makes the decision not because she no longer loves him, but because she does love him and can’t bear to watch him spiral out any longer. Priscilla explains to Elvis that she will be taking Lisa Marie with her and that she would not change her mind and return to him. Presley starts to suffer from exhaustion due to overworking himself with shows, so as not to deal with the grief of losing his marriage and the love of his life to his demons. Elvis is at an airport where he and Priscilla are meeting to return their daughter to his ex-wife, Lisa Marie who was visiting with her father, and while Priscilla addresses the concern for his health and begs him to get the treatment, Elvis tells her of his worst fear. That no one will remember him after he is gone.
You can watch the airport scene from ELVIS here:
A KING GONE, BUT HIS MELODY UNCHAINED…
In the final moments of the film, Austin Butler is replaced with real footage of one of Presley’s final shows, where he is now bloated and pale, sitting at a piano and singing “Unchained Melody”, and the performance ends as the screen fades to black to thunderous applause. Colonel Tom Parker finishes his recall of meeting Elvis Aaron Presley, and Elvis dies on August 16, 1977, loved by the world and becomes the best-selling solo artist of all time, while Colonel Tom Parker dies alone and broke.
You can watch a comparison video of Austin Butler & Elvis Presley singing “Unchained Melody” here:
You can watch the news report of Elvis Presley’s death on August 16, 1977 here:
You can watch the 1977 Special Report of The Funeral of Elvis Presley here:
MY ROYAL CRITIQUE…
The film will likely be a contender come awards season this year, and I estimate that Austin Butler may end up with nominations at all the major awards shows with a performance that was well praised across the board. Moviegoers get completely lost in his portrayal of Elvis Aaron Presley. This will play into the nominations if Butler receives any. Baz Luhrmann may see himself and his film nominated as well, the film has been a critical and box office success and was produced to praise by fans who waited a long time for this film to be made. While there are some issues with the accuracy of some of the scenes in the film, Luhrmann took liberties with facts to make the film and have continuity in the story he was telling. Overall, you can expect to see the film return to theaters for an awards season promotion and hopefully, ELVIS leaves the awards show building draped in gold statues.