AUGUST 2022:
ELVIS AND LIBERTIES FOR ALL…
While ELVIS was a critical and box office success, some critics pointed out discrepancies in the film as it pertained to the facts surrounding Elvis Presley’s history and that of his history with Colonel Tom Parker. But when it comes to making a biographical film, one should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Most films made from a biographical point of view have taken liberties with the facts for dramatic purposes. Most viewers would just watch a documentary if they were looking for a film with factual accuracy. And Baz Luhrmann is no different from any other director that has made a film based on a real event of a person in history. Luhrmann is known for the musical element in his film direction, and many directors have made films about Elvis Presley in the decades that have passed since his death, but those films were usually made for television and focused primarily on the dramatic elements of the historic music maker’s life.
You can watch the 1979 Official Trailer for Elvis: The Movie here:
You can watch the 2005 Official Trailer for Elvis here:
SYNCED DIRECTION…
With Luhrmann’s ability to weave music into the stories he’s telling, it made sense that he would take the reins on the box office adaption of the “King of Rock and Roll”. There was no way to tell the story of Elvis Presley and his music without taking liberties with the facts and condensing the story for dramatic purposes. Luhrmann has said that there is a four-hour version of his film, but he more than likely will not release it in the near future, and a four-hour film would have never been lucrative to studio executives. But the film that he did make is as close to as good as it gets when talking about Elvis Aaron Presley. Priscilla Presley was one of the first people to screen the film before its release and praised it as one of the best films she has seen depicting her ex-husband’s life and music. And considering she lived some of that history with him, you can assume she is a better judge of its quality than any film critic or biographer. Nonetheless, my recommendation looks at some of the issues taken with the film’s accuracy in the history of Elvis Presley.
PRESLEY CRITICS…
PROBLEMATIC PARKER’S…
The biggest issues taken with the film were that of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s career-long manager, played by Tom Hanks, while he had many accomplishments in his career with Presley, some would argue he may very well be partly responsible for sending Elvis to an early grave. While it is common knowledge that Presley died of a heart attack, was that heart attack because Elvis was said to have a larger-than-normal heart or because Parker enabled keeping him medicated to keep up with the performance schedule, Elvis was contracted through Parker’s deals? We will never know the answer to that question and many opinions about it are based on speculation and that of the history we do know and not of the history we don’t know. And unless Elvis Presley turns up alive to tell us, we will always wonder.
THE GENERAL SOURCE ON THE COLONEL…
Alanna Nash, a veteran music journalist published “The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley” in 2010. The book is acclaimed and has been reissued with an afterword following the release of Luhrmann’s musical biopic. Nash is considered to be the authoritative biographer when it comes to Colonel Tom Parker. The only unfair aspect she saw in the film taking liberties, was in creating an antagonist in Parker for Luhrmann’s film it missed out on the many accomplishments the Colonel had with his client, Elvis Presley. She thought the liberties taken in the film were fair enough with the facts for the sake of what becomes the drama in Baz Luhrmann’s film:
“The timeline… well, what timeline? It’s all a Baz Luhrmann fever dream. The past, present, and future are all shook up like a ‘50s milkshake and served with a thousand straws! Other than the tremendous pains Baz has taken to make this story seem “woke,” the liberties are essentially fair — except to Parker. In making him such an antagonist, they have robbed him of his many accomplishments with his client.”
– Alanna Nash to Variety.com
ELVIS AND THE MUSICAL SUIT MAFIA…
Luhrmann uses music to build the timeline of his films and move the story along, but with ELVIS, it seems that while he took liberties with the facts to tell the story he was looking for, he heavily relied on Elvis’ historic style to move some of the film’s story along, for instance, when Presley sees B.B. King in “Lansky’s” through a window while admiring the displayed suit and imagining himself performing in it, he is being gobsmacked by seeing the “King of Blues” for the first time. We later see Elvis Presley buying that same suit for his first television appearance on the “Milton Berle Show” and seeking B.B. King’s approval of his suit and shoes, who is standing next to him trying a suit on himself. What is not mentioned about “Lansky Brothers”, the popular clothier in Memphis, Tennessee on 126 Beale Street, run by Bernard and Guy Lansky, that musicians from B.B. King and Elvis Presley to Roy Orbison bought suits in, is its mob connections. Bernard and Guy Lansky are the sons of Samuel Lansky, who is the brother of infamous mobster Meyer Lansky.
You can watch Elvis Presley on The Milton Berle Show from June 5, 1956 here:
A SOULFUL MOB OF ELVIS CRITICISM…
You could fill a whole two hours on the apparent mob connections related to Elvis Presley’s career, starting at where Presley bought his first performance suit, and right on down to his residency at the International Hotel later in his career. But instead, Luhrmann chose to look at where Elvis’s musical roots hailed from, how he was deemed to be crossing segregation lines by playing Blues music, or what was then referred to in the 1950s as “Black People Music”, and Elvis’ fashion was also a driving force in the film, much of the film is pushed along through iconic outfits featured in historical photos in Presley’s history, right down to his encounters with B.B. King in Lansky Brothers, and the suit he wore for one of his first appearances on television, that meeting in Lansky’s would also be a preview to a relationship with two musicians that would blossom in a time that it was forbidden through Jim Crow laws. There has been an criticism over decades concerning Elvis’ music and racism, but back in 2010, when asked about this issue, B.B. King had this to say:
“’All of our (Presley’s and King’s) influences had something in common’, King explained. ‘We were born poor in Mississippi, went through poor childhoods and we learned and earned our way through music. You see, I talked with Elvis about music early on, and I know one of the big things in my heart was this: Music is owned by the whole universe. It isn’t exclusive to the black man or the white man or any other color. It is shared in and by our souls’.”
– B.B. King (2010)
A KING FOR ALL MUSICAL GENERATIONS…
Luhrmann tries to show the film through a modern-day lens, to show us the soul of Elvis’ music and that through all the trials and tribulations of his life, it all came down to the musical contribution made by Elvis Presley and his fusion with Blues music that made him the icon he remains today. He was an icon for defying the conservative laws and societal nature of the time with his music and paved the way for the artists that would follow him in that musical history. He defied the conventional way of performing and was known for being banned from television after only a short period of appearing on it, having his hips deemed too sexual for American society and the thought at the time was young white teenagers everywhere would no doubt decent into anarchy as a result of Elvis’s dance moves and interracial influence.
ELVIS’ ROYAL LUST AND THE COLONEL…
The film may inaccurately portray Colonel Tom Parker’s opinion on Presley’s sexuality, according to critics. Parker was in the business to make money and Alanna Nash states the scenes in the film as not fully factual when it came to Parker telling Elvis he had to remove sexuality from his performances. Nash did not think the scenes portraying Parker as consistently trying to pressure Elvis to tone down his sex appeal were accurate saying:
“Elvis took care of what Elvis did and Colonel took care of what Colonel did. He liked it that what Elvis did brought folks into the big tent. Listen, this guy was no fool! Parker loved that Elvis was a male striptease artist…like the bally girls on the carnivals. That sold tickets! The only time Parker got critical is when the shows began to falter with drugs or erratic behavior on stage. But that was in the ‘70s.”
– Alanna Nash (Variety.com)
LIBERTIES WITH A DRAMATIC SLANT…
Nash also says that the scene depicting Parker being questioned by government officials and Senator James O. Eastland, who is threatening to expose Parker’s past if he doesn’t keep Elvis from corrupting the youth, is completely false. Nash says that scene is made up for Luhrmann’s film because the Colonel was written as an antagonist, and it is needed to sell that narrative. Alanna defends this by saying that when Colonel Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army, he declared himself a Dutch citizen at the time, with his parents being born in Holland. The military accepted him as a foreign national with him swearing to become a U.S. citizen, but he never did, because Parker went AWOL. And to further defend her point she stated that Parker worked closely with the Pentagon to plan Elvis’ army enlisted time to get him stationed in West Germany. The Colonel also worked closely with the Pentagon to plan a post-army concert by Presley, to raise money for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.
WITHOUT LIBERTIES FOR ALL FACTS…
The film does factually account for the later part of Parker’s life. He did live out his final years being sickly in casinos as was portrayed at the beginning of the film. Parker did gamble every day and was a consultant to the Hilton right up until the time of his death. And he did have large gambling debts that Parker was able to pay off by committing Elvis to the International Hotel for a years-long residency right up until Presley’s untimely death. And it is also true that Elvis never knew how many shows he played for free to satisfy those debts and Parker’s addiction to the roulette wheel and craps table. Alex Shoofey, the executive VP of the International Hotel, testified that Parker was good for $1 million a year in gambling as a result of Presley’s committed shows at the hotel.
MY ROYAL RECOMMENDATION…
I could continue to go on in this recommendation about the argued points of fact in the film, or I can save you time and recommend another great film on Elvis Presley, this one a documentary, that premiered on HBO in 2018, titled Elvis Presley: The Searcher. The documentary explores Presley’s evolution as a music icon but also separates that from a man who grew into his formative years through the media. The documentary explores his life outside of his music and how the events in it, influenced the icon’s musical history. The film also features his music, many of his famous songs as well as Presley introspections by some of the musicians he influenced. I would rather recommend you watch that for a fact-based film related to Elvis Presley’s life and career and recommend that you watch ELVIS for the musical biography picture that it is and know that while you’re watching this film adaption of the events of Elvis Presley’s life and career, Priscilla Presley approves and was moved to tears by the Baz Luhrmann film. She felt that Austin Butler so beautifully encapsulated her ex-husband in the role, and recommended that everyone see this film, especially if you’re a fan of Elvis Presley or his music.
Directed by Thom Zimny; written by Alan Light; produced by Jon Landau, Thom Zimny, and Kary Antholis; produced by Old Farm Road Films; distributed by HBO Documentary Films and SONY Pictures Television. (2018)
New York, USA – 21 Mar 2018.
Photo Credit: Patrick Lewis/Starpix/Shutterstock (9472848ab)
You can watch the 2018 Official Trailer for Elvis Presley: The Searcher here: