After the massive success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in 2017 (I want to know why ‘Black Panther’- a medicore MCU film with bad CGI- was nominated and won an Oscar when it clearly didn’t deserve either), people wanted more musical biographies.
Of course, musical biographies aren’t anything new. We have ‘Evita’ which was loosely based on the life of Eva Peron- the Argentinian Prime Minister. We also have ‘Walk the Lane’ which was based on the life of country singer Johnny Cash.
To do one on the King of Rock and Roll himself would seem like a brave and daunting task. After all, Elvis is considered a legend by many people and has also had a influence on a lot of today’s artists including Queen (the style of ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ was influenced by Elvis).
The story starts off with Elvis’ former manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) collapsing and being rushed to hospital. Parker was known to many people as the one who lied and cheated Elvis of his finances. During Parker’s narration, he argues that he was also the one who gave the world Elvis (Austin Butler).
One of the things that Parker explains to the audience is a flashback to the 70’s when Elvis was barely able to stand due to exhaustion because he was performing so much at the time. Elvis was eventually able to perform ‘An American Trilogy’ to an amazed audience who clearly thought that he wasn’t going to make it on the stage in time for the performance.
Meanwhile in the present day as Parker lays dying, the media outlets are calling him a villain, blaming him for Elvis’ death. Once again, Parker argues strongly against the accusations.
He starts off with his version of events back in the 50’s when he was working at a carnival for Hank Snow (David Wenham), a country-western singer. His son comes in telling him of the latest record that he has just brought. The group doesn’t seem interested in the record…until Hank’s son puts it on. Parker immediately asks who the singer is and where he is currently working.
‘Elvis’ was met with very positive reviews upon its release. After all, it takes a lot of bravery to play Elvis himself (as well as Freddy Mercury of course!).
Personally, I’m usually not a massive fan of biographies. It depends on the subject matter and if it looks interesting enough for me to watch. I’ve enjoyed ‘Evita’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘I Tonya’ (a none-musical biography about controversial figure skater Tonya Harding talking about “the incident”).
‘Elvis’ I also really enjoyed and I applaud Austin for his performance of Elvis. Tom Hanks makes you just want to hate on Elvis’ manager Parker to the point where you want to throw something at the screen at him. I also really enjoyed looking at the retro cars in some of the scenes (seriously, where did they dig those up?).
I want to know why Baz Luhrmann didn’t direct ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. As much as I really liked that film, I think it could’ve done with a bit of his flare.
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