ELVIS

Before we begin the actual review of this movie, let me admit to you that I am one, who believes that Elvis Presley did not die “on that fateful day!” I, at least partially, believe that he was frustrated and had “had enough” and found a way to escape to peace and quiet. A rumor circulated a year or so after “Elvis’s death” that said he had been “spotted in a Balch Springs washateria, drinking a diet cola while his clothes tumbled in the clothes dryer!” I would like to believe it was true!

The movie was GREAT, among the all-time “bests” in my opinion, and my wife, Vivian, says, “Do you even have to ask? I give it an A+, or higher if that is possible!” The running time is a little more than 2½ hours, and we both did not want it to end, even though the conclusion was climactic! The rating is PG-13 for smoking, substance abuse, suggestive material, and strong language, and I believe probably the age of 13 is a good “cut-off.”

The film centers upon the “exploitation” of Elvis Presley and his brilliant career and is told from the viewpoint of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, brilliantly played by Tom Hanks with prosthetics and heavy make-up and a different voice accent. Colonel Parker transforms Elvis into a “mega-star,” a singing, sexy, acting, performing musical ICON, but he also causes the “downfall” of this amazing natural talent as he becomes a sad partial image of his old self.

Austin Butler stars as ELVIS, and his performances and the old “clips” of the actual ELVIS took me back to my younger days and had me singing along with many of the songs as I reclined in my theatre lounger.

The show was mesmerizing as it took me from the early “raw talent” days of Presley to links of his music to Black artists to the Beale Street Blues singer to the complete “greatest singer/ performer of all time” at the height of his performing to the “money-maker” for Parker near the end. I think every girl I have known has “loved” Elvis Presley and wanted to marry him at one time or another, and I think every boy has in some ways wanted to be ELVIS, at least “part-time.”

If I have one complaint about the movie, it is that Elvis’s attraction to his wife, Priscilla, how they met and ultimately married—and then split—was given very, very little attention, as was his attraction to guns and the roles his “body-guards” played in his life.

But, I am “nit-picking,” for one movie can not do everything.

I will say that this one came as close as any one show can probably do in the time that a viewing allows. And, I am still singing “Unchained Melody,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” and “If I Can Dream,” as I mow the yard and ride around in the ’88 Ranger (with no radio).

Go to see this movie, probably more than once! I have not heard one person who has seen the movie and then wished he/she had not gone!