A slapdash doc pays shabby tribute to The King
We wrap up the weekend with a mixed bag of an Elvis film
APRIL 10
This Is Elvis
Elvis Presley, Gladys Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Vernon Presley, Greg LeMay, Robert Rene, Ginger Alden, Steve Allen, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Bill Black, Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Roger R. Ellis, D.J. Fontana, Alan Fortas, Hy Gardner, Cary Grant, George Hamilton, Delores Hart, Dave Hebler, Charlie Hodge, Bob Hope, Hedda Hopper, Bones Howe, Mary Jenkins, Groucho Marx, Ronnie McDowell, Scotty Moore, Pauline Nicholson, Debra Paget, Ed Parker, Tom Parker, Bill Randle, Nancy Rooks, Phil Silvers, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, Ed Sullivan, Norman Taurog, Vicky Tiu, Aaron Webster, Del “Sonny” West, David Scott, Paul Boensch III, Johnny Harra, Lawrence Koller, Rhonda Lyn, Debbie Edge, Larry Raspberry, Furry Lewis, Liz Robinson, Dana MacKay, Knox Phillips, Cheryl Needham, Andrea Cyrill, Jerry Phillips, Emory Smith, Ral Donner, Joe Esposito, Lisha Sweetnam, Virginia Kiser, Michael Tomack
music by Walter Scharf
screenplay by Malcolm Leo and Andrew Solt
produced by Malcolm Leo and Andrew Solt
directed by Malcolm Leo and Andrew Solt
Rated PG
1 hr 50 mins
Using both archival footage and staged recreations, the Elvis Presley estate tells the official version of the Elvis story.
This is a fascinating exercise in myth-making.
So far, no one has fully grappled with Elvis Presley as part of the larger American identity. Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis seems to have entertained audiences and earned Austin Butler a shot at next-level stardom, but he’s selling you just as carefully curated a version of Elvis as this movie is. Elvis remains one of the most sanitized public figures possible, in large part so we don’t have to confront some of the weird and ugly truths about this figure who remains so much larger than life to so many people. This film is meant to be a celebration released just a few years after Elvis’s death, but no matter how carefully chosen the documentary footage here, the distance of time makes this more of a record of decay than anything else.
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