It’s amazing that there aren’t already half a dozen Elvis biopics, after all there are still websites on the net, and that wasn’t even invented when he died in 1977, that advertise being authorized by Elvis – the ” King” is sighted as regularly as UFOs to this day.
After the theatrical resurrection of Freddie Mercury and the success of “Rocket Man”, directed by and produced by Elton John Baz Luhrmann now exhumed the life story of Elvis Presley, told from the perspective of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). The idea behind this film is actually nice: there are only a few songs left from Elvis and the idea of a man in a glitter suit who has eaten a few too many hamburgers. Luhrmann is now trying to restore the “King of Rock’n’Roll” to his place in American history.
Only fans of Luhrmann’s overkill will be happy with this film
Love handles and glitter are almost non-existent in Luhrmann’s case. He begins the story with Colonel Tom Parker, who remembers his protégé’s beginnings in the deep American South, at the time of segregation. Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) lives with his family in Memphis, Tennessee, and loves the music of African American blues bands, and then he heats up a room himself. Colonel Tom Parker senses the opportunity of a lifetime and hires the boy. He urges him to back down when Southern morals criticize his swinging hips and are outraged that he dresses and acts like his African American role models. The moral guards are raging, Elvis has to do his military service in Germany, meets Priscilla and, on his return, experiences his rebirth as a star, but this time in a shallow version, and of course Luhrmann is somehow right. There is a lovely scene from one of his films after returning to the US, “GI Blues”, which can be found on Youtube, Elvis singing to a puppet in a Punch and Judy show, with a lot of enamel and “Do I have to go out to the town”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/.”Wooden Heart” is the name of the English-German mishmash as a single. Hilarious, not necessarily the pinnacle of his influence on American pop culture, but definitely a bit of Presley that would make you want an Elvis biopic.
How bigotry counteracts the culture shock of Elvis, how Parker hinders him, makes him a good boy who then rebels as a middle-aged man: That could have been an exciting story, even if it didn’t really happen. You don’t have to take the Priscilla Presley perspective of the film, because at times it’s like Elvis, if Colonel Parker hadn’t stopped him, would have personally led the march on Washington. But the coexistence of Elvis, who somehow made the success of black musicians possible in the first place, the moral guardians and the civil rights movement has its appeal. Unfortunately, you first have to expose them in a salad of film snippets, which consists of scenes that are too short, symbols, split screens and all kinds of colorful nonsense that stifles any narrative flow. Only fans of Luhrmann’s overkill will be happy with it. The film is far too unfocused to capture any spirit – Elivs has left the building. He is not there. “Elvis” has a heart of wood.
The music, his story, his characters, everything has Baz Luhrmann, who at least since “Moulin Rouge” and “The Great Gatsby” is notorious for using this methodcut beyond recognition. All shook up, Elvis would say. Why he doesn’t let at least a few of the musical numbers speak for themselves if he wants to see Elvis as an artist remains a mystery. As a script, this might have been an interesting read, which would explain why Tom Hanks wanted to play Colonel Parker. But the result was a pretty awful performance. Tom Hanks as diabolical exploiter? His Colonel Parker, with a speech impediment and a nose job, is more of a pain in the neck than a charismatic villain. As far as Austin Butler is concerned: he does his job quite well, but he is not as impressive as Rami Malek as Freddie in “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Perhaps that’s because legions of Elvis impersonators have passed us by since 1977. Now it’s one more.
elvis, USA/Australia 2022, Director: Baz Luhrmann. Camera: Mandy Walker. Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia De Jonge. Warner, 159 minutes. Theatrical release: June 23, 2022.