Film Pick of the Week: Elvis - review by Yvette Huddleston


Baz Luhrmann’s much-lauded, multi-award-winning epic biopic of Elvis Presley focuses mainly on his relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker and features hugely impressive performances from Austin Butler and Tom Hanks respectively.
The film is intermittently narrated by the infamous Parker who, as is well documented, ruthlessly exploited Presley for his own material gain and controlled every aspect of the singer’s career. His skewed take on the facts – “there are some who make me out to be the villain of this story!” he says incredulously – adds an interesting dimension while never obscuring or excusing the man’s monstrous actions. Hanks is skin-crawlingly convincing in a fine unflinching portrayal. The narrative follows Elvis’s life beginning with his first meeting with Parker who at the time was a carnival showman and manager of country singer Hank Snow. Presley had recently cut his first record with Memphis label Sun Records, run by Sam Philips and Marion Keisker.
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Hide AdParker initially hires Presley and his band for a spot in the Louisiana Hayride, which gifts the film one of its most memorable set pieces as the young Elvis, dressed in a pink suit, nervously approaches the microphone – and then gives an explosive, sexually-charged, hip-swivelling performance of Baby, Let’s Play House. When Parker sees the hysterical response from the young women in the audience, he knows he is on to a winner, a meal ticket he intends to keep for himself.


The story then continues in mostly chronological order with the early recording and performing success, TV appearances leading to controversy, his stint in the army to leaven the ‘bad boy’ image, his meeting, falling in love with and marriage to Priscilla, the terrible musical bubblegum movies he was forced to make, another self-serving manoeuvre by Parker, when what he really wanted to do was serious acting.
the triumphant 1968 Comeback TV Special which after a fallow period propelled Presley back into the public’s attention. Then the sad decline, the alcohol and pills.
There are flashbacks to Presley’s impoverished childhood and teenage years, with visceral representations of his powerful musical influences, as Priscilla says ‘the music that makes you happy’ – the soaring voices of the gospel choirs in church and the blues singers and musicians he heard in the bars and clubs of Beale Street.
The film benefits greatly from Luhrmann’s signature style – pacy, glitzy and full of inventive visual flourishes – it never feels long, even with a two hour plus running time.