Sometimes subject and director fit each other perfectly. Baz Lurman’s films have always had a ton of style. It is often overwhelming and sometimes most times it outweighs any substance within the story. The screen always explodes with color and overcomes its vanilla characters. With “Elvis” he has found a character to match his explosive directional energy and style while humanizing Elvis for a generation who has grown up with the cartoonish caricature. “Elvis” is essential viewing for a new audient to get to know the person who changed the world forever. Anchored by a star making performance by the previously little-known Austin Butler, and you have the perfect biopic that captures both the soul and the struggles of the man, but the impacts he had on the world in his mere 42 years on earth.
The movie is told from the POV of Elvis’ long time manager Colonel Tom Parker. Parker discovered Elvis, helped launch his career, and then exploited, conned and robbed Elvis for the rest of his life. He is played with a European accent and slimy charisma by Tom Hanks. The film begins with Parker looking for opening acts to pair up with his traveling country musicians lead by Hank Snow. Snow is like all the acts of the time standing confidently and stiff at the microphone strumming his guitar and singing nice safe country songs. A younger act plays a new record for the crew that sounds so different and everybody, including the Colonial, realizes they are hearing something different. Of course it is Elvis, and they pull him in to open for Snow.
When Elvis starts shaking his hips, the woman in the crowd simply can’t stay seated. The farther he gets into the song, the more the entire house starts to shake and you realize we are all seeing a cultural earthquake that will change the world forever. Of course, the bigger Elvis gets, and the personal freedom he represents, and sexual longing he creates in his audience, is something the mainstream simply can’t abide. He is given the choice of going to jail for indecency or join the army. He joins the Army and while lonely and away from home, and more importantly, from his mother, he meets and falls in love with an officer’s daughter names Prescilla played with sweetness, intelligence and strength by Olvia De Jong. While in the military his mother, the central strongest person in his life passes away leaving Elvis vulnerable to the suggestions of a Machiavellian Parker.
The rest are the standard plot points that follow Elvis through the stages of his career and life. Oh, but what a career and a life. His story is dressed up in celebratory bright colors, inventive jump cuts, and of course an amazing Elvis soundtrack. It dives deep into Elvis’s roots in the deep south and the influence R&B and Gospel, and his friendships with the underpaid artists of his time, like BB King. Did Elvis co-op African American culture or did he explode it across the country to knock the doors down for those to come after him. The film doesn’t judge but shows where Elvis has his roots and his inspiration come from.
You can’t overstate how magnificent Austen Butler is as Elvis. What easily could have been a caricature, and probably hard not to ease into impersonation, is sensitive, strong and complex. While he is electric moving those hips in the many concert scenes, he is equally powerful in his quiet scenes of reflection. He gives Elvis a soul. De Jong is the standout of a wonderful supporting cast. The costumes that span 20 years magically walk us through walk us through cultural revolution that Elvis ignited.
Above all else, “Elvis” is a fantastic time. Lurhman transports us to a different time and place when the world was about to change and the events and the energy in every frame of the film pulsates. Your toe will be tapping, and somewhere Elvis is looking down and smiling knowing that a generation of people who have seen him as nothing but a cartoon or one note joke, with a soulful voice that we heard around Christmas time, can now appreciate the star that changed the world with his amazing voice, gyrating hips and natural style. Elvis and Lurman would have been great friends.