"Elvis" (2022) - Baz Luhrmann Film Reviews/Discussion!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by EternalReturn, Feb 14, 2022.

  1. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Another stellar movie review from A.O. Scott of the New York Times no less. Here is the last two paragraphs of the review below.

    Who was he? The movie doesn’t provide much of an answer. But younger viewers, whose firsthand experience of the King is even thinner than mine, might come away from “Elvis” with at least an inkling of why they should care. In the end, this isn’t a biopic or a horror movie or a cautionary parable: It’s a musical, and the music is great. Remixed, yes, and full of sounds that purists might find anachronistic. But there was never anything pure about Elvis Presley, except maybe his voice, and hearing it in all its aching, swaggering glory, you understand how it set off an earthquake.

    Like a lot of people who write about American popular culture — or who just grew up in the second half of the 20th century — I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Elvis. “Elvis,” for all its flaws and compromises, made me want to listen to him, as if for the first time.


    'Elvis' Review: Shocking the King Back to Life
    https://www.nytimes.com › 2022/06/23 › movies › elvis-r...
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
    GillyT, Chris DeVoe, D-rock and 3 others like this.
  2. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Ray Connely : interview.
    Elvis seemed to prefer early Beatles..
    Elvis starts singing The Beatles - she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean. :)

    Elvis had found memories of Beatles 1965 meeting and Mal Evans in particular.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
    Mr Vertigo and RSteven like this.
  3. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    A line that particularly stood out: "And I'll be making another television show for NBC."

    I don't recall this being mentioned elsewhere. Did negotiations break down early on? I can understand why the idea would have been dropped in favor of something like That's the Way It Is, but it's intriguing to think what a late 1969/early 1970 TV special would have been like. (Utterly f***ing fantastic is my educated guess.)
     
    MRamble, RSteven, Shawn and 2 others like this.
  4. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Austin Butler will be on Kelly Clarkson's daytime talk show at 4:00 pm pacific time today. He will also be on The Late Show With James Corden tonight. Here is a small preview from the Kelly Clarkson episode. Baz put Austin through a five month audition process. Wow!

     
  5. Lightworker

    Lightworker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Deep Texas
    Guess I'd better ditch my Sinatra records...definitely the most successful 'parasite' since the tapeworm (lol).
     
  6. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Elvis' dislike of Goulet had nothing to do with Priscilla. It was related to an incident involving his pre-Priscilla girlfriend, Anita Wood:
    MARTY LACKER: One of the best-known stories about Elvis in the seventies is about the time he shot out the television when Robert Goulet came on. Everybody thought it was because he didn’t like Goulet’s style of singing and couldn’t stand his voice. But the real reason has to do with Anita.
    When Elvis was over in Germany, she did a number of shows around Memphis, and she also traveled. In fact, she went on tour with Robert Goulet. And she wrote Elvis a letter, and Goulet put a P.S. on it that said in effect, “Hey, Elvis, don’t worry! I'm taking pretty good care of Anita!” Understand, there was nothing going on between Anita and Goulet, but Goulet probably figured it would really annoy Elvis to suggest that there was. I remember Elvis telling me this story, and it was obvious that it burnt the **** out of him. And that’s the reason that in 1974, when he saw Goulet on television, he pulled a .357 Magnum pistol out and blew the ****in’ TV up. It ate at him all those years.
     
  7. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
    Lightworker and Shawn like this.
  8. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Just the other day someone posted this article (from the 11/8/69 NME) in another thread. No source is cited for any of the information about the proposed second special, so who knows how accurate it is. My guess is that it never got beyond the preliminary discussion stage. Clearly whoever talked to NME was thinking of turning Elvis into Johnny Cash or Glenn Campbell. Imagine Elvis and Raquel doing a nostalgic duet of Roustabout...
    [​IMG]
     
    Sebastian, Lightworker, Shawn and 3 others like this.
  9. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Another stellar review with a 3/4 star rating.

    As it is, the film covers roughly the star’s entire life, from his childhood in poverty in Tupelo, Miss. to his tragic death in 1977 at just 42 years old. Luhrmann attempts to place at the center of this epic not Presley himself (magnetically portrayed by Austin Butler, but we’ll get to that), but the performer’s longtime manager and promoter, Colonel Tom Parker. Played by Tom Hanks in a prosthetic face to make him look older and fatter than he is and using a thick Dutch accent (that it doesn’t appear Parker himself actually had throughout his life), the film begins and ends with Parker’s voiceover, the showman insisting that all he ever wanted was for Presley to be successful. Though Parker remains a huge presence in both Presley’s life and the film itself, the show is quite literally stolen by Butler, who’s performance as the legend himself is nothing short of awesome. Luhrmann doesn’t even give us real access to Butler until nearly an hour into the film (Presley as a child is portrayed by Chaydon Jay), but once he does, all bets are off; just try paying attention to anything else on screen when Butler is in the frame.

    Review: A Star is Born in Baz Luhrmann's Busy, Imperfect and ...
    https://thirdcoastreview.com › film-review-elvis
     
  10. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Does this quote sound a lot like what a critic might say about Elvis himself on screen?
     
  11. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Another four star review from Tim Stegall, a Top Critic with the Austin Chronicle. These reviews are coming in fast and furious.

    From a technical standpoint, the production is dazzling. The use of split screens and carefully controlled color saturation as storytelling elements are fantastic. The hair and costuming is deadly accurate – every era portrayed looks documentary-real. Elvis’ plot is the complicated relationship between narrator Col. Tom Parker (Hanks) and Presley. This was an artist with uncanny instincts, and Parker’s carny-bred con artistry frequently spayed and neutered his exclusive client. Luhrmann's film captures their bizarre dynamic beautifully. It helps having brilliant actors: Parker might be one of Hanks’ rare villains, but he simultaneously humanizes him. (However, his bizarre choice to give Parker a Dutch accent he never had makes you expect him to utter at any moment, “No, Mr. Bond. I want you to die!”) And Butler inhabits the role of Elvis Presley the way Jim Carrey reincarnated Andy Kaufman. It’s astonishing watching the former Nickelodeon star practically slip on Presley’s skin and operate his voice box, doing most of the vocals himself. Most importantly, he reveals the man swiveling those hips. If Butler and Hanks don’t win Oscars next year, the Academy is full of fools, fools, fools.

    Elvis - Movie Review - The Austin Chronicle
    https://www.austinchronicle.com › events › film › elvis
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
    Mylene, artfromtex, raveoned and 3 others like this.
  12. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    That's the kind of stuff I don't want to even think about .
     
    Shawn, Revelator and RSteven like this.
  13. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
  14. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    A lot of people are suddenly experts on Colonel Tom Parker's accent, but I'm going to go with the actor who spent hours listening to tapes of the man. The only interview with Parker that anybody has posted on this thread, was made after Elvis had died.

    This interview with Alana Nash, author of a biography of Parker, is fascinating:

    The Secrets Behind Elvis Presley's Relationship with Col. Tom Parker - Let It Roll

    One of the things that popped up was a DJ who was trying to get an interview with Elvis and found Parker who told him "You yust missed him", that his Dutch accent would slip through when he wasn't being interviewed.
     
    GillyT, Shawn, RSteven and 4 others like this.
  15. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    Exactly. He was reported to affect another voice when doing very public interviews or appearances. He tried very hard to bury his Andreas van Kuijk past and push the "Southern Colonel" persona.
     
    Shawn, RSteven and artfromtex like this.
  16. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
  17. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    Well what exactly are these tapes for Hanks to have used besides what's out there? Unless you're saying EPE has recordings..? What would be recorded of the Colonel that wouldn't be available publicly? Was Parker on any of those cassettes that were found in his office?

    For the record we technically have the ABC interview plus the little he spoke at the MSG press conference...
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
    BluesOvertookMe and Shawn like this.
  18. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Yes indeed, according to both Hanks and Baz, Parker liked to tape himself a lot and they had access to those private tapes at Graceland.
     
  19. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Now that's interesting. I wonder if Elvis caught the Colonel on tape one time and gave him the bug for it that way.
     
  20. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    Got it thanks
     
  21. The movie has me thinking more about The Colonel and his immigrant status. Rhetorically wondering why he never pursued citizenship at some point after he came to the US in 1929. Especially after he was married in 1935, which I know can make becoming a citizen - or at least getting a green card - easier but then again I have no ideas what US immigration laws were in that era.

    Also wondering how he was able to stay in the US after he admitted his immigration status - by stating he was a Dutch citizen - in court in 1982.
     
    RSteven and raveoned like this.
  22. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    There was an unsolved murder, apparently, that occurred at one of the stores that he did deliveries for in his home country, and he was a person of interest. He never went to be questioned in the case. That's one story that's gone around, and there are possibly other things that may have come up if he tried to apply for citizenship.

    On another note, I'm wondering if there will be a couple versions of the soundtrack? The Apple Music version has about 2-CDs worth of music, a lot more original Elvis music included.
     
  23. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I found this picture on another thread, so I am not sure of its source.

    [​IMG]
     
    artfromtex and MRamble like this.
  24. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Aw geez, Chris, now you've made me have to go and get the Pacino meme:
    [​IMG]

    Let me remind you that earlier in this thread I did post a 1956 interview clip with the Colonel, and he displays no heavy, prominent accent in that clip.

    And let me remind you also that people who knew the Colonel and spoke to him regularly in non-interview settings (such as Priscilla and Danny Smith) say that he did not have a heavy, prominent accent like the one used by Hanks. Bits of accent apparently slipped out occasionally, but nothing like the consistent, thick accent employed by Hanks. It's clear the accent is artistic license on his part. As Priscilla herself said: “Tom [Parker] didn’t have an accent. That was [Tom Hanks’] personal choice."

    As I've said before I don't think it's a big deal. It's a historical inaccuracy done for artistic license, similar to the depiction of a 1968 Comeback Christmas set or occasional songs getting sung in anachronous places in the film. But even though I don't think it's a big deal for the narrative, it yanks my chain to see someone suggest that it's not inaccurate. It IS a factual inaccuracy for him to have a consistent heavy accent like that.
     
    Revelator and MRamble like this.
  25. GillyT

    GillyT Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wellies, N.Z
    I have to strongly disagree with you there. My in-laws were Dutch immigrants and having seen the film, Hanks nailed the accent. Parker's public persona was a carefully constructed mask.
     
    905, alexpop, BluesOvertookMe and 3 others like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine