Wait, so you mean Hitler didn't burn to death in a movie theater?!?! I blind bought Elvis because it was $7.99. The trailer looked interesting, but I wasn't in a rush to see this. I expected a visual spectacular with not much in the way of factual storytelling, and that's pretty much what I got. It was OK. Not really my bag. It's not like I'm spending my weekends watching "Moulan Rouge" with a wooly booger. I thought Austin did a good job giving off a sort of Elvis-ness. I didn't know what to make of Tom Hanks' performance, to be honest. Overall, yeah, it's flashy a nice looking and maybe it got some people to go buy an Elvis greatest hits CD, so I'm fine with it.
Have you seen any of Baz’ other films?? The word ‘appease’ isn’t in the man’s dictionary. Lol. He has a track record of making successful films. Studio execs and investors always want to be on that train as long as it keeps moving in the right direction.
For those who are interested… One of the BBC’s oldest radio shows Desert Island Discs featured Baz Luhrmann recently. BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Baz Luhrmann, director Also Richard E Grant, Cate Blanchett, Rick Rubin. Some cool stuff there…
I've seen virtually all of them. Note that I said "I think it was done," so it's strictly an opinion. I wasn't down under to witness the meetings that went on between Baz and the studio execs. Stranger things have happened when the director or producer are pushed into making creative decisions in order to make the film more commercial. 100% agree. I think it's a huge problem to do a period piece set in the 1950s and 1960s, and suddenly crowbar in modern music to it. Interestingly, there are cases where you can get away with it: the first episode of the Netflix sci-fi show 1899 uses two different versions of "White Rabbit," and ya know... it works for the show. But this is a fictitious show -- one that involves travelling through time and space -- so it's not the same thing as relating a true story about a real person.
Period piece...this isn't Downton Abbey we're talking about. How can the modern music be such a trigger when the rest of the movie's technical aspects are equally as modern? 2022-style cinematography, 2022-style editing, 2022-style pacing and 2022-style visuals and effects. You can't single out the music when you've already bought into the rest of the movie's style. It's a package deal. In the same way the 1899 series gets a pass, so does this film since Elvis makes it so obviously clear that we (or Baz) are looking back at this period from the present, borrowing today's visual and sonic language.
Let's agree to disagree. When it's about a real person in a real time and place, I think applying contemporary incidental music doesn't work. I actually heard some "WTF's?" from the audience I was with. I thought it was awkward and uncomfortable. Please feel free to have your own opinion. Meanwhile, here's a link to a terrific interview with actor Austin Butler on his 18-month preparation to play the character, part of his making the rounds to try to get Academy voters interested in his performance: ‘Elvis’ Star Austin Butler On How Playing The King Changed His Life – Deadline To me, he's a shoo-in to at least get an Oscar nomination -- I thought he did an amazing, believable job at playing Elvis across a 30-year period of his life.
I am 100% with you on an Oscar nomination for Butler. Thanks for posting this excellent interview with Austin as well.
2022-style filmmaking is perfectly fine. I don’t expect to be stylized, lit and paced like Blue Hawaii. They’re not a “package deal”, as you can’t ‘date’ cinematography with the precision you can place a song that was obviously recorded for the movie in a very modern style. Also, they use the music as a ‘mood’ piece too, like an extension of the physical sets. For example, the three-way singing of that one song (forgot which one) near the end. By your logic, they could have had Elvis driving a 2022 model year car in the 60s.
Austin Butler 'Elvis' Full Concerts Restored in Four-Hour Cut - Variety "There will be a day when we do it."
So when you watch, say, The Ten Commandments, do you object to the orchestrated score? No orchestra with those instruments existed when Moses was alive.
No, not at all. Orchestrated scores have been an important part of filmmaking since sound was invented. We have a standard joke in post-production (and cinematography) when actors are walking around late at night, but they're lit and we can see them. If somebody asks, "where's all that light coming from?", we shrug and say, "the same place the music is coming from." The magic of cinema. As long as it's appropriate and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, then it's all part of the verisimilitude of story-telling. In other words, it has to feel real. A 2022 hip-hop song in a 1956 nightclub ghetto scene doesn't work for me... but I'd say the same thing about synthesizer music or opera or disco or all kinds of inappropriate music. There's not only the huge danger of knocking the viewers right out of the movie (as it did for me), but it can also just seem like an opportunistic gimmick... which is how it felt to me. A lot of these things boil down to creative choices. I could kind of forgive Baz Luhrmann doing it in Moulin Rouge, which is a big, showy, in-your-face movie about fictitious people in a glamorized, stylized place. Musicals also kind of have their own set of rules. and they sort of have their own kind of reality: nobody breaks out in song in real life, either, but I can buy into it if it's done well. I would object to contemporary music in any historical context about real people in real places, telling a story of incidents that actually happened in real life. (Hell, I get antsy when they play a 1964 song in a movie about 1962.)
That's not the same because Baz isn't having Elvis or anyone on Beale Street performing Hip Hop. Nor are they playing it on the radio or record so that it appears they are listening to it, which would be the same as Elvis driving a modern car. The music is used for the audience to hear, not for the characters to be taking part in it. I think Baz was just using the attitude of Hip Hop music to set a tone and mood for Beale Steet. and young Elvis. No one is going to think the genre was played back then or that Elvis was part of it. When orchestras are used in films that represent a period prior to the existence of instruments, no one believes that music was playing when the scene that's being reenacted actually happened. I mean Jesus Christ Superstar is an all-out Rock and Roll musical. No one has ever shunned away off the basis of the story not being believable because of the music. And the film actually adds tanks, jets and machine guns. All symbolism of course
It would have made it a lot better for me. And The Empire Strikes Back could have used some New Wave, and we could have added some Synth Pop to Return of the Jedi
So it's an opinion based on an assumption?? The idea of a studio exec instructing a director like Baz Luhrmann (and CM his wife and collaborator) to put rap in this film to make it more commercial, is rather amusing. Take a listen to the Desert Island Discs link above. There's Puccini, next to rap, next to pop. Luhrmann's artistic vision is all-encompassing. Not unlike Elvis and he must have recognised that similarity. Perhaps that's what drew him in? Here's a novel idea. Perhaps these are artistic choices and the studios permit Luhrmann the freedom to make those choices because he has a record of delivering films that make a profit for the studio. I have no doubt they had their hearts in their mouths. 'Elvis' as a movie subject in 2022 must have seemed like walking off a cliff for some of them. Yet here we are, awash with Oscars buzz. Who would've thought it 12 months ago?
Everything expressed here, especially on a fan website is an opinion. If I say it's a fact (Jack), I'll state it as a fact. Jesus Christ Superstar was also roundly criticized, particularly compared to the West End/Broadway plays. I don't think it's a good example of anachronisms working for a musical. And it also has nothing to do with Elvis per se -- anachronistic music is one thing, but a fantasy setting is another. Note that I liked most of Elvis, and one of my few criticisms was "it wasn't long enough." I've said many times that it would take a 10-hour mini-series to dive into the life of somebody as complex as Elvis and do it justice. I always say, "I can't offer higher praise than to say I went out and bought the movie on disc," which I did in this case.
It's funny because I have a real distain for really long movies. I often complain to my lady about how various movies we watch could sure use a good editor, Lol. However, in this rare case, Elvis the movie just blew by me quickly. Austin was so transcendent as Elvis and the attention to detail and gorgeous cinematography just kept me riveted the whole time. I have seen the movie about 13 times now and I am not tired of it yet. Speaking of Elvis, I just got back from a trip to Memphis and Nashville. My fifth trip to my two favorite cities to visit in the world. We stayed two days at The Guesthouse At Graceland and two days in downtown Memphis at the Peabody (One of my favorite hotels in the world with the ducks that march down every morning from the elevator to hop in the fountain in the lobby). Diane had never been to Tennessee or Graceland so it was a real treat for her. I had not been to either city for about 23 years, but the people back there are still as friendly as I remember. It was a real kick to see Graceland with all of Elvis's Christmas decorations, both inside the house and outside. I ran into a lady in the gift shop at The Guest House and she talked about how her 16 year old son is fixated on the movie and Elvis. I think she said he has seen the movie like 30 times. I cannot believe how many of his gold and platinum records line the walls of the Elvis the Entertainer complex. And they have a huge special exhibit of his stage outfits on display. Both Aloha outfits and something like 70 or 80 jumpsuits I would guess. Best chicken sandwich ever at EP's restaurant at the Guesthouse. We also went to B.B. Kings and saw their fantastic house band. We went to Sun Studios as well. We stayed three days in Nashville at the Omni Hotel in the downtown area, with a great view of the AT&T Building. It is actually connected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, so you don't even have to go outside to walk to the exhibits. We also went to the Johnny Cash Museum as my nephew is a huge Johnny Cash fan as well. The RCA Studio B tour is way better than it was 23 years ago. Back in 1999, we could only peek behind the glass of the studio, now you actually get to go into Studio B and take pictures at Elvis's favorite piano and where he stood to record. Our host played a gorgeous snippet of Are You Lonesome Tonight while telling us the little clip noise at the very end of the cut was Elvis bumping into the microphone because he had asked the lights to be turned off to get into the proper mood for the recording. I was also surprised by how many other couples took this same Memphis to Nashville trip, sometimes in reverse order. Oh yeah and I meet Hal Lansky for the first time at his shop at the Peabody and told him how kind his father Bernard was to my family and kids when we came there 23 years ago. I highly recommend this trip to any Elvis fan or country music or blues fan.
Absolutely highly recommended trip. There's also an African American Music Hall Of Fame in Nashville as well, and upstairs from the Cash museum there is a small but no less impactful Patsy Cline museum. Sadly the George Jones museum is no more.
Sounds like a fantastic trip! We've been to Nashville once, and on our first full day there, we ate lunch at a place just off Broadway (Florida Georgia Line's honky tonk) which had the best hot chicken and waffles I had the whole time there! When we went up to the rooftop area, you could hear all the different music coming from all the places near there, and right then it hit me: I was home. I hope for us to hit Memphis sometime soon, maybe do like you and couple it with Nashville, because it seems like both are my spirit cities. I simply haven't felt as in synch with a place as I did when we were in Nashville (even bought a Gretsch at the Country Music Hall of Fame!)
Oh darn, how the heck did we miss that one? I am a huge Patsy Cline fan! I forgot to revisit the Memphis Music Hall of Fame as well. They had some cool Charlie Rich stuff to see when I visited there two decades ago.
Not everything. I know from first-hand experience, the effect of studio execs with their eye on the bottom line. The small, but thriving little film community I live and once worked in (Peter Jackson, Taika Waititi are locals who made good) was turned on its head by the arrival of big studio execs from Hollywood, ahead of the filming of the Hobbit films, who demanded that my country's labour laws be relaxed as a pre-condition. Overnight, our community was transformed. It's gone from being what Guillermo del Toro described as a successful film hub run by artists, who experimented and promoted the work of up and coming artists; to just another industry where everything is screwed down to the last dollar. PJ is doing fine with his Beatles films and Taika too, but the ladder's been pulled up for the next generation. That's why I admire Luhrmann. He's an outlier who has stuck to his guns and consistently produces distinctive films and soundtracks that only he could make. Each soundtrack is crafted to work as a stand-alone listening experience, independent of his films. It's not to everyone's taste, but it would be a boring world if we all agreed.
In conversation with The American Society of Cinematographers. https://ascmag.com/videos/clubhouse-conversations-elvis
I'm just talking about what we say in messages on the forum. The state of NZ and Australia filmmaking is beyond the discussion. Yes, Mandy Walker did an extraordinary job lighting Elvis. I hope she gets an Oscar nomination and an ASC nomination -- it's one of the best-looking films of the year, for sure.
