Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

Now imagining Elvis as Hud.

“They call it polk…salad” *rimshot* “Hud!”

Listening to Tutt & the band on those early Vegas shows & it’s stunning AND entirely believable that they could do what, three shows a day? and just holding it down in the most incredible ways

like sure you prob have to take a ton of uppers to do it but you still have to play like a motherfucker to meet Elvis where he’s at and goddamn they all could, but especially Tutt

also loved his playing on the Roy Orbison black and white night concert

Trailer for Baz Luhrmann's new Elvis movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBDLRvjHVOY

I doubt I was ever going to watch this. I've never liked Luhrmann - it feels like he uses every single idea that comes to mind as if none of them are awful when most of them are - but even if it wasn't him directing or writing, I'd be reluctant.

Does not sound appealing.

For a lot of it it seems like it's gonna be The Tom Parker Story, which would be a much better and more interesting movie. But yeah, it's gonna suck, in a hilariously inept way. Luhrmann sucks.

It's going to be amazing for all the wrong reasons. Can't wait.

i like Baz, especially when he taps into a personal obsession (like Gatsby)… i am open-minded & will definitely see it
i find what he overdoes visually sometimes (not always) can distract from how well he can get to the heart of a story

and i love an exploration of the Elvis myth

i loved Austin Butler as Tex in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, and the trailer is too choppy to tell but i think he has the abilityto pull off the necessary magnetism & childishness… but omg his face is so OVAL & plain. i am sad at the lack of prominent cheekbones & incredible angles possessed by E. alas, Butler is but a mere mortal :/

will it even be halfway as good as the Kurt Russell biopic?

i dunno...if you asked me what kind of elvis movie i always dreamed of seeing i'd say a respectful adaptation of guralnick's "last train to memphis," but interest in elvis seems to have dried up to such an extent that maybe what we really need is a reminder of how weird and unlikely and compelling this guy was, and i do kinda get that from this trailer. maybe elvis's story is just inherently powerful enough to me that it kinda works for me even when i cringe at the delivery.

There was also a Jonathan Rhys-Meyers thing at some point.

Yes, interest sort of varies. The ILM Elvis poll had something like 17 voters.

It looks like Luhrmann's taking The Dewey Cox Story as his model, with the jokes omitted.

i dunno...if you asked me what kind of elvis movie i always dreamed of seeing i'd say a respectful adaptation of guralnick's "last train to memphis"

Same here. That book had a big role in making me an Elvis fan. IIRC it inspired a very short-lived network TV series of Elvis in his youth that was cancelled quickly due to low ratings, and there have been attempts to turn the book into a movie but it's been languishing with different producers and may have had the rights kicked around different parties after many failed attempts at getting financing.

This one seems to be taking the opposite approach, but I liked how Guralnick brought Elvis down to earth. Instead of some grotesque myth of Americana, he portrayed him as a real, poor kid in the rural projects finding his way out through what he heard on the radio every day. Amusingly, Hanks read both Gulranick books as research for this new movie...to be fair he really only needed them for info on Colonel Parker.

There was also a Jonathan Rhys-Meyers thing at some point.

A TV miniseries! RANDY QUAID AS THE COLONEL!

ROSE MCGOWAN AS ANN-MARGRET!

I didn't see all of it, but the ending was pretty good, with a dejected Elvis--having just had his dreams of doing good movies and touring abroad quashed by The Colonel--pulling himself together and singing his ass off on the comeback special version of "If I Can Dream".

It's going to be amazing for all the wrong reasons. Can't wait.

Is there a bit with a carnival fire-breather in every BL movie?

Ha, must be.

I mean, of course I'd rather see a treatment of the Guralnick books. Teen Elvis bopping around Memphis, reciting MacArthur's farewell speech to anyone who'll listen.

But running the King through a neon pipe filled with Goldschläger and LSD, and featuring Forrest Gump as Col. Tom Parker? Whatever, I'm in.

I'm a sucker for this schtick anyways. Hope this new one also has some Alice Cooper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swBay5ARz6A

I want to watch that now, but seems like I would need a subcription to something called Stringray Karaoke.

Stingray Karaoke even

It such an oft-told tale they can't totally make the whole thing up, can they?

That trailer depresses me.

What bothers me about Luhrmann's treatment is that it seems disconnected from the experiences of people for whom Elvis' myth had and still has power. I'm thinking in particular of older friends who grew up in the 50s and 60s in Memphis and its environs.
I don't think Elvis was ever a freak or a deity to that audience; they recognized him right away. What shocked and thrilled them was the way he combined familiar things that weren't supposed be combined. (How they understood their feelings about him is another question.)

Also in 2022 I'd rather see an Elvis movie that goes a little deeper on race than a tent revival scene + some handwaving lines about MLK. But maybe this will be better than I'm expecting.

I didn't realize they were making a sequel to "Walk Hard"

Yeah, it's the sequel to Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud? :-D

Ugh Baz

Xpost: lol this definitely looks like the sort of movie Walk Hard parodied.

Don't have anything to say about this trailer, but thank y'all for reminding me of how good Walk Hard is.

OTM:

At some point, someone really needs to write the definitive book on 70s Elvis. Ideally someone with modern understandings of disability, neurodivergence, and fatness. Because that story looks very, *very* different from that perspective.

— A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs (@500SongsPodcast) February 17, 2022

Trailer:

"President Kennedy has been shot."

*5 sec later*

"Martin Luther King, Jr. has been shot."

Tbh Baz is maybe the only person who could hit all the Walk Hard cliche biopic notes and still make it work. At least his stuff doesn’t pretend to exist in reality. Big neon explosion of the myth.

The worst part about the trailer is Hanks. Feel like it’s been decades since I’ve seen him actually being a good actor.

Maybe I should finally read Peter Guralnick’s Sam Phillips book before or instead of watching this.

Yeah not a fan of the casting.

He’s such a big actor with a long career that It’s difficult not to see Tom Hanks as Tom Hanks with bad prosthetics and a weird accent.

I don’t want to judge Austin Butler’s performance solely based on looks but he looks like a skinny teenager to me, whereas Elvis looked very manly and “grown up” even in his early 20’s.

He does have the sort of dreamy eyes Elvis had though. Either way I don’t expect a great performance when directed by Baz Luhrmann tbh.

I don't even know if I'd want Elvis to look like Elvis in this.

I shall sulk if it turns out they haven't given Kurt Russell a cameo.

Kurt Russell plays an old man who kicks Elvis in the shin at the World's Fair

Lol

Remember when Michael St. Gerard played Elvis 4 times in 4 different movies? Guy really milked his Elvis look

Had to like that up because I didn't remember, if I ever knew.

Yeah not a fan of the casting.

He’s such a big actor with a long career that It’s difficult not to see Tom Hanks as Tom Hanks with bad prosthetics and a weird accent.

I don’t want to judge Austin Butler’s performance solely based on looks but he looks like a skinny teenager to me, whereas Elvis looked very manly and “grown up” even in his early 20’s.

Multiverse Elvi

Reviewing top 40 lists of the '70s without researching Elvis (a blind spot), I'm impressed by how well he sung and how judicious his song selections remained well into his putative decline -- and how many hits he earned.

Where were you when we did the POLL?

Honestly my favorite period of Elvis, vocally, is early 70’s, He could sing literally anything. The stuff he’s doing in “On Tour” is amazing. so gifted.

and he was a huge fan of all styles of music, which made him such a great, thoughtful interpreter of songs, especially if he was a fan of the artist. he almost method-style tries to inhabit the character of the song in his delivery & do the artist justice.

Honestly my favorite period of Elvis, vocally, is early 70’s

Would agree with that.

I mean, Elvis basically fucking ruled from beginning to end. Grew up with all the jokes about chubby, sweaty, 70s Elvis, but damn if that wasn’t him at his most transcendent.

I dunno. If you all are watching this trailer and Tom Hanks is the elephant in the room then we're seeing a different trailer. The whole thing looks like straight up garbage.