Tubi latched onto the 2022 Elvis movie staring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler. Gotta say, at 2.5 hours I could have never made it through this in a theater. Watching via streaming service is definitely the way to go for people old enough to remember Elvis. Need that pause button for the bathroom breaks.
This is a phenomenally well done movie. No question about it, the acting is fantastic. I was about half way through before I realized Tom Hanks was even in it. Makeup did a great job hiding him and he did a great job with the voice. It’s not until they do one particular closeup of his eyes that you realize “This is Tom Hanks!”
Singing
Honestly, I don’t care if Austin Butler sang every song himself or the record label found some virgin master tapes to play. The music was top notch and singing without equal. I had a relative who basically had a shrine to Elvis in her house when I was a little kid. Any time we went there Elvis was always playing.
What kids today will not understand is that this was the golden era of MOR (Middle of the Road) radio. Although not that many black artists got played, most local stations were genreless. If it was good, it was on the air. In the same half hour you could hear Elvis, Glen Campbell, Captain & Tennille, Charlie Pride, Sony & Cher, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, etc. If it was good it was on the air. I had forgotten just how many hits Elvis had.
Note: It was a very nice touch when they used In the Ghetto while credits rolled. One of his biggest hits that didn’t really fit the movie.
Only Place It Fell Short
The writers chose to tell this story mostly from the perspective of Colonel Parker, the carny huckster who became manager of Elvis. While they went to great lengths at the end pointing out the multi-million dollar European tour contracts the Colonel turned down, opting to keep Elvis trapped in Las Vegas where he could feed his gambling addiction, they don’t go into why. Admittedly some of the reasoning is where the movie ended. They did make a big show of pointing out Colonel Parker didn’t actually exist and that he didn’t have a passport.
Where I ding them is the text blocks at the end of the movie. They talk about the settlement with the Presley family but they don’t go into the story found at that Smithsonian link. He was a murderer on the Lam from the Netherlands beyond paranoid about anyone finding out who he actually was.
Summary
Elvis is a very enjoyable Sunday night movie. Tubi did its customers a favor latching onto it for their streaming service. If you are old enough to remember when Elvis was actually alive (not the conspiracy theories, but actually alive and on the radio) this is a welcome bit of nostalgia. They didn’t overdo it with the drugs. More importantly they treated Priscilla Presley with the respect that she deserved.
There is a very well done scene near the end when she was leaving him. Elvis asks if it is because of all the other women and she responds “I never gave a shit about the women you brought in through the side door, I’m leaving because of these!” then throws a bottle of pills at him. She knew what she married into and the behavior that had to be tolerated. She was willing to put up with all of that, just not the drugs that ultimately killed him. Yeah, they “officially” said “heart attack” but if you take too many drugs your heart explodes. That wasn’t such an accepted idea in the 1970s but it is today.
For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.