The trend begins to manifest itself at the beginning of the 21st century with Ray (2004), Johnny & June: Passion and Madness (2005) and even dreamers (2006) which, while a work of fiction, is heavily inspired by Motown. They had to go from ten to fifteen years for their consolidation with titles such as Sweater Boys (2014), forbidden letters (2015), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Rocketman (2019), the mother of the blues (2020), the voice of love (2020), United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) and of course Elvis. The first batch laid the foundations, but it was the second that deciphered the best way to explore these icons, not only from their careers, but from the direct collision with the sociopolitical context. Let’s focus on these latest movies.
Racism, mafia, AIDS and drug addiction are just some of the many themes explored, resulting in complex works., but who struggled to find a balance between the drama and the dreaminess of the show. Some opted fully for the social, others for music. The balance only came when a genius, often misunderstood, as is the case of Baz Luhrmann entered the scene with the brave and risky exploration, not of any musician, but of one of the greatest legends of all time: Elvis Presley, the King of Rock himself.
To the rescue of the myth
Beyond the variants of each of the projects mentioned above, they all have one thing in common: the humanization of the star, who ceases to be untouchable to become a flesh and blood figure plagued by all kinds of problems and concerns. Elvis is no exception to the rule, but with the great difference that he is capable of doing it without falling into demystification.
To do this, Baz Luhrmann has to do nothing but stay true to the facts, especially to all those who have come so perilously close to being silenced. The poverty he experienced as a child and that forced him to grow up in humble neighborhoods inhabited by people of color in an era marked by segregation. “And he looks at what happens with young people,” says the filmmaker. “They absorb all kinds of things, especially someone with a big hole in the heart like Elvis, who had the conditional love of his mother and was always searching, searching and absorbing,” he said in interview .
Far from succumbing to racism, the boy absorbed and fused elements of country with African-American music and even gospel, resulting in a profoundly powerful combination that proved decisive in his rise to the top. Case similar to that of his dances, with movements never seen before. And yet, deeply honest, because as the filmmaker Elvis also says, “he did everything possible to say: ‘I didn’t invent rock and roll, I just put my own twist on it.’ He said: ‘Don’t call me The King, I’m not The King’”.
And it is precisely for this reason that it was and still is. But like all kings, his court included individuals who wanted to take advantage of his proximity to usurp power. In this case, Colonel Tom Parker, the agent who made him known to the world and then snatched him away. First in life by banning his world tours and then by influencing his tragic death.
Such a complex story demands first-rate performances. The presence of Tom Hanks as the aforementioned agent is a guarantee of quality; riskier was the choice of the young Austin Butler as Elvis Presley. The actor, who had already worked with other greats like Quentin Tarantino in once upon a time in hollywood (2019) and Jim Jarmusch in The dead don’t die (2019) does a more than compliant job, it is so outstanding that it earned it the applause and thanks of Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley.
As a final touch, a format that leaves behind the conventionalisms of the biopic and that wanders unusually close to the fantastic, as if it were an authentic story. A genius that could only occur to someone as creative as Baz Luhrmann.