The Movie Reel

[Federberg]

thought this was hilarious... in homage to our frantic debates of yore...

 

[tented]

thought this was hilarious... in homage to our frantic debates of yore...

- “JAYDEN!”
- “You can’t fight Jayden!”

 

[Moxie]

My niece said it was pretty bad, and she had very low expectations.

In her words, “ how can you screw up a movie when its dinosaurs run amuck? “

Now, my friend just saw it, and she thought it was really fun. So who knows. On the other hand, you couldn't pay me enough money to see Top Gun. I am very enthusiastic about the Bad Luhrmann Elvis movie. On the slightly arty side, I just saw "Official Competition," with Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. It's smart and hilarious.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Moxie,

Dont waste your money to watch Elvis, it has had soo many bad reviews here in Australia my friend went yesterday and walked out, I have never been a fan of Baz Luhrmann or his movies, example Moulin Rouge and dont get me started on Australia.

 

[Vince Evert]

Moxie,

Dont waste your money to watch Elvis, it has had soo many bad reviews here in Australia my friend went yesterday and walked out, I have never been a fan of Baz Luhrmann or his movies, example Moulin Rouge and dont get me started on Australia.

Depends on how you approach(ed) it. On the one level i agree with you. I wished they could have stuck to the original four hour edit but there was a late change to 2 hours 39 minutes to appease the general pubic. They skipped some of Elvis lifestory, shorten most of his songs and sort of amalgamate Elvis 1968-1970 comeback to the stage arena as one single event. I have read that it suddenly jumps from 1972-1973 era to 1977 Elvis. At some point there will be a bluray releases of Elvis (2022) and Elvis on Tour (1972) so hopefully Elvis (2022) biopic will be the four hour version. Although i'd be more interested in the 'Elvis on Tour' 50th anniversary blu-ray.

 

[tented]

Richard Brody’s review: “Elvis” Is a Wikipedia Entry Directed by Baz Luhrmann

 

[Moxie]

Depends on how you approach(ed) it. On the one level i agree with you. I wished they could have stuck to the original four hour edit but there was a late change to 2 hours 39 minutes to appease the general pubic. They skipped some of Elvis lifestory, shorten most of his songs and sort of amalgamate Elvis 1968-1970 comeback to the stage arena as one single event. I have read that it suddenly jumps from 1972-1973 era to 1977 Elvis. At some point there will be a bluray releases of Elvis (2022) and Elvis on Tour (1972) so hopefully Elvis (2022) biopic will be the four hour version. Although i'd be more interested in the 'Elvis on Tour' 50th anniversary blu-ray.

I saw it today. I liked it rather more than the people I saw it with, though we all enjoyed it, but I'm the one who tolerates Baz Luhrmann best. I will say it's a "Baz Luhrmann film." However, everyone agrees that Austin Butler who plays Elvis is just stunning. He really has the charisma. And he does some of the singing, which is amazing. I'm sure it was "sweetened," but still. And it's not just an imitation, it's a good performance. Tom Hanks as Col. Parker is another conversation.

 

[Vince Evert]

"Don't Fly Away" Good mash-up on two Elvis songs from the new movie.

 

[Vince Evert]

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’?

Our resident Presley expert separates fiction from fact in the box-office smash
by Alanna Nash, AARP, July 7, 2022

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler stars as Elvis Presley in "Elvis."

Baz Luhrmann’s hit biopic Elvis replicates in such detail so many scenes, events and wardrobe — the frilly shirt the singer wore when his mother died; the stained tablecloth the Colonel uses as a Las Vegas contract — that it’s easy to believe everything in the film is accurate. But how accurate is Elvis, really? We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes, in the order they appear in the film, and score each on a scale of zero to 10 on our proprietary Elvis Truth-ometer.

1. The Colonel (Tom Hanks) first sees Elvis (Austin Butler) backstage at the Louisiana Hayride.
What it means in the movie: The Colonel, standing in the shadows, stalks the hillbilly newcomer Elvis Presley at the Louisiana Hayride and realizes, “He was my destiny.”

What happened in real life: On Jan. 15, 1955, Colonel Parker traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, to watch Elvis on the Hayride, but it was not Elvis’s debut on the live radio show. Furthermore, D.J. Fontana, Elvis’s drummer, remembered that it was not the first time Parker had seen him, as the movie portrays. In Texarkana, “We would see him walkin’ around, hanging back in the shadows, but he never would say nothin’,” Fontana said. The night Parker saw him on the Hayride, Elvis performed three songs, but not “Baby, Let’s Play House,” as the film so electrifyingly shows. In the film, Marion Keisker, Sam Phillips’ assistant at Sun Records, is shown standing and screaming along with the teenage girls. That happened, but at Elvis’s Memphis show at the Overton Park Shell in 1954.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

2. The Colonel confronts Elvis in a carnival house of mirrors.
What it means in the movie: Elvis and the Colonel size each other up.

What happened in real life: The Colonel tells Elvis he looks like he doesn’t know how to get out of the fun house, “but I do. Allow me to show you,” and springs the door to the exit. This indicates to Elvis that he is in need of direction, and that only the Colonel can guide him. That scene never happened in reality, but the screen Colonel speaks the truth when he says, “creatures of the carnival, and I am one myself.” He started in penny carnivals — we briefly see the word “geek” when the Colonel first sees Elvis from behind — and progressed to managing country stars Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, portrayed in the film. As for the dancing chickens, briefly shown, that have long been associated with the Colonel, in truth it was a dancing duck on a hot plate covered with straw, and a stunt perpetuated by one of Parker’s friends, not the Colonel.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

HUGH STEWART/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

3. The Colonel sells “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis Buttons.”
What it means in the movie: Colonel Parker brandishes Elvis’s name on a plethora of merchandise, covering every angle.

What happened in real life: In 1956, the Colonel peddled both “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis” buttons to folks who reacted strongly one way or another to the new singing phenomenon. He contracted with merchandiser Hank Saperstein to make 78 different articles, including Elvis charm bracelets, Elvis lipstick in “Hound Dog” orange and Elvis glow-in-the-dark busts.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 10 out of 10

4. Elvis incites a riot at a Memphis charity concert.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is angry about having to sing to a dog on The Steve Allen Show and curtail his dance moves.

What happened in real life: Elvis felt humiliated to be fitted for a tux and sing to a basset hound, a move orchestrated to add a comedic touch, and as Allen put it, “to “present the ‘new’ Elvis Presley” and “make sure that he conducts himself in a gentlemanly manner.” In protest, Elvis said at his Russwood Park show in Memphis on July 4, 1956, “You know those people in New York are not going to change me none. I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.” The film has him saying those words, but Barbara Hearn Smith, Elvis’s girlfriend (who is briefly shown sitting with Presley’s parents as she did in real life), tells AARP, “The concert at Russwood Park was absolutely nothing like it was portrayed in the movie — not even near accurate — and no awful riot as shown.” In actuality, the film combines several riotous reactions from other cities with the pinkie wiggling from a Jacksonville, Florida, show. The song he sang in the film (“Trouble”) was not yet out in 1956.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 4 out of 10

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Helen Thomson

5. Gladys Presley (Helen Thomson) falls down the stairs at Graceland.
What it means in the movie: Elvis’s mom develops a drinking problem.

What happened in real life: Gladys Presley was a nervous woman who feared greatly for her son’s safety once fame hit. She died in 1958 of a heart attack due to “hepatitis, acute, severe,” which can be caused by alcohol abuse. In the film, we see Gladys downing vodka, and beer bottles prominently displayed in Graceland when Elvis’s parents have lunch. It was no secret that Gladys took diet pills to look slimmer in photos with her son, and his entourage remembers her drinking beer. But falling down drunk? “I never saw that,” says Barbara Hearn Smith, who spent a lot of one-on-one time with Gladys and adds she never smelled liquor on her breath. “She did not deserve such treatment [in the film]. Elvis would never forgive anyone who allowed that.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 6 out of 10

6. Scene: The Colonel hates the ’68 Comeback Special team, saying, “Those hippies had brainwashed Elvis, acting like he was one of them radicals.”
What it means in the movie: Parker tries to intervene with the direction of the show.

What happened in real life: Elvis’s manager hoped to turn him into Bing Crosby for a family Christmas TV special, but director Steve Binder persuaded Elvis to return to his glory in a mesmerizing performance. Binder also had the emotional finale, “If I Can Dream,” written so that Elvis could address the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The special rejuvenated Elvis and inspired him to take control of his recordings, but the Colonel saw Binder as a threat and made sure he couldn’t reach his client ever again. However, Parker was not as bumbling and inept as the film implies.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 8 out of 10

7. Elvis fires the Colonel from the stage and confronts him about being in the country illegally.
What it means in the movie: Elvis knows Parker has been lying to him about taking his tour overseas.

What happened in real life: Elvis had been saying for years that he wanted to play concerts in Europe, but the Colonel cited difficulty in controlling security and the size of European venues as to why that couldn’t happen. Elvis was frustrated, but the dramatic confrontation is fabrication: Elvis never knew that Parker was from Holland, and never fired him from the stage.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 0 out of 10

RUBY BELL/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Olivia deJonge

8. At 40, Elvis tells Priscilla (Olivia deJonge) that he’s never made a classic film and that no one will remember him when he’s gone.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is out of dreams.

What happened in real life: Elvis actually said, “People aren’t going to remember me, because I’ve never done anything lasting. I’ve never made a classic film to show what I can do.” But he told this to Kathy Westmoreland, his high-harmony singer, not to Priscilla. The Colonel quashed the attempt of frequent Elvis songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to get him to star in A Walk on the Wild Side — just the kind of film that might well have been memorable and changed the trajectory of his film career.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

9. Dr. Nick (Tony Nixon) dunks Elvis’s head in an ice bucket.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is too drugged to perform, and the Colonel shows no compassion, bellowing, “You listen to me! The only thing that matters is that that man gets up on that stage tonight!” Dr. Nick gives him a shot to bring him around, and Elvis does his show.

What happened in real life: This really happened, but in a hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky, not in a hallway in Las Vegas.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 9 out of 10

10. Colonel Parker’s voiceover near the end of the film
What it means in the movie: Here’s what the Colonel says in a voiceover: “What killed my boy? Dem doctors say it was his heart. Others, the pills. Some says it was me. No. I’ll tell you what killed him. It was love. His love for you.” The Colonel steadfastly refuses to accept any blame for his role in Presley’s death at age 42.

What happened in real life: Who, or what, killed Elvis? Whether fame, circumstances, genetics or addiction played a part, Elvis was largely responsible for his demise by not insisting on more control over his career and his life. As the late Waylon Jennings wrote in his memoir, Waylon: An Autobiography, “He had not progressed very much from when he was 18; he was still like a little boy, in so many ways. All he did was play like a kid, and sing. If anything, I don’t believe that he was deep enough inside. It was too easy to get caught up in the parties, the fancy cars, and the girls.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

Alanna Nash is the author of four books , including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon & Schuster), updated in 2022 with a new afterword.

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmannâs âElvisâ Movie?

We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as Tom Parker.

www.aarp.org

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’?

Our resident Presley expert separates fiction from fact in the box-office smash
by Alanna Nash, AARP, July 7, 2022

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler stars as Elvis Presley in "Elvis."

Baz Luhrmann’s hit biopic Elvis replicates in such detail so many scenes, events and wardrobe — the frilly shirt the singer wore when his mother died; the stained tablecloth the Colonel uses as a Las Vegas contract — that it’s easy to believe everything in the film is accurate. But how accurate is Elvis, really? We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes, in the order they appear in the film, and score each on a scale of zero to 10 on our proprietary Elvis Truth-ometer.

1. The Colonel (Tom Hanks) first sees Elvis (Austin Butler) backstage at the Louisiana Hayride.
What it means in the movie: The Colonel, standing in the shadows, stalks the hillbilly newcomer Elvis Presley at the Louisiana Hayride and realizes, “He was my destiny.”

What happened in real life: On Jan. 15, 1955, Colonel Parker traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, to watch Elvis on the Hayride, but it was not Elvis’s debut on the live radio show. Furthermore, D.J. Fontana, Elvis’s drummer, remembered that it was not the first time Parker had seen him, as the movie portrays. In Texarkana, “We would see him walkin’ around, hanging back in the shadows, but he never would say nothin’,” Fontana said. The night Parker saw him on the Hayride, Elvis performed three songs, but not “Baby, Let’s Play House,” as the film so electrifyingly shows. In the film, Marion Keisker, Sam Phillips’ assistant at Sun Records, is shown standing and screaming along with the teenage girls. That happened, but at Elvis’s Memphis show at the Overton Park Shell in 1954.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

2. The Colonel confronts Elvis in a carnival house of mirrors.
What it means in the movie: Elvis and the Colonel size each other up.

What happened in real life: The Colonel tells Elvis he looks like he doesn’t know how to get out of the fun house, “but I do. Allow me to show you,” and springs the door to the exit. This indicates to Elvis that he is in need of direction, and that only the Colonel can guide him. That scene never happened in reality, but the screen Colonel speaks the truth when he says, “creatures of the carnival, and I am one myself.” He started in penny carnivals — we briefly see the word “geek” when the Colonel first sees Elvis from behind — and progressed to managing country stars Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, portrayed in the film. As for the dancing chickens, briefly shown, that have long been associated with the Colonel, in truth it was a dancing duck on a hot plate covered with straw, and a stunt perpetuated by one of Parker’s friends, not the Colonel.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

HUGH STEWART/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

3. The Colonel sells “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis Buttons.”
What it means in the movie: Colonel Parker brandishes Elvis’s name on a plethora of merchandise, covering every angle.

What happened in real life: In 1956, the Colonel peddled both “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis” buttons to folks who reacted strongly one way or another to the new singing phenomenon. He contracted with merchandiser Hank Saperstein to make 78 different articles, including Elvis charm bracelets, Elvis lipstick in “Hound Dog” orange and Elvis glow-in-the-dark busts.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 10 out of 10

4. Elvis incites a riot at a Memphis charity concert.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is angry about having to sing to a dog on The Steve Allen Show and curtail his dance moves.

What happened in real life: Elvis felt humiliated to be fitted for a tux and sing to a basset hound, a move orchestrated to add a comedic touch, and as Allen put it, “to “present the ‘new’ Elvis Presley” and “make sure that he conducts himself in a gentlemanly manner.” In protest, Elvis said at his Russwood Park show in Memphis on July 4, 1956, “You know those people in New York are not going to change me none. I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.” The film has him saying those words, but Barbara Hearn Smith, Elvis’s girlfriend (who is briefly shown sitting with Presley’s parents as she did in real life), tells AARP, “The concert at Russwood Park was absolutely nothing like it was portrayed in the movie — not even near accurate — and no awful riot as shown.” In actuality, the film combines several riotous reactions from other cities with the pinkie wiggling from a Jacksonville, Florida, show. The song he sang in the film (“Trouble”) was not yet out in 1956.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 4 out of 10

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Helen Thomson

5. Gladys Presley (Helen Thomson) falls down the stairs at Graceland.
What it means in the movie: Elvis’s mom develops a drinking problem.

What happened in real life: Gladys Presley was a nervous woman who feared greatly for her son’s safety once fame hit. She died in 1958 of a heart attack due to “hepatitis, acute, severe,” which can be caused by alcohol abuse. In the film, we see Gladys downing vodka, and beer bottles prominently displayed in Graceland when Elvis’s parents have lunch. It was no secret that Gladys took diet pills to look slimmer in photos with her son, and his entourage remembers her drinking beer. But falling down drunk? “I never saw that,” says Barbara Hearn Smith, who spent a lot of one-on-one time with Gladys and adds she never smelled liquor on her breath. “She did not deserve such treatment [in the film]. Elvis would never forgive anyone who allowed that.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 6 out of 10

6. Scene: The Colonel hates the ’68 Comeback Special team, saying, “Those hippies had brainwashed Elvis, acting like he was one of them radicals.”
What it means in the movie: Parker tries to intervene with the direction of the show.

What happened in real life: Elvis’s manager hoped to turn him into Bing Crosby for a family Christmas TV special, but director Steve Binder persuaded Elvis to return to his glory in a mesmerizing performance. Binder also had the emotional finale, “If I Can Dream,” written so that Elvis could address the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The special rejuvenated Elvis and inspired him to take control of his recordings, but the Colonel saw Binder as a threat and made sure he couldn’t reach his client ever again. However, Parker was not as bumbling and inept as the film implies.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 8 out of 10

7. Elvis fires the Colonel from the stage and confronts him about being in the country illegally.
What it means in the movie: Elvis knows Parker has been lying to him about taking his tour overseas.

What happened in real life: Elvis had been saying for years that he wanted to play concerts in Europe, but the Colonel cited difficulty in controlling security and the size of European venues as to why that couldn’t happen. Elvis was frustrated, but the dramatic confrontation is fabrication: Elvis never knew that Parker was from Holland, and never fired him from the stage.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 0 out of 10

RUBY BELL/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Olivia deJonge

8. At 40, Elvis tells Priscilla (Olivia deJonge) that he’s never made a classic film and that no one will remember him when he’s gone.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is out of dreams.

What happened in real life: Elvis actually said, “People aren’t going to remember me, because I’ve never done anything lasting. I’ve never made a classic film to show what I can do.” But he told this to Kathy Westmoreland, his high-harmony singer, not to Priscilla. The Colonel quashed the attempt of frequent Elvis songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to get him to star in A Walk on the Wild Side — just the kind of film that might well have been memorable and changed the trajectory of his film career.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

9. Dr. Nick (Tony Nixon) dunks Elvis’s head in an ice bucket.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is too drugged to perform, and the Colonel shows no compassion, bellowing, “You listen to me! The only thing that matters is that that man gets up on that stage tonight!” Dr. Nick gives him a shot to bring him around, and Elvis does his show.

What happened in real life: This really happened, but in a hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky, not in a hallway in Las Vegas.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 9 out of 10

10. Colonel Parker’s voiceover near the end of the film
What it means in the movie: Here’s what the Colonel says in a voiceover: “What killed my boy? Dem doctors say it was his heart. Others, the pills. Some says it was me. No. I’ll tell you what killed him. It was love. His love for you.” The Colonel steadfastly refuses to accept any blame for his role in Presley’s death at age 42.

What happened in real life: Who, or what, killed Elvis? Whether fame, circumstances, genetics or addiction played a part, Elvis was largely responsible for his demise by not insisting on more control over his career and his life. As the late Waylon Jennings wrote in his memoir, Waylon: An Autobiography, “He had not progressed very much from when he was 18; he was still like a little boy, in so many ways. All he did was play like a kid, and sing. If anything, I don’t believe that he was deep enough inside. It was too easy to get caught up in the parties, the fancy cars, and the girls.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

Alanna Nash is the author of four books , including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon & Schuster), updated in 2022 with a new afterword.

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmannâs âElvisâ Movie?

We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as Tom Parker.

www.aarp.org

I am going to 'name drop' when Catherine Martin lived in Sydney, I met her a few times, she and I went to the same hairdreeser
Catherine also had her own interior design, here in Sydney when she lived, great wallpaper etc.A very lovely lady all round

 

[Moxie]

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’?

Our resident Presley expert separates fiction from fact in the box-office smash
by Alanna Nash, AARP, July 7, 2022

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler stars as Elvis Presley in "Elvis."

Baz Luhrmann’s hit biopic Elvis replicates in such detail so many scenes, events and wardrobe — the frilly shirt the singer wore when his mother died; the stained tablecloth the Colonel uses as a Las Vegas contract — that it’s easy to believe everything in the film is accurate. But how accurate is Elvis, really? We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes, in the order they appear in the film, and score each on a scale of zero to 10 on our proprietary Elvis Truth-ometer.

1. The Colonel (Tom Hanks) first sees Elvis (Austin Butler) backstage at the Louisiana Hayride.
What it means in the movie: The Colonel, standing in the shadows, stalks the hillbilly newcomer Elvis Presley at the Louisiana Hayride and realizes, “He was my destiny.”

What happened in real life: On Jan. 15, 1955, Colonel Parker traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, to watch Elvis on the Hayride, but it was not Elvis’s debut on the live radio show. Furthermore, D.J. Fontana, Elvis’s drummer, remembered that it was not the first time Parker had seen him, as the movie portrays. In Texarkana, “We would see him walkin’ around, hanging back in the shadows, but he never would say nothin’,” Fontana said. The night Parker saw him on the Hayride, Elvis performed three songs, but not “Baby, Let’s Play House,” as the film so electrifyingly shows. In the film, Marion Keisker, Sam Phillips’ assistant at Sun Records, is shown standing and screaming along with the teenage girls. That happened, but at Elvis’s Memphis show at the Overton Park Shell in 1954.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

2. The Colonel confronts Elvis in a carnival house of mirrors.
What it means in the movie: Elvis and the Colonel size each other up.

What happened in real life: The Colonel tells Elvis he looks like he doesn’t know how to get out of the fun house, “but I do. Allow me to show you,” and springs the door to the exit. This indicates to Elvis that he is in need of direction, and that only the Colonel can guide him. That scene never happened in reality, but the screen Colonel speaks the truth when he says, “creatures of the carnival, and I am one myself.” He started in penny carnivals — we briefly see the word “geek” when the Colonel first sees Elvis from behind — and progressed to managing country stars Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, portrayed in the film. As for the dancing chickens, briefly shown, that have long been associated with the Colonel, in truth it was a dancing duck on a hot plate covered with straw, and a stunt perpetuated by one of Parker’s friends, not the Colonel.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

HUGH STEWART/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

3. The Colonel sells “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis Buttons.”
What it means in the movie: Colonel Parker brandishes Elvis’s name on a plethora of merchandise, covering every angle.

What happened in real life: In 1956, the Colonel peddled both “I Love Elvis” and “I Hate Elvis” buttons to folks who reacted strongly one way or another to the new singing phenomenon. He contracted with merchandiser Hank Saperstein to make 78 different articles, including Elvis charm bracelets, Elvis lipstick in “Hound Dog” orange and Elvis glow-in-the-dark busts.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 10 out of 10

4. Elvis incites a riot at a Memphis charity concert.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is angry about having to sing to a dog on The Steve Allen Show and curtail his dance moves.

What happened in real life: Elvis felt humiliated to be fitted for a tux and sing to a basset hound, a move orchestrated to add a comedic touch, and as Allen put it, “to “present the ‘new’ Elvis Presley” and “make sure that he conducts himself in a gentlemanly manner.” In protest, Elvis said at his Russwood Park show in Memphis on July 4, 1956, “You know those people in New York are not going to change me none. I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.” The film has him saying those words, but Barbara Hearn Smith, Elvis’s girlfriend (who is briefly shown sitting with Presley’s parents as she did in real life), tells AARP, “The concert at Russwood Park was absolutely nothing like it was portrayed in the movie — not even near accurate — and no awful riot as shown.” In actuality, the film combines several riotous reactions from other cities with the pinkie wiggling from a Jacksonville, Florida, show. The song he sang in the film (“Trouble”) was not yet out in 1956.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 4 out of 10

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Helen Thomson

5. Gladys Presley (Helen Thomson) falls down the stairs at Graceland.
What it means in the movie: Elvis’s mom develops a drinking problem.

What happened in real life: Gladys Presley was a nervous woman who feared greatly for her son’s safety once fame hit. She died in 1958 of a heart attack due to “hepatitis, acute, severe,” which can be caused by alcohol abuse. In the film, we see Gladys downing vodka, and beer bottles prominently displayed in Graceland when Elvis’s parents have lunch. It was no secret that Gladys took diet pills to look slimmer in photos with her son, and his entourage remembers her drinking beer. But falling down drunk? “I never saw that,” says Barbara Hearn Smith, who spent a lot of one-on-one time with Gladys and adds she never smelled liquor on her breath. “She did not deserve such treatment [in the film]. Elvis would never forgive anyone who allowed that.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 6 out of 10

6. Scene: The Colonel hates the ’68 Comeback Special team, saying, “Those hippies had brainwashed Elvis, acting like he was one of them radicals.”
What it means in the movie: Parker tries to intervene with the direction of the show.

What happened in real life: Elvis’s manager hoped to turn him into Bing Crosby for a family Christmas TV special, but director Steve Binder persuaded Elvis to return to his glory in a mesmerizing performance. Binder also had the emotional finale, “If I Can Dream,” written so that Elvis could address the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The special rejuvenated Elvis and inspired him to take control of his recordings, but the Colonel saw Binder as a threat and made sure he couldn’t reach his client ever again. However, Parker was not as bumbling and inept as the film implies.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 8 out of 10

7. Elvis fires the Colonel from the stage and confronts him about being in the country illegally.
What it means in the movie: Elvis knows Parker has been lying to him about taking his tour overseas.

What happened in real life: Elvis had been saying for years that he wanted to play concerts in Europe, but the Colonel cited difficulty in controlling security and the size of European venues as to why that couldn’t happen. Elvis was frustrated, but the dramatic confrontation is fabrication: Elvis never knew that Parker was from Holland, and never fired him from the stage.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 0 out of 10

RUBY BELL/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Austin Butler (left) and Olivia deJonge

8. At 40, Elvis tells Priscilla (Olivia deJonge) that he’s never made a classic film and that no one will remember him when he’s gone.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is out of dreams.

What happened in real life: Elvis actually said, “People aren’t going to remember me, because I’ve never done anything lasting. I’ve never made a classic film to show what I can do.” But he told this to Kathy Westmoreland, his high-harmony singer, not to Priscilla. The Colonel quashed the attempt of frequent Elvis songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to get him to star in A Walk on the Wild Side — just the kind of film that might well have been memorable and changed the trajectory of his film career.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

9. Dr. Nick (Tony Nixon) dunks Elvis’s head in an ice bucket.
What it means in the movie: Elvis is too drugged to perform, and the Colonel shows no compassion, bellowing, “You listen to me! The only thing that matters is that that man gets up on that stage tonight!” Dr. Nick gives him a shot to bring him around, and Elvis does his show.

What happened in real life: This really happened, but in a hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky, not in a hallway in Las Vegas.

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 9 out of 10

10. Colonel Parker’s voiceover near the end of the film
What it means in the movie: Here’s what the Colonel says in a voiceover: “What killed my boy? Dem doctors say it was his heart. Others, the pills. Some says it was me. No. I’ll tell you what killed him. It was love. His love for you.” The Colonel steadfastly refuses to accept any blame for his role in Presley’s death at age 42.

What happened in real life: Who, or what, killed Elvis? Whether fame, circumstances, genetics or addiction played a part, Elvis was largely responsible for his demise by not insisting on more control over his career and his life. As the late Waylon Jennings wrote in his memoir, Waylon: An Autobiography, “He had not progressed very much from when he was 18; he was still like a little boy, in so many ways. All he did was play like a kid, and sing. If anything, I don’t believe that he was deep enough inside. It was too easy to get caught up in the parties, the fancy cars, and the girls.”

Elvis Truth-ometer Score: 5 out of 10

Alanna Nash is the author of four books , including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon & Schuster), updated in 2022 with a new afterword.

How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmannâs âElvisâ Movie?

We separate fact from fiction in 10 key scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as Tom Parker.

www.aarp.org

Hey, Vince, thanks for that. TBH, I think it's pretty clear that the film plays fast and loose with the facts. I'll give you one I found glaring: they were supposedly filming a Christmas special when Bobby Kennedy was shot. RFK was assassinated in early June of that year. No matter how early you film a Xmas special, it ain't THAT early. All biopics conflate events and shorten timelines, for the sake of getting a narrative across in some way faithfully in the time allotted. However, as I believe I said in my assessment, this is a Baz Luhrmann film, and it starts in a funhouse. I don't even think it's expected that it's all true. IMO, it's his fable of Elvis.

 

[Vince Evert]

Hey, Vince, thanks for that. TBH, I think it's pretty clear that the film plays fast and loose with the facts. I'll give you one I found glaring: they were supposedly filming a Christmas special when Bobby Kennedy was shot. RFK was assassinated in early June of that year. No matter how early you film a Xmas special, it ain't THAT early. All biopics conflate events and shorten timelines, for the sake of getting a narrative across in some way faithfully in the time allotted. However, as I believe I said in my assessment, this is a Baz Luhrmann film, and it starts in a funhouse. I don't even think it's expected that it's all true. IMO, it's his fable of Elvis.

Mox, it was being filmed live in front of a small audience at the NBC Burbank California studios 24-29 June 1968 (two Sit-down concerts and two mini stand-up concerts). Elvis did do some prior studio work the week before. It went to air nationally on Tuesday, December 3, 1968. I'm a Huge fan of that 1968 T.V. Special. Elvis looked and sounded godlike then. Good article here regarding t.v and radio adverts for "Singer (Sewing Machine) Presents Elvis" original title. http://www.elvisechoesofthepast.com/promoting-the-68-tv-special/

 

[Moxie]

Mox, it was being filmed live in front of a small audience at the NBC Burbank California studios 24-29 June 1968 (two Sit-down concerts and two mini stand-up concerts). Elvis did do some prior studio work the week before. It went to air nationally on Tuesday, December 3, 1968. I'm a Huge fan of that 1968 T.V. Special. Elvis looked and sounded godlike then. Good article here regarding t.v and radio adverts for "Singer (Sewing Machine) Presents Elvis" original title. http://www.elvisechoesofthepast.com/promoting-the-68-tv-special/

I'm surprised it was filmed so early in June, but it was still after RFK was killed on 6 June. But as I said, I don't mind the pushing of time-lines, completely. I actually did a bit of an Elvis/BBQ and Blues road trip with a friend a few years back, and she's a huge Elvis fan. We even went to Tupelo, much to my original chagrin, but it was a revelation. Starting in Nashville, so the RCA Studio, and finishing in Memphis, including Graceland and Sun Records. It wasn't all Elvis, but I did learn a lot about him. I don't expect this to be the definitive Elvis film, but I enjoyed it for the ride.

 

[Vince Evert]

I'm surprised it was filmed so early in June, but it was still after RFK was killed on 6 June. But as I said, I don't mind the pushing of time-lines, completely. I actually did a bit of an Elvis/BBQ and Blues road trip with a friend a few years back, and she's a huge Elvis fan. We even went to Tupelo, much to my original chagrin, but it was a revelation. Starting in Nashville, so the RCA Studio, and finishing in Memphis, including Graceland and Sun Records. It wasn't all Elvis, but I did learn a lot about him. I don't expect this to be the definitive Elvis film, but I enjoyed it for the ride.

Ah yes the legendary Sun Studio's. Lot's of music icons got their start there, not only EP. Mox, to be honest, i have gone right off Music legends and Movie stars biopics as they all seem to contain blatant falsehoods and half truths for dramatic effect of one kind or another. Having said that, it will be interesting to learn on what Baz's four hour "assembly" version, he says he wants to put out "years down the road" covers and if the 4 hour version is more in keeping with the context. Baz does confirm it here:

 

[Federberg]

still can't summon up an ounce of respect for this dude...

Will Smith addresses Oscars slap in new video | CNN

Will Smith is "deeply remorseful" about slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards in March.

edition.cnn.com

 

[tented]

still can't summon up an ounce of respect for this dude...

Will Smith addresses Oscars slap in new video | CNN

Will Smith is "deeply remorseful" about slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards in March.

edition.cnn.com

Same. I‘ve never been much of a fan anyway, but this turned me off him permanently. Plus, I love Chris Rock. His standup comedy is some of the best ever.

 

[Federberg]

Same. I‘ve never been much of a fan anyway, but this turned me off him permanently. Plus, I love Chris Rock. His standup comedy is some of the best ever.

me too! Everyone keeps telling me to watch his stuff. I'm hard pressed to find any movie of his that I particularly liked. I haven't watched many. Somehow I never saw him as much other than. Fresh Prince, and even that I found a bit stilted. I'll admit to liking Hitch, but that was more about Eva Mendes (drool!) and Kevin James. Oh and Amber Valetta is a bit gorgeous too. But him .... I wasn't keen on watching King Richard before but now... nah

 

[the AntiPusher]

Can't believe I just saw Blame it On Rio with Sir Michael Caine for the first time..he was brilliant but the movie was not that good. How did I miss this one for so long ago.. SMH2

 

[Moxie]

Saw "Bullet Train" yesterday, and we laughed a lot. Critics being typically a bit snobby about it, but we found it great summer fun. It does start out a bit confusing, as it lays out its baroque plot and large cast of characters, and seems like a Tarantino rip-off, but as you figure out who everyone is, (or decide it doesn't much matter,) the film catches a wave in the second half. The director also made "Deadpool 2," and this one is at least that fun and clever.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Saw "Bullet Train" yesterday, and we laughed a lot. Critics being typically a bit snobby about it, but we found it great summer fun. It does start out a bit confusing, as it lays out its baroque plot and large cast of characters, and seems like a Tarantino rip-off, but as you figure out who everyone is, (or decide it doesn't much matter,) the film catches a wave in the second half. The director also made "Deadpool 2," and this one is at least that fun and clever.

Okay it did not get very good ratings here in Sydney