Elvis is a 2022 film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
about the film
At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the film received a 12-minute standing ovation, and received eight nominations. academy awards 2023, Actor Austin Butler also won the Golden Globes 2023 Award for Best Actor in Drama.
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The film fits perfectly into the biopic film genre, i.e. a film based on a biographical reconstruction of the life of a real-life character. The character in question in this case is great Elvis Presley,
the film
In fact, the film tells the story of the famous Elvis from the beginning of his life to great worldwide success, the downfall of his career and his personal life, including his relationship with his wife Priscilla. However, the film focuses on one aspect of the celebrity’s life in particular: her complicated relationship with her manager. Colonel Tom Parker, And it is the controversial and multi-faceted character of the Colonel who is entrusted with the narration of the entire story.
Baz Luhrmann with film director Moulin Rouge (2001) And the great Gatsby (2013)In Elvis It aims to surprise the audience from the very first minute, as the stylistic choice of entrusting the narration of the story to a character who would superficially be identified as the “bad guy”. It is in fact Colonel Tom Parker, brilliantly played by Tom Hanks, who becomes the narrator of events on his death bed, revealing his meeting with the future rock star as the first part of the story: a The encounter, which according to him, appears to have been almost fated.
And it is precisely from this meeting that Elvis’ career began and a series of professional and personal events that would deeply concern the rock star. Tom Parker became Elvis’ manager and received 50% of the singer’s earnings. The Colonel immediately establishes himself as an essential and influential figure in young Elvis’ life, taking on an almost paternalistic role and soon begins to impose his will.
Throughout the film, from the Christmas show to the world-famous event of the first concert broadcast via satellite, it is clear that every event we see on screen It’s the Colonel who decides and manages everything, Elvis’ wishes are always sidelined in major decisions. As he himself tells us, Parker has absolute control over every aspect of the star’s career, and not just that.
Some symbolic examples of this extensive control exercised over Elvis by the manager can be found, for example, in an effort to prevent the singer from performing on stage the pelvic movements that have made him iconic (especially among female audiences). To try to attract more consent. To make Elvis’s image more attractive to a respectable public, Parker is not afraid to distort the character of his favorite and intervenes by persuading Elvis to serve in the army: the result is legendary haircut Rock Legends is also broadcast nationally.
Thus the complicated relationship between Elvis and the Colonel continues until the tragic end that unfortunately we all know. The film tells about the last years of the King of Rock’s life with perfect accuracy and, above all, delicacy. The film highlights the commitment and passion that Austin Butler used to play a weary, abandoned, disheveled Elvis who was previously physically and mentally strong. The singer’s personal life has fallen apart at the end of the film, Elvis is a substance abuser and no longer takes care of himself. The rock star tried to break off his painful relationship with the manager, but without success. Her dreams for her future and career are very different from reality and it is largely the Colonel’s fault. Without creating too many spoilers for those unfamiliar with Elvis’ story, it is clear to the audience that, contrary to what he himself says, the colonel does not have the singer’s happiness at heart, but only puts his personal gain first. . Elvis’ tragic end, even though it is known to all, still leaves the film with overwhelming sadness and a bad taste in the mouth wondering if things could have been different. For example, if Elvis had listened to his friend, Famous B.B. King: “If you don’t control the business, the business will control you”.
conclusion
Elvis Presley died at the age of just 42 16 August 1977After having a heart attack. The film ends with the last archival image of Elvis performing for his favorite audience at a concert in June 1977.
The film is an emotional and well-balanced chronicle of the behind-the-scenes life of rock’s biggest star. Elvis is an energetic and dramatic film at the same time. Elvis explained Austin Butler It has been widely appreciated as the actor manages to do justice to the iconic character he plays. The epic character of Elvis-singer, the world’s greatest rock star, all emerges from Butler’s acting performance, but so does the human side, that of a sensitive and dreamy boy who finds himself manipulated by his greatness. Talent.
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