The first trailer for Elvis, the upcoming biopic about the King of Rock ‘n' Roll from director Baz Luhrmann, dropped Thursday, and it presents an intense, decades-spanning look at the near-mythic life of Elvis Presley, from his poverty-stricken youth in Tupelo, Mississippi, to his final years as a caped crooner on the Las Vegas stage. And if you ever wondered why the older Elvis wore a cape and made a lightning bolt his symbol, the new trailer suggests it’s because Elvis was an OG fanboy.
In 1970, the real Elvis was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation. In his acceptance speech, Elvis acknowledged his superhero-loving origins: “When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times.”
The trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis immediately depicts him as a dreamer in the vein of how he described himself in that speech. The trailer begins with young Elvis reading a Captain Marvel Jr. comic book – Captain Marvel was Shazam’s name back when he started in Fawcett Comics (and later DC) before that name was ceded to Marvel Comics – and wearing a hastily-constructed lightning bolt on his chest. Elvis was particularly fond of Captain Marvel Jr., the superhero’s teen sidekick who had black hair with a spit curl, a look similar to Elvis’ (although he only publicly acknowledged actor Tony Curtis’ pompadour as an influence). Elvis also later adopted a very Shazam-like lightning bolt (with the initials TCB for “Takin’ Care of Business”) as his own personal emblem. It’s also the logo for Luhrmann’s movie.
In the original comics, Captain Marvel Jr. was a disabled boy named Freddie Freeman who Captain Marvel grants the ability to transform into a super-being by simply saying magic words. Both Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. are wish-fulfillment fantasies for children, and this new trailer introduces Elvis as a poor, lonely child who, while wearing his lightning bolt emblem, wanders into a tent revival show where he is overwhelmed by the power of African-American gospel music. He’s like a character in a superhero origin story being blasted by gamma rays or bitten by a radioactive spider. It’s a fantastic exposure that will fundamentally transform him into a larger-than-life figure.
The spirit and power of the music moving Elvis continues into the next part of the trailer where we see an older Elvis (now played by Austin Butler) in the early days of his career as a performer. He stands frozen onstage, anxious and awkward and being mocked by a guy in the crowd – until he unleashes a primal scream: “WEEEELLLLLLLLL!!!!” He launches into song, swiveling his hips, inciting screams from women in the audience. That’s when Tom Hanks’ Colonel Tom Parker observes: “In that moment, I watched that skinny boy transform into a superhero.” And when pitching Elvis on being his manager, Parker even metaphorically offers him the chance to soar like a superhero by asking, “Are you ready to fly?”
But a superhero adventure isn’t complete without an archnemesis. As Colonel Parker puts it, “There are some who make me out to be the villain of this here story.” With his creepy circus clown-handled walking stick and Bond villain-worthy accent, “The Colonel” would certainly fit the bill of being the proverbial bad guy. The degree to which Parker — a carnival barker-turned-music promoter who managed Elvis to superstardom from the very beginning until the singer’s death in 1977 — can be blamed for the low points in his client’s career has been debated over the years. Was he at fault for Elvis’ decade-long string of lousy movies, for turning down Serious Actor roles in everything from West Side Story to 1976’s A Star is Born? Parker defended himself in the few interviews he gave (and which, it should be added, he did without an accent like Ernst Stavro Blofeld). Parker stressed no one could tell Elvis what to do.
If Luhrmann’s Elvis is a Captain Marvel, Jr.-style superhero, then is the Colonel this film’s version of the villain responsible for the creation of the hero? A grotesque foil who mirrors the protagonist in key ways? As the Colonel says to Elvis late in the trailer, “We are the same, you and I. We are two odd, lonely children reaching for eternity.” Parker — a Dutch immigrant born Andreas Cornelis (Dries) van Kuijk who got rich in America thanks to Elvis — is as much a commentary on the proverbial American Dream then as the film’s Elvis.
Luhrmann, however, argues that branding Colonel Parker a villain is too simplistic, that his film is more nuanced in its read of him. In a Q&A with music scholar Nelson George tied to the trailer’s launch, Luhrmann said of Colonel Parker:
“I think it's interesting because ‘villain’ is too easy to wrap it up. … The trailer opens with, ‘There are some who say, I am the villain of this story,’” Luhrmann explained, adding that a villain would not admit to being one. “So from that character's point of view, he's defending, actually, his telling of that story. It's a device. And it's a device because in truth when it comes to a historical character, there's only ever somebody's telling of that story.”
Luhrmann continued: “Even in life if you live with an Elvis or you live with an Amadeus, it's your memory, your version of their life. And people always tell the story of someone else from a perspective that is their telling. I did a little show called The Great Gatsby. It might be called The Great Gatsby, but it's actually Nick Carraway's story.”
Parker then is an unreliable narrator in what’s essentially a pop culture superhero’s origin story. Later in the trailer, we see a Vegas-era Elvis in his various signature rhinestone jumpsuits, sporting a short cape and striking dramatic poses, his black hair flowing. The jumpsuit-style costumes, the capes, the lightning bolt symbol, the black hair. This is Elvis as a fanboy living out his superhero dreams but whose superpowers are song and dance rather than speed or flight.
And yet for all the mythic elements present in his life and in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic, Elvis Presley wasn’t a superhero but a real human being, one who led a storied but ultimately tragic life cut short by drugs. At least judging from this new trailer, Luhrmann’s Elvis will be portrayed as that boy who read comic books and saw himself as the hero of the comic book. And now he really is the hero of the movie.
Elvis opens in theaters on June 24.
Continue reading...
In 1970, the real Elvis was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation. In his acceptance speech, Elvis acknowledged his superhero-loving origins: “When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times.”
The trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis immediately depicts him as a dreamer in the vein of how he described himself in that speech. The trailer begins with young Elvis reading a Captain Marvel Jr. comic book – Captain Marvel was Shazam’s name back when he started in Fawcett Comics (and later DC) before that name was ceded to Marvel Comics – and wearing a hastily-constructed lightning bolt on his chest. Elvis was particularly fond of Captain Marvel Jr., the superhero’s teen sidekick who had black hair with a spit curl, a look similar to Elvis’ (although he only publicly acknowledged actor Tony Curtis’ pompadour as an influence). Elvis also later adopted a very Shazam-like lightning bolt (with the initials TCB for “Takin’ Care of Business”) as his own personal emblem. It’s also the logo for Luhrmann’s movie.
In the original comics, Captain Marvel Jr. was a disabled boy named Freddie Freeman who Captain Marvel grants the ability to transform into a super-being by simply saying magic words. Both Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. are wish-fulfillment fantasies for children, and this new trailer introduces Elvis as a poor, lonely child who, while wearing his lightning bolt emblem, wanders into a tent revival show where he is overwhelmed by the power of African-American gospel music. He’s like a character in a superhero origin story being blasted by gamma rays or bitten by a radioactive spider. It’s a fantastic exposure that will fundamentally transform him into a larger-than-life figure.
The spirit and power of the music moving Elvis continues into the next part of the trailer where we see an older Elvis (now played by Austin Butler) in the early days of his career as a performer. He stands frozen onstage, anxious and awkward and being mocked by a guy in the crowd – until he unleashes a primal scream: “WEEEELLLLLLLLL!!!!” He launches into song, swiveling his hips, inciting screams from women in the audience. That’s when Tom Hanks’ Colonel Tom Parker observes: “In that moment, I watched that skinny boy transform into a superhero.” And when pitching Elvis on being his manager, Parker even metaphorically offers him the chance to soar like a superhero by asking, “Are you ready to fly?”
But a superhero adventure isn’t complete without an archnemesis. As Colonel Parker puts it, “There are some who make me out to be the villain of this here story.” With his creepy circus clown-handled walking stick and Bond villain-worthy accent, “The Colonel” would certainly fit the bill of being the proverbial bad guy. The degree to which Parker — a carnival barker-turned-music promoter who managed Elvis to superstardom from the very beginning until the singer’s death in 1977 — can be blamed for the low points in his client’s career has been debated over the years. Was he at fault for Elvis’ decade-long string of lousy movies, for turning down Serious Actor roles in everything from West Side Story to 1976’s A Star is Born? Parker defended himself in the few interviews he gave (and which, it should be added, he did without an accent like Ernst Stavro Blofeld). Parker stressed no one could tell Elvis what to do.
If Luhrmann’s Elvis is a Captain Marvel, Jr.-style superhero, then is the Colonel this film’s version of the villain responsible for the creation of the hero? A grotesque foil who mirrors the protagonist in key ways? As the Colonel says to Elvis late in the trailer, “We are the same, you and I. We are two odd, lonely children reaching for eternity.” Parker — a Dutch immigrant born Andreas Cornelis (Dries) van Kuijk who got rich in America thanks to Elvis — is as much a commentary on the proverbial American Dream then as the film’s Elvis.
Luhrmann, however, argues that branding Colonel Parker a villain is too simplistic, that his film is more nuanced in its read of him. In a Q&A with music scholar Nelson George tied to the trailer’s launch, Luhrmann said of Colonel Parker:
“I think it's interesting because ‘villain’ is too easy to wrap it up. … The trailer opens with, ‘There are some who say, I am the villain of this story,’” Luhrmann explained, adding that a villain would not admit to being one. “So from that character's point of view, he's defending, actually, his telling of that story. It's a device. And it's a device because in truth when it comes to a historical character, there's only ever somebody's telling of that story.”
Luhrmann continued: “Even in life if you live with an Elvis or you live with an Amadeus, it's your memory, your version of their life. And people always tell the story of someone else from a perspective that is their telling. I did a little show called The Great Gatsby. It might be called The Great Gatsby, but it's actually Nick Carraway's story.”
Parker then is an unreliable narrator in what’s essentially a pop culture superhero’s origin story. Later in the trailer, we see a Vegas-era Elvis in his various signature rhinestone jumpsuits, sporting a short cape and striking dramatic poses, his black hair flowing. The jumpsuit-style costumes, the capes, the lightning bolt symbol, the black hair. This is Elvis as a fanboy living out his superhero dreams but whose superpowers are song and dance rather than speed or flight.
And yet for all the mythic elements present in his life and in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic, Elvis Presley wasn’t a superhero but a real human being, one who led a storied but ultimately tragic life cut short by drugs. At least judging from this new trailer, Luhrmann’s Elvis will be portrayed as that boy who read comic books and saw himself as the hero of the comic book. And now he really is the hero of the movie.
Elvis opens in theaters on June 24.
Continue reading...