Elvis - Review! 

I still cannot believe they gave it to Brendan Fraser no disrespect to him but I did not watch the Whale nor do I have any interest to no shade but it looks all he did in that movie was sit down be fat and cry lol Austin worked his ass off and actually sang and danced in the movie he did not lip sync but Austin will win a Oscar that kid is a star

Agreed 100% with Everything you said

Austim??

@@thenorthman515 an incorrect autocorrect for "Austin"

He was good but Kurt Russell was better imo.

From BB King's autobiography: Born in a river cabin in Berclair, Mississippi, B.B. King told a reporter in 2010 (via the San Antonio Examiner), that he felt a kinship for Elvis because both of them "were born poor in Mississippi, went through poor childhoods and we learned and earned our way through music.” That kinship and mutual struggle fostered a friendship between Elvis and King (played in Elvis by Cyrano’s Kelvin Harrison Jr.), with the pair frequently talking music together. In the interview, King discusses how he and Elvis agreed that “Music is owned by the whole universe. It isn't exclusive to the black man or the white man or any other color. It shared in and by our souls...” King continues, “I told Elvis once, and he told me he remembered I told him this, is that ‘music is like water. Water is for every living person and every living thing.'” In King’s autobiography, Blues All Around Me, King also recalls how Elvis orchestrated a show for him at the Hilton Hotel in 1972. King claims (via the San Antonio Examiner) that Elvis “put in a call” and booked King a show in the lounge while Elvis played in the hotel’s main theater. This was likely difficult for Elvis who had long been under the thumb of his tyrannical manager Colonel Tom Parker (a.k.a. “The Snowman”). However, this was something Elvis did several times throughout his career. King speaks fondly about their shows together, saying that they would often wind up in Elvis’ suite after the shows, talking and playing music. “I'd play Lucille (his guitar) and sing with Elvis, or we'd take turns. It was his way of relaxing'…'We were the original Blues Brothers because that man knew more blues songs than most in the business - and after some nights it felt like we sang everyone one of them.” Meanwhile, others, like former music editor for Pride Magazine, Helen Kolawole, claim that Elvis appropriated the songs of Black artists getting rich and famous from other’s work. On that idea, King has also spoken out, writing in his autobiography (via Vanity Fair) that "Elvis didn’t steal any music from anyone. He just had his own interpretation of the music he’d grown up on, same is true for everyone. I think Elvis had integrity.”

​Elvis took black rhythm and blues music and spread it around the world. Before Elvis (and Bill Haley) there was black rock and roll (rhythm and blues) but the mass white audiences wouldn’t listen to it. That was only for black people. After Elvis, around the world, white kids loved rock and roll and the fame for black rock/pop/blues artists followed. And the audience for that black music kept growing. A story about BB King. In the 50s and early 60s BB played for small audiences. In the late 60s he was booked to perform at the Fillmore and when BB’s car came to the auditorium, there was a line around the block. BB thought those people must be there for someone else. When he heard all those people were there for him, he broke down and cried. BB King had made the big time. Blues, soul, black pop had arrived. And Elvis was one of the reasons for that. That’s one of the things I liked about the movie. It showed the songs by black artists that Elvis sang. It showed the resistance to black music by the white mass audience. And it showed that Elvis overcame that. He paved the way.

Baz really did his homework. I watched an interview that Baz had with Sam Bell, Elvis’s black childhood friend on RU-vid. The black community in which Elvis lived as a kid seemed to really embrace him with open arms, and that Elvis was really part of the community. He learned to play piano from the sister of one of his black friends, and Sam, Elvis, and some other friends would attend religious worship and while the other friends, Sam included, wouldn’t get up where the worshipers would be shaking and dancing because they thought it uncool, Elvis got right up in there and participated, shaking and dancing. Later on, when Elvis’s family moved away to Memphis, Elvis attended both white and black churches and sang in the choir. Elvis was drawn to R&B and gospel, and sought it out in Memphis, because those were essentially HIS roots as well. And Elvis really did attend black musical functions, breaking segregation laws, when he’d already hit stardom, and took backlash for doing so. It’s patently unfair that black musicians couldn’t get their music heard, and that it took someone like Elvis, that could do the music justice, had the looks, charisma and stage presence to crack that door open finally. But he could never have done it without getting that soul when he experienced it in the black community growing up.

you know a lot of it is bull.

@@marilynwillett804 it’s a biopic not a documentary, ffs. Get over it.

Saw it yesterday....a lot of inaccuracies in it. Had Elvis performing the song "Trouble" in '56 when it came out in '58...and he never performed it live until '68. Also couldn't stand the "rap/hip hop" music played when in 1955 Elvis visited the black clubs on Beale St. Showed Elvis popping pills in a car while touring in 1955...he never got into pills until he joined the Army. Also cut straight to Elvis buying Graceland when his first house that he bought after becoming famous was the house on Audubon Drive in Memphis. Showed Elvis in his Army Fatigues with the wrong rank when he met Priscilla. Just a few things that I caught. This was a good movie for the casual Elvis fan...not that true for an Elvis purist.

@@davism5 you hit the nail on the head. Those were some of my criticisms as well.

@@davism5 you may not have liked the rap/hip hop elements fused in with the rest of the music, but you should understand that Baz Luhrman intentionally did that so that the younger modern audience could understand how that music felt to the youth of that era. Also for the older crowd to see that much like how they disapprove of today's modern style of music, their parents or grandparents too found blues and rock n' roll to be in the same vein. You may not like it, but there are a lot of parallels between the music of Elvis and a Jack Harlow, for example.

Little Richard “We was one of many major doorways that got here by way of. Chuck Berry was one other door himself. And we’re not saying that Elvis wasn’t a major door. I might by no means say that. As a result of Elvis began white individuals to essentially sing rock ‘n’ roll”. After Presley’s loss of life, Richard grieved the lack of a great good friend and an inspiring musician. “I like him. That’s my buddy, my child. I like him. We’re superb pals, and it was a really nice loss to the music world,” he stated in an interview following Elvis’ loss of life in 1977. “Elvis is likely one of the best performers who ever lived on this world.”

@@davism5 I made some of the same observations. Inaccuracies drive Mr nuts plus I hated unnecessary use of rap music in an Elvis movie especially in a 1950s sequence.

Can I ask you, is it worth seeing in theaters?

@@rodneycooperjr3223 Absolutely! I love Elvis and his music and it was amazing to watch in Dolby Cinemas.

@@filmscorn1105 Seeing it today in IMAX

@@wongteckxien9516 Enjoy!!!

@@wongteckxien9516 it's in imax ?🤔

Definitely will be won by him.

He said he was a citizen of no country

Same with First Man. I remember a lot of pre-criticsm that the film was "un-american".

@@marianne5055 wasn't the main criticism of First Man was the American Flag? Even Trump had an issue with that too

@@Bjork4s Yes the narrative around it was that it was "anti-american" because it didnt focus on the astronauts staking the flag. When it was really a story about grief that just happened to center around the moon landing. There was even a rumour that it didnt feature ANY American flags in the movie at all, which wasnt true.

I agree (my sister says whitewashed history lmao!). My grandparents grew up as his neighbors as kids. We’re choosing to stay quite for now. We were contacted by a small publisher. We’re deciding on what to do later. We basically found a lot of old and hidden documents and photos after my last grandparent died in December. The family still has the old farm house in Tupelo. We were like wtf? They and my great grandparents kept it secret for a really long time. Elvis’s parents seemed like really cool people and did a lot to help black families way before fame hit Elvis. I want everyone to know this.

And enjoy the movie and music!

He had jealous haters in life and there are some around now. Very sad.

Simple music can make you sing simple hug can make you feel better simple things can make you happy, i hope my simple Hello brings smile to your face,,,,

I'm not a Baz fan but I'm in!

Don't count on the movie telling the truth......if you want to know about Elvis do your own research

When they switched to the black and white footage of 25 year old elvis looking at the camera and then elvis laughing showing off his belt, I started to cry. Then they switched to real elvis singing unchained Melody and the audience gasped. Baz is a real showman and he got a show stopper the day he selected Austin to be elvis.

It Gooood...way better than Gatsby

Agreed, was wishing to see more of this

Pretty difficult to do all of that in a film. Go find a biography and read it.

Baz Luhrmann films do tend to lack soul

It sucked. Elvis was to one dimensional. So much of who he was could have been told. My mom was a huge Elvis fan. I saw him in concert back in 77 with her at the age of 13. I read the book Elvis what happened which is a pretty good account of his life. They should have used that book for the film. it would have actually focused on him and some really funny experiences. So much in that book that showed him in a good light as well as a bad one. I am shocked nobody has made a film based on it. This film just basically glosses over his life. They could have started in his high school years where he was harassed for his clothing style and hair. His friendship with Red his bodyguard who would end up saving him from alot of fights with bullies' and angry dudes jeslous about their girls going after him. The literal shock he experienced going from a dirt poor kid to having everything over night. One evening he sat on the porch said to his dad what happened how did this happen. I mean so many good stories. How he would just by strangers Cadillac's. How he collected badges. How he ran on the airport runway flashing a badge Nixon gave him and pulled over and boarded a plane and tried to arrest Pricilla's karate instructor for having an affair. Shooting out TV sets whenever Tom Jones would come on. Seriously these film makers have rocks in their heads or they are just to young to have a clue or they are clueless about the subject matter because they are a foreigner.

I felt the exact opposite. I felt from the very first performance we were shown Elvis doing in the movie, it did an AMAZING job of making it feel so alive that we were there. It contextualized it far better than it could ever be explained. Like the difference between reading history and experiencing it-- telling someone something, and painting an exact picture of it. When I saw Austin Butler as Elvis perform that first concert, I couldn't help but think "oh, so this is how we managed to rock the world."

Lindsay is confused. That was incoherent and definitely untrue. Elvis was edgy because no one moved like him. Touch up on your history

​@@rskt555 I think *you're* the one that is confused so perhaps re-read what I said before being both dismissive and rude of someone who is also backed up by several critics. I'm not saying he wasn't edgy. I'm saying that all of those who followed Elvis as pale imitations of him have resulted in us as viewers taking for granted that sort of performance. As a result, it is harder for someone in Gen Z to connect to *why* it was so groundbreaking. We also see this in other genres besides biopics.

@@lindsaym.h.3583 The film did a good job explaining and showing why it was edgy.

😂😂😂

I couldn't have said this better myself!

Simple music can make you sing simple hug can make you feel better simple things can make you happy, i hope my simple Hello brings smile to your face,,,,

So excited to see him as Feyd!

I'm looking forward to that performance and movie!

Shut up kid

Simple music can make you sing simple hug can make you feel better simple things can make you happy, i hope my simple Hello brings smile to your face,,,,

Go see it!!!

Yeah I really didn't like Bohemian Rhapsody.

You haven't seen the lady killers?

As Parker was a villain it made sence.

I thought he was an evil sneaking around and watching Elvis.Greedy .He ran Elvis like a racehorse and betted on his money.

Aw stop they were already in the forefront

The fact that someone would put Elvis and the word “wrote” in thee same sentence. I guess Little Richard never existed

Goldmember exactly! The accent is the same as well.

Agreed with you.my daughter she is 10 she loved it. I am glad I introduced him to her. she loves her Rap music, but also when she sees anything Elvis she would get excited. A new generation of fans for him. people go see movie if you don't like it that is ok, but at least you gave it a go. we loved it

There are a lot of folks who'd disagree with that. Moulin Rouge was a multiple Oscar nominee and many of his other films were critical and/or audience hits.

I don't understand some of these reviews on him I didn't like this movie the editing and the hip hop music jacked it up these reviewers talk about him like hes steven Spielberg or something

@@DanMurrellMoviesWith all due, I just don't know that that's true. First of all, he hasn't directed "many" films. Of his short filmography, Australia was a critical and commercial failure, Romeo+Juliet and The Great Gatsby were both divisive at best, and I honestly struggle to recall any of his other films at the moment. That's saying something, considering I'm a movie obsessive that can usually rattle off a popular director's entire filmography. Maybe I'm missing some of his works, but Moulin Rouge is the only universally celebrated film I remember of his, and while it was visually and musically stunning, it didn't offer much in the way of story. But hey, different strokes. No knock against people who dig his work. P.S: I checked out his filmography, and the only movie I failed to mention was Strictly Ballroom, which I didn't see. Maybe it was amazing. Also, I can't help but mention that I've been a fan of yours since seeing you dominate on Movie Fights way back in '15, and I think it's awesome that you actually reply to viewers, even if it is in disagreement.🤘