Elvis

Right off the top, you need to know that I've never been much of an Elvis Presley fan.

I guess part of that is because I was just so young when Elvis first hit the scene. My first memory of anything Elvis probably came around 1956 when, as a 5-year-old, I heard "Hound Dog" on the radio. I suppose I ought to add here, in full disclosure, that Mom was the one listening to the radio that day. I can't say with any certainty that she was caught up in the burgeoning Elvis phenomenon because her taste in music, as I recall, was wide-ranging, from Broadway to popular to the classics. She didn't swoon when Elvis sang.

I think for me, I was just too young for anything musical to stick. That didn't happen until the Beatles arrived about a half-decade later.

Ironically, the Beatles turned out to be the motivation I needed to appreciate other artists – including Elvis, simply because the Lads regarded him as one of their primary influences.

Anyway, I did eventually come to appreciate Elvis's contribution to rock and roll, especially in his early years. While I never became a serious fan, he lingered ghost-like in the periphery.

Fast forward to Monday. Kim and I went to see "Elvis," the current movie biopic starring Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis's controversial manager.

Because of Covid, this was our first theater experience in more than two years. We went to the 9 a.m. showing of the flick at Tinseltown in Salisbury, which meant we were just two of only 10 people in the entire room. I didn't know anybody showed movies that early in the morning. Plus, it was senior discount day, which was an added surprise. We didn't buy popcorn or Pepsi at that hour, but I have to say that some coffee would have been nice.

Anyway, the movie was engrossing. Although it's nearly three hours long (2:40), director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby, to name a couple of his films) typically moves it along at mostly a racehorse tempo. Time and sequences both fly.

Butler pretty much nails his performance as Elvis, especially the early years. He does most of his own singing and you appreciate the physicality he needed to play such a high octane stage performer like Elvis. Several times in the flick, Butler nearly breaks his ankles standing on his toes in a signature Elvis move. It occurred to me then that Elvis might have been Michael Jackson long before there was a Michael Jackson. What goes around comes around, I guess.

But the best performance in the film belongs to Hanks who, fitted in body and facial prostheses to make him appear as the overweight and double chinned Col. Parker, is almost unrecognizable. The Dutch accent he assumes (Parker was born in the Netherlands Andreas Cornelis van Kujik) also tends to throw you off. But Hanks is compelling. We expect nothing less from this versatile icon. He is our endearing Jimmy Stewart, capable of almost any role.

The film takes Parker's point of view as he tries to explain his management – or mismanagement – of Elvis's life and career. And that means, ultimately, this is a sad tale.

As the movie winds down, the last few minutes flip to actual Elvis footage in one of the last performances of his career. Elvis is overweight. He can hardly walk. His breathing is labored. Then he sits down at the piano and belts out "Unchained Melody" in a voice filled with a familiar power and passion that reminds us of his youth. You can Google it.

He was dead just a few weeks later. It's a touching and emotional moment.

And it made me a fan.