Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis, would best be considered a moving picture Fable. It is a materially fictionalized story of actual characters presented using fairy-tale like brushstrokes and cautionary themes. The Fable’s two main characters, Elvis Presley and Tom Parker, and its storyline, are coincidental to real-life persons and events. If you are expecting Elvis to be a deep and accurate biography of the King – you have come to the wrong film.
As with most of Luhrmann’s films (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge) Elvis is over the top and extravagant. Nothing appearing on the screen really seems to completely line up correctly – but it does so in such vibrant fashion.
In Elvis, Tom Hanks as Colonel Parker and Austin Butler as Elvis Presley are comic-book characters. Taken in the right light, both perform superbly as the comic-book versions of Parker and Presley. The same could be said about most aspects of the film.
If you can put accuracy, and timeline out of your mind for two hours and and 39 minutes, the film Elvis is big, bold, and grand. It is worth every penny to experience on the big screen.
