30-05-2021, 18:18
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
![[Image: 220px-Elvis_Presley-_The_Searcher.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/Elvis_Presley-_The_Searcher.jpg/220px-Elvis_Presley-_The_Searcher.jpg)
A two-part documentary. I’m not at all an Elvis fan and don’t know that much about him – missed out completely on the furore, so this was an interesting watch for me. I can see how he drew people in, and that music was deep in his soul – he really did know those songs he loved, every single nuance of them. I wonder why he never wrote songs - anyone? Or was it simply his métier to interpret?
Amazing to think that rock n roll was pretty much helped on its way as the result of an involuntary leg twitch! From the perspective of this movie, it seems that Elvis was basically a commodity – a phenomenon of his time and a casualty too - someone who seems to have been fairly easily manipulated; the filmmakers play heavily on the fact that his whole career was controlled by Colonel Tom Parker – crazy to think he held so much sway over such a famous personality. It’s a mystery – these co-dependencies.
Priscilla Presley loans some commentary along the way, naturally – nicely sanitized I suspect! And Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have a few words too. It covers his humble beginnings, military draft and film career, and then gets a bit rushed towards the end and his death – not sensationalised, which is good – and not gossipy, ditto. Feels like there’s a chunk they’re missing in the second part though. It’s worth an airing IMHO. Sorry to say that I’m still not a fan - missed that boat, along with a few others! But I am a little more understanding of what he was all about, and why.
(The pic of him in the poster shows brown eyes - contact lenses for a test shoot)
A two-part documentary. I’m not at all an Elvis fan and don’t know that much about him – missed out completely on the furore, so this was an interesting watch for me. I can see how he drew people in, and that music was deep in his soul – he really did know those songs he loved, every single nuance of them. I wonder why he never wrote songs - anyone? Or was it simply his métier to interpret?
Amazing to think that rock n roll was pretty much helped on its way as the result of an involuntary leg twitch! From the perspective of this movie, it seems that Elvis was basically a commodity – a phenomenon of his time and a casualty too - someone who seems to have been fairly easily manipulated; the filmmakers play heavily on the fact that his whole career was controlled by Colonel Tom Parker – crazy to think he held so much sway over such a famous personality. It’s a mystery – these co-dependencies.
Priscilla Presley loans some commentary along the way, naturally – nicely sanitized I suspect! And Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have a few words too. It covers his humble beginnings, military draft and film career, and then gets a bit rushed towards the end and his death – not sensationalised, which is good – and not gossipy, ditto. Feels like there’s a chunk they’re missing in the second part though. It’s worth an airing IMHO. Sorry to say that I’m still not a fan - missed that boat, along with a few others! But I am a little more understanding of what he was all about, and why.
(The pic of him in the poster shows brown eyes - contact lenses for a test shoot)
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson