The King
Directed by: Eugene Jarecki
Written by: Eugene Jarecki & Christopher St. John
Starring: Alec Baldwin, James Carville, Chuck D, Dan Rather, David Simon, Lana Del Rey, Emi Sunshine & The Rain, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, John Hiatt, Ashton Kutcher, Mike Myers, Immortal Technique, Linda Thompson, M. Ward, Rosanne Cash, Van Jones
Documentary - 107 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Jul 2018
Written by: Eugene Jarecki & Christopher St. John
Starring: Alec Baldwin, James Carville, Chuck D, Dan Rather, David Simon, Lana Del Rey, Emi Sunshine & The Rain, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, John Hiatt, Ashton Kutcher, Mike Myers, Immortal Technique, Linda Thompson, M. Ward, Rosanne Cash, Van Jones
Documentary - 107 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Jul 2018
Ideas flow in and out of Eugene Jarecki’s The King so fast, I wasn’t done digesting the one I was on before another slice of contemporary Americana was brought out. Using Elvis Presley’s life story as a metaphor for the rise and fall of America is a stretch, and one I am not sure completely works; however, The King is so well made with such a brilliant idea, I fell head over heels for this documentary. Jarecki took Elivs’s 1963 Rolls Royce and drove around America filming folks sitting in the back seat. There are famous actors, singers, and political analysts. There are also random nobodies. My favorite may be the wandering nomad and his dog who get a ride in the luxury vehicle while it’s on the back of a tow truck.
I see why The King doesn’t work for some people. It’s scattershot. How can you compare the Declaration of Independence and the dawn of America’s great political experiment with Elvis bursting onto the scene from Sun Records and gyrating into people’s living rooms? Well, it works for me. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a road documentary made long after the death of the subject but connects the story arc to today’s visceral culture war. James Carville may say it best, “Elvis hit America so hard he made America taste different.” He also calls Elvis “the champion of the working man.” Most working men would probably love the opportunity to throw away a music career, spend a decade in Hollywood making terrible films, take up a residency in Vegas while succumbing to pills, and collapsing on a golden toilet in their own Graceland. They just need their big break.
I see why The King doesn’t work for some people. It’s scattershot. How can you compare the Declaration of Independence and the dawn of America’s great political experiment with Elvis bursting onto the scene from Sun Records and gyrating into people’s living rooms? Well, it works for me. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a road documentary made long after the death of the subject but connects the story arc to today’s visceral culture war. James Carville may say it best, “Elvis hit America so hard he made America taste different.” He also calls Elvis “the champion of the working man.” Most working men would probably love the opportunity to throw away a music career, spend a decade in Hollywood making terrible films, take up a residency in Vegas while succumbing to pills, and collapsing on a golden toilet in their own Graceland. They just need their big break.
The idea and then the reality of President Trump made America taste different as well. Without too much subtlety, Jarecki declares America under Trump is fat Elvis dying on his golden toilet. But it’s not just some filmmaker saying it. Jarecki drives the Rolls Royce to Tupelo, Mississippi - back to where it all began in 1935. Take it from the residents themselves, Tupelo is a miserable place to live. Elvis moved to Memphis and by the looks on the faces of current Tupelo citizens, they would do the exact same thing if they could. It was in Memphis Elvis picked up his love for soul music. Public Enemy’s Chuck D rapped one of the most famous sentences about Elvis ever:
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
But Chuck doesn’t fault him for cultural appropriation. He slams him because “the white man took black music and did nothing for the black man.” Muhammad Ali went to jail rather than be drafted and go to Vietnam. Elvis took being drafted as a publicity stunt, never once was associated with civil rights, and refused to comment on any of it. It puts the Public Enemy line in perspective.
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
But Chuck doesn’t fault him for cultural appropriation. He slams him because “the white man took black music and did nothing for the black man.” Muhammad Ali went to jail rather than be drafted and go to Vietnam. Elvis took being drafted as a publicity stunt, never once was associated with civil rights, and refused to comment on any of it. It puts the Public Enemy line in perspective.
Ethan Hawke gets some rural locations to describe the destruction wrought by Colonel Tom Parker and Alec Baldwin gets New York City time to truly bring the material into 2016 as he affirms there is no way Trump will win the election. But what is The King about Jarecki asks a random crew member? The man has no idea, but when it comes to America today, he doesn’t think we’re in decline, but we’re for sure stagnating. A couple dozen lines land with a punch but this one really hit, “At first, America was defined by democracy, later it was capitalism.” At first, Elvis was a rebel who made people uncomfortable and made the KKK rise up over all this devil music influenced by the Negro. Later, Elvis was a washed up has been getting cozy with Nixon promising to help fight a war on drugs.
Perhaps there is too much going on as Jarecki sacrifices coherence for atmosphere. I’ll take it. We amble down Route 66, witness the decay of Tupelo and Memphis, and marvel at the decadence of Vegas - no longer a mob town, but a business. Elvis was the ultimate business, sacrificing integrity for money. He wasn’t the first nor the last artist to do that, but he may have been the most influential. Accuse who want of selling out, be it Snoop Dogg, Taylor Swift, or Bob Dylan, but there are way more Elvis impersonators than Snoop Dogg impersonators. The King is far more than the history of Elvis - “He was born, he did things, he died.” It’s none of that. It’s a straight-up shock to the system. Elvis was America. He could have been the greatest, but his decisions resulted in decline and a sickly end - but a whole bunch of people still love him anyways.
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