Elvis (film review) & Sandman Episode 11

1. Elvis directed and written by Baz Luhrmann (an Australian Director) starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.

This was the film that Tom Hanks was making in Australia when he caught COVID, I think. It is entirely filmed in Australia and Queensland, Australia (doubling for Vegas).

I was pleasantly surprised by it. I don't tend to like bio-pics. But this is by far the best bio-pic that I've seen, possibly next to Rocket Man and Walk the Line.

Mainly because it's not told like a straight bio-pic, and has a central focus. The problem with most bio-pic's - is they decide to give you some sort of shortened summarized history of a singer's or actor's or politician's life - and often focus on things like their addiction, their marriages, their kids,ie. personal life, but not on what they did for a living, which is the whole reason there is a bio-pic to begin with and really the only thing the biographer can tell with any authority or knowledge whatsoever. You can't tell what someone does in their personal life and you can't really judge it. Everyone remembers it differently. It gets embellished. Exaggerated. People make stuff up to make it more interesting - because let's face it people's personal lives are rather boring. ["I got up, I made food, I read the paper, I drank coffee, I played with kids, I had sex with my wife, I played music, I watched sports, I went to bed..." Or ..."I got up, I ate at restaurant, I went to work, I came home, went to gym, watched tv, ate dinner, watched tv, called someone, went to bed..." With all sorts of variations. Bored now.]

So there's two ways of approaching it...

1. Give people the dirt - or the soap opera. (Most famous people have a lot of soap opera, because how can you not? Fame is kind of toxic in of itself.)

Or

2. Focus on what they did, how they became famous, and what killed them.

Lurhmann wisely (in my opinion) chooses the latter. Wisely - because everyone else has already done the former. Kurt Russel played Elvis in a 1979 movie shortly after Elvis' death which dug deep into the former, as did numerous others. There's been a mini-series in there somewhere. Elvis has been picked apart, judged, scrutinized, and ruminated over since he died, if not before.

Here, Elvis isn't the person being scrutinized, but rather his manager, Colonel Parker is - and it becomes relatively apparent somewhere in the middle of the film - that no one has a clue who Parker really is.

Parker was a gambler and a con-man - who ran a carnival act. It had two low-tier family favorite country singers on tour, neither memorable in their own right. One day, people on his little tour are playing the radio - and across the air-waves comes Elvis' song "That's Alright Mama" which was released in 1954. People are loving it. Parker assumes it's a Black man singing it (actually the word he uses is "Negro"), and is astonished it's a white man, and his face lights up with an idea.

The film is for the most part told through Parker's perspective (although he comes across, as played by Hanks, as a big of a slug or leech or vampire, old, ugly as sin, overweight, sluggish, and with a heavily accented voice). And Parker is constantly justifying his actions towards Elvis, and deflecting the blame onto the audience who loved him. Or rather Elvis' addiction to that "love" and "applause".
( Spoilers...although most of this is already known.. )

2. The Sandman - Episode 11 : A Dream of A Thousand Cats, and Calliope

This episode contains as separately contained stories in their own rights two of The Sandman comics series "stand-a-alone" issues or "short tales", where Dream is a supporting player, not the focus or lead. [Actually this is true of most of Gaiman's works - his heroes are often not the focus of the story, but a means of meeting and telling the stories of other characters or in some regards a catalyst for them.] By separately contained - I mean they are told as two separate stories, the only connection between them is Dream.

"Sandman" is a notable series in that it was among the first truly literary stories to enter the comic book medium. The English Literature Canon is notoriously snooty and classicist. It frowns on other genres and deems them unworthy. Sandman kind of laughed at that - and pushed open that door a bit. It blended genres and commented on literary canon with a touch of sarcastic glee.

A Dream of a Thousand Cats

I was pleasantly surprised by this adaptation. The animation is quite good, and the cats really do look like cats. The vocal talents worked in some respects better than the audio - I preferred Sandra Oh to Bebe Neuwirth.

( spoilers )

Calliope

This also surprised me. I did not like the audio version and don't remember if I ever read the comic version.

The story is about a writer who tricks a muse into servicing his needs, until she basically refuses to help any longer, and he gives her to another writer. Calliope is the daughter of Zeus, and a thousand year old muse, who a writer, Eramus, has found a way to trap under the laws. She is basically his hostage until he frees her, instead he gifts her to another "frustrated" writer.

Arthur Darvill plays Mardoc, the "Frustrated" writer, while Derek Jacobi is the one who gifts the muse to him. Melissanthi Mahut plays the muse.

The television adaptation resolved some of the issues I'd had with it -( spoilers )

All in all, I've preferred the television adaptation to the comics. The violence against women is no longer shown. And in some cases understated or removed. In the comics - there was a lot of sexual violence, there's almost none here or if, present, it is just subtly alluded to. (A huge change from 1980s and 2022. Also shows how Neil Gaiman has evolved as a writer - since he's deeply involved in the adaptation.) In fact, I'd say for the most part the violence is down-played, they suggest but don't show it - going with less is more in most instances.

I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. And find that I want more of the series - and am hoping for a Season 2. (Hard to know with Netflix - Sandman is currently number 1 in the world - but it doesn't mean it will make it to a S2.)

Elvis film and Parents wedding anniversary..

1. Looked up Elvis on IMBD and dear god, he has performer credits for television and films and other recordings from the 1950s to 2022.

Performer Credits

Also according to Milton Berle, after he appeared on a show he booked him on way back in 1954, he got over half a million pan letters for Elvis's seemingly lewd behavior. He called up the Colonel and told him that he had a huge star on his hands.

2. Apparently Austin Butler was in competition with the following performers for the role of Elvis...

*. Anson Elgort (really? REALLY?? Seriously, what is the appeal of this actor to casting directors? I do not see it, at all. I told mother that he was considered for the role...

Mother: What? He'd have been completely wrong for it. There's no charisma -
Me: The man can't move, he can barely sing.
Mother: Exactly.
Me: Plus he has rape allegations against him...of course a lot of folks do.

* Miles Teller (the guy who played Ruddy in The Offer on Paramount Plus - just no.)

Me: He looks...kind of more like Sinatra or who is that more good looking guy between the two..
Mother: Looks Italian?
ME: Yes...old too.

* Harry Styles...and just no. He's sexy and can sing and dance, but he doesn't sound like Elvis and his voice is higher. Also he's too boyish.
Just no.

***

Watched Martin Sheen say on Youtube that Elvis changed how musicians were viewed, he was the first one that most women and men agreed on - everyone loved him. When previously they were more split.

3. Rewatching the Elvis movie that I'd rented. Which the more I think about it, the more brilliant it actually is - it plays with my head long afterwards, and kind of haunts me. It really delves in the toxicity of fame and our material/fame obsessed culture that eats talented artists alive.

Apparently Austin Butler sings all the Elvis songs up until around the 1968 era, where they start blending in the real Elvis' voice. They couldn't quite do it prior to that - since the older recordings were hard to blend in.

Also, he did play Elvis in the final reel - singing Unchained Melody, but the real Elvis was singing it - except, as Butler puts it, he could no longer tell where his voice ended and Elvis's began.

It's shot in such a fascinating way - Baz Lurham isn't interested in telling the story of Elvis..but showing how toxic our society truly is - especially to the truly talented. The 1950s, 60s, and 70s were a turbulent period - just like now, so Lurham takes a historic iconic character from it, and examines what happened to him and why - in order to talk about what is happening now. About how old white male politicians and news broadcasters, and billionaires are attempting to curtail culture and control people. Elvis represents the youth and those fighting against them and the old school backwards white male establishment who wanted to hold them back - and curtail culture, and control it.

( spoilers in examining some of the shots in the film )

This is a film for people like myself who despise straight bio-pics. [I've never been an Elvis fan, although I did enjoy his music. He died when I was ten - I remember his death - we watched all his movies for two weeks in the Afternoons as a homage. He died in August of 1977. We saw Star Wars in May 1977. And we moved to Kansas the following year in February 1978. I turned eleven that March. My father was the same age as Elvis - 42 years of age. They were contemporaries.]

Mother's and my distraction this weekend. I've discussed it with her twice today, distracting her from the fact that today is her 57th Wedding Anniversary. I may buy this movie - really enjoyed it. YMMV.

4. Today was my Parent's 57th Wedding Anniversary. Woke up missing my Dad, and wondering if they'd had me earlier - would I have gotten more time with him? My mother nixed this idea, because she'd not have met him any earlier, and they both needed those years to become the parents that raised me.
It's all about timing. I also found myself thinking today about how odd it is that some people leave this mortal coil early, and others far later, and there's no rhyme or reason to any of it.

Anyhow...in honor of my parents anniversary - their last walk on the beach, taken in 2017, before various physical ailments made it difficult for them to do it.