This is cheating, but it's Elvis week, and the Memphis paper rounded up all the references to Elvis in movies: Film references and hints of The King attest to his pop culture staying power
By John Beifuss
Contact
August 12, 2005
To paraphrase that earlier exemplar of musical royalty, Duke Ellington: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got the King."
Okay, that's a gross exaggeration. Even so, writers and directors continue to believe it's advantageous to include Elvis in their movies, even if the king of rock and roll makes his presence known only through brief bits of set decoration or dialogue.
This is our ninth annual "Elvis Allusions in the Movies" survey. Our findings: Presley, who died in 1977, was referenced in 23 films that played on Memphis movie screens between Elvis Tribute Week 2004 and Elvis Tribute Week 2005.
That's pretty much equivalent to last year's results. However, four of this year's titles are film festival specials of less than an hour in length, so one could argue that the King's mainstream Hollywood influence actually diminished this year.
Even so, what this informal survey demonstrates year after year is Elvis's staying power; if this year's total falls short of the 1996-97 season, when Elvis "appeared" in 26 new films, it also represents a leap over 2002-2003, when I found evidence of Elvis in only 14 productions.
As usual, the name of Elvis was invoked for its complex cultural associations as well as for a cheap laugh. The name was dropped in one of the year's most self-consciously intellectual dramas ("Yes") and in one of the year's most self-consciously down-and-dirty splatterfests ("The Devil's Rejects"). In death as in life, Elvis continues to infiltrate high and low culture.
Here's this year's roundup:
When a drowning Clive Owen is rescued from a tar pit by beautiful Devon Aoki in "Sin City," he offers this in-ascending-order-of-importance homage to his savior: "You're an angel, you're a saint, you're Mother Teresa, you're Elvis, you're God."
In "Racing Stripes," a children's film about a zebra that becomes a race horse (produced by FedEx founder Fred Smith's Alcon Entertainment company), a goat voiced by Whoopi Goldberg makes this comment when the zebra slides a victory garland over the shaggy head of a miniature pony: "You know, the roses make you look very Elvis. Very Elvis, very Elvis '75..."
With dialogue spoken entirely in rhyming iambic pentameter, Sally Potter's "Yes" chronicles an adulterous post-9/11 affair between a scientist who represents the West (Joan Allen) and a surgeon-turned-cook who represents the Middle East (Simon Abkarian). In one scene, the Lebanese man invokes the name of Elvis to shame his Western culture-centric lover: "From Elvis to Eminem, Warhol's art,/ I know your stories, your songs by heart./ But do you know mine? No, every time/ I make the effort, and I learn to rhyme/ In your English. And do you know a word/ Of my language, even one? Have you heard/ That 'al-gebra' was an Arabic man?/ You've read the Bible. Have you read the Koran?"
The year's most amusing and protracted Elvis exchange occurs during "The Devil's Rejects," Rob Zombie's gross-out love letter to the homicidal hillbilly movies of drive-in yore. After several gruesome episodes, a movie critic and "self-proclaimed Marx Brothers expert" (Robert Trebor) is consulted by law enforcement officials for clues to the identities of the killers, who have named themselves after Groucho Marx characters (Spaulding, Flywheel, etc.). Incensed by the deputies' lack of familiarity with Groucho, the expert launches into a tirade against Elvis, calling him the "sneering, rotating, gyrating pelvis son of a (gun)" who stole Groucho's thunder by dying three days before the comic (Elvis died on Aug. 16, 1977; Groucho died on Aug. 19, 1977). At this, Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) becomes equally upset, but more menacing. "What'd you say about the King!?" he barks. "You ever say another derogatory word about Elvis Aaron Presley again, I will kick the living (bejeebers) out of you." (Incidentally, "Deputy Coggs," played by Memphis actor Chris Ellis, is present throughout this exchange.)
The voice of Elvis rises from the bayou when the King's 1968 recording of "If I Can Dream" is heard during the closing credits of the ghost story "The Skeleton Key," which opens today.
In "Because of Winn-Dixie," a family film about a lovable mutt, rock star Dave Matthews plays a guitar-strumming, pet store-managing ex-con. When a goat and a goose from his inventory get loose and comically harass a dimwitted deputy, the officer cries to the troubadour for help: "Hey, Elvis!"
Unsurprisingly, "Stranded in Canton," a 75-minute feature "sculpted" by local author and filmmaker Robert Gordon from some 35 hours of documentary footage shot on video in the 1970s by Memphis photographer William Eggleston, includes several Elvis references, including brief concert footage of the King singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," apparently shot from the audience by Eggleston.
Elvis, Babe Ruth, Abe Lincoln and others appear on a sort of historical timeline of famous faces that flaps through the mind of Jason Schwartzman when he experiences sensory deprivation in "I Huckabees."
In "Gunner Palace," a documentary about American soldiers in Baghdad, the G.I.'s of Charlie Battery nickname their Iraqi interpreter " 'The Great,' aka 'Elvis,' '' perhaps because of his impressive hairdo.
In the impressionistic Bobby Darin biopic "Beyond the Sea," this flirtatious exchange occurs when pop idol Darin (Kevin Spacey) romances Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth). Bobby: "What kind of things does Sandra Dee like?" Sandra: "Long walks on the beach, crossword puzzles... Elvis..." Bobby: "Hey!" Sandra: "Just making sure you're paying attention."
In the weird psychological suspense film "The Machinist," Christian Bale adopts a Southern accent to flirt with a pretty waitress at an airport coffee shop: "I'm Elvis Presley. I ran away from home to pursue my blue-collar aspirations." Responds the waitress: "I thought you looked familiar."
An Elvis impersonator is seen at a costume party in the cheeky British comedy about disabled youth, "Rory O'Shea Was Here"; the impersonator even takes part in a karaoke singalong to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."
In "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones," the swinging legs of an Elvis wall clock are seen behind Johnny Ramone during an interview at the guitarist's home. Also, the famous cover of Elvis's first album for RCA in 1956, simply titled "Elvis Presley," is shown while vocalist Joey Ramone reminisces about the music he loves.
Elvis's 1957 recording of "Blue Christmas" plays in a liquor store during "Christmas with the Kranks"; later, Dan Aykroyd sings the song at a party.
In an "Elvis has left the building" gag, one of the chapters in the documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is titled "Jeffrey Has Left the Building," in reference to the suspiciously sudden departure of Enron CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling, who later was indicted on charges of fraud and insider trading.
In the digitally animated DreamWorks feature "Shark Tale," the JXL hit remix of Elvis's 1968 semi-hit "A Little Less Conversation" is heard during the staged fight between a jive-talking "street" fish (voiced by Will Smith) and a vegetarian shark (Jack Black).
Chris McCoy's "Automusik Can Do No Wrong," a "Spinal Tap"-esque mockumentary about Memphis's only Germanic art-dance band, includes the video for the band's cover of "Hound Dog," directed by "Dr. Otto Von Stroheim." Later, band manager Sky Derringer, visiting Sun Studios, fails to identify anyone in the famous "Million Dollar Quartet" picture except Elvis.
Many other Elvis photos are seen on the walls at Sun; and when Automusik performs at Midtown's P&H Cafe, they stand beneath a poster-sized Elvis painting.
In the New Orleans music documentary "Make It Funky!," the camera catches sight of the Elvis Presley section as it surveys alphabetized-by-artist rows of old albums in a scene shot inside Jim Russell's Records, a famous vinyl record emporium.
In the digitally animated half-hour IMAX holiday spoof "Santa vs. the Snowman," an Elvis elf (or is it an elvish Elvis?) with a pompadour and Presley glasses pops up during a musical number at the North Pole toy factory. "Yeah, Santa is the bestest guy I ever knew," he sings.
Several less-than-feature-length productions screened during the Indie Memphis Film Festival in October paid homage to the Bluff City's favorite son.
Directed by John Boyd West, son of Elvis crony and co-star Red West, the hourlong Mafia spoof "Almost Made" featured Red himself as a bartender at the Stage Stop, where an Elvis poster is on display. Also, Elvis's recording "If You Talk in Your Sleep" -- co-written by Red West and recorded in 1973 at Stax-- plays during opening credits.
The 56-minute documentary "Still Life with Donuts: Natural History of a Neighborhood" finds an Elvis impersonator -- complete with pompadour, Elvis glasses and a tattooed portrait of Elvis on his bicep -- living in the eccentric Belmont neighborhood of Charlottesville, Va.
The Memphis-made short "Das Corpse" includes a scene in which the devil visits Graceland and writes "Satan Was Here" on the graffitied wall outside the mansion.
And Tommy Foster's mysterious short "This Must Be My Lucky Day," in which a man ferries a boatload of discarded children's rocking horses to their new home, gives each toy horse a name in the end credits; one is listed as " 'Elvis' the Wonder Horse."
Finally, here's an Elvis onscreen allusion that might have been: The "deleted scenes" included on the DVD edition of last year's remake of "Dawn of the Dead" include a sequence in which the human refugees from a zombified world are sitting at the dinner table inside their fortified shopping mall and discussing what place they'd most like to visit. Says an old guy: "Graceland, I guess." Affirms an attractive woman: "I'd go to Graceland." Adds the hero: "Graceland's 500 miles away. You can do it in seven hours if you're really moving." Yet even with the promise of this road trip in the air, the characters still hang around the mall to become zombiefood.
No comments:
Post a Comment