The King (2017 movie)

[bajo]

Has anyone seen this? I was not aware of it before I saw it on Norwegian TV the other day!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_(2017_American_film)

[steve in SC]

Yes saw it in the theatre when it was released. I enjoyed it.

[bajo]

Yes saw it in the theatre when it was released. I enjoyed it.

I must admit I did too!

[Johnny2523]

Don't care for Elvis being used for political gain

[keninlincs]

I missed that one will look out for it.

[Christopher]

I missed that one will look out for it.

you will enjoy it, ken.
i was very surprised to see the underground dressing room footage with monique brave from "in concert ´77" (never released officially before) on a mainstream movie ... talking about broadcasting rights, but somehow the makers did it.
but that aside, there´s still much more to discover.

[egilj]

Saw it for the first time on NRK the other day as well. Fascinating at times. Elvis as an analogy to the rise and fall of the US. A little forced, but not too much so.

[DEH]

I saw it in theaters. I liked it for the most part.. There is some Elvis bashing in it by a few people but it's well done. I could have done without the 77 footage. If you are a Trump Supporter you might not be too happy with it.

[Rockin_John]

Its a well made documentary. Seen it a couple of times!

[drjohncarpenter]

Has anyone seen this? I was not aware of it before I saw it on Norwegian TV the other day!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_(2017_American_film)

You must have missed all the fevered discussions from just a couple of years back.

See:

THE KING - Official Trailer
https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=101473&p=1665917#p1665917

Eugene Jarecki Goes Road Tripping with Elvis
https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=101645

Interview with director of the Elvis based doc "The King."
https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=101734&p=1672167#p1672167





And more:

Apparently there was a screening of the film near me about a month ago that included the director and a participant in the film, critic Greil Marcus.

I'm very sorry I missed out, but Marcus' blog touches upon who might be the best speaker in the film.

7/11/18

I had the good fortune to catch last Sunday’s afternoon screening of The King in Berkeley, with you and Eugene Jarecki appearing afterward. I couldn’t think of anything to ask during the Q&A, but afterward I recalled Jarecki talking about people he wanted in the film but couldn’t get.

He mentioned Aretha Franklin, but wouldn’t Little Richard have been an even better choice?

Aside from Jerry Lee Lewis he’s the last surviving contemporary and peer of Elvis, and as the “architect” of rock’n’roll he would have had plenty to say about the genre’s racial politics.

On that topic, here’s a section from a terrific Rolling Stone interview from 1970:

“The reason that people like B. B. King are coming through now is, you see, a long time ago music like that was considered race music. As you know, Muddy Waters has never gotten the recognition he should’ve gotten, Howlin’ Wolf has never gotten the recognition, the Rolling Stones used to sit and talk to me and they were saying, ‘These people are great, how come you never hear them?’

And I think that people like Janis Joplin have made it possible for these people to come through. By them doing it, it makes kids want to see the originators.

Like, see, when Elvis came out a lot of black groups would say, ‘Elvis cannot do so and so and so, shoo shoo shoo [huffs and grumbles]’. And I’d say, ‘Shut up, shut up.’

Let me tell you this—when I came out they wasn’t playing no black artists on no Top 40 stations, I was the first to get played on the Top 40 stations—but it took people like Elvis and Pat Boone, Gene Vincent to open the door for this kind of music, and I thank God for Elvis Presley. I thank the Lord for sending Elvis to open that door so I could walk down the road, you understand?

And people like Janis Joplin and B. B. King, I’m glad to see what’s happening to them, because they’re true people, and rhythm and blues is the type of music that can’t nobody teach you, you have to be dedicated.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/little-richard-child-of-god-2-177027/

– revelator60



That’s a heartbreaking statement: his sincerity comes out like tears.

Eugene said the people he wanted but couldn’t get were Aretha and Elvis Costello. I would have expected him to say Chuck Berry, who was still around and perfectly capable of saying what he meant when the film was in its earlier stages. No way in the world to predict or even imagine what he might have said.

To me it might be Chuck D. who’s most gratifying in the film. He has enormous dignity, his spirit is open and generous, he speaks clearly, his ideas are considered: there’s life and work behind them. And from all that comes an authority that no one else in the picture quite achieves.

https://greilmarcus.net/ask-greil-2/

[The Swamp Fox]

I saw it in theaters. I liked it for the most part.. There is some Elvis bashing in it by a few people but it's well done. I could have done without the 77 footage. If you are a Trump Supporter you might not be too happy with it.

I liked enough to buy it and I certainly don’t support “Dr.Dementia.”

[Buddy]

The idea of the movie wasn't really bad, but at the end it was more like a "coffee grounds reading" IMO

[Scoobie]

And where might one view this today please?

[Christopher]

And where might one view this today please?

the german version for free:

https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/programm/epg/The-King-Elvis-und-der-amerikanische-Traum,sendung815658.html

[Axeman]

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The scene with John Hiatt was very moving to me.

[Steve Morse]

£5.95 on Amazon UK. Just ordered it.

[Aussie Jan]

thank you for the reminder i also missed it.
i wonder if i can find it streaming here in australia.
will check when i finish work.

[Jaime1234]

I just learnt that Ethan Hawke, who was one of those who appeared in "The King", stars in "Black Phone ", the #2 movie grosser for yesterday, after Baz' "Elvis". Upon learning of this develoment, he must have remembered the things he said about Elvis, seated as he was in the front seat of one of Elvis' Rolls Royces, the one he had gifted to SHARE on July 4, 1968. .

[eric c]

it's very good.
i remember seeing it on pbs...years ago.

[Jaime1234]

it's very good.
i remember seeing it on pbs...years ago.

He blasted Elvis, for no reason at all, while seated in the front of Elvis' second of three Rolls Royces, the one which Elvis had gifted to SHARE, on July 4, 1968, so that they could auction it. SHARE is a volunteer organzation based in NYC assisting mammal or ovarian cancer survivors. The car was worth US$35,000, in 1968, and was sold that same year by SHARE for US$100,000 the equivalent in 2016 dollars of a little over US$800,000.

Forty seven years, several owners and two paint jobs later (it was black, and someone had painted it in a sort of silver), the producers of "The King" bought it at a London auction for US$300,000 so that they could use it in the movie.

The car is now parked at the Hard Rock Cafe Museum in Atlantic City, co owned by Peter Morton, the man who paid US$25 million for Elvis' Hillcrest home in 2019.