As an Elvis fan, I find it hard (impossible?) to resist current movies about Elvis.  Now that you know that, you also know it was a given that Ted and I would see The King.

 

Even as an Elvis fan, I’d have to say it’s a (long) reach to use Elvis’ life as a metaphor for the changes in the United States over the past 82 years (Elvis Presley:  1935-1977).  Still, there were a number of good points made in the movie.  Some that I’m still thinking about are:

Point 1:  The United States is the only country that includes the pursuit of happiness as an unalienable right (cf the Declaration of Independence).

Point 2:  Elvis epitomized The American Dream as it used to be:  a poor boy who made good.  It’s almost impossible to believe in that American Dream now, with an obscenely large amount of wealth distributed among an obscenely small number of people.

Point 3:  The U.S. is an empire.  We cannot call ourselves anything but an empire when we count the number of countries in which we control property for our military bases.  Nor can we defend policing other countries and/or waging wars in other countries in the name of spreading democracy unless we identify our country as an empire.

Point 4:  Any country in which political office can be bought is not a democracy.  Today’s super PACs assure that political offices are paid for by special interests to assure that our non-democracy is governed to favor those special interest groups.

My review of the movie:  It was fun to see all the clips about Elvis from his birth to his death.  The cameo comments about Elvis and about the United States from a variety of people were interesting and thought-provoking.  Most surprising of all, I have to revise my stereotypical opinion of rappers.  Chuck D of Public Enemy played a large role in the movie, commenting on the state of America.  He made me want to sit down and talk with him about his opinions.

After all that serious content and a stunning performance of Unchained Melody by Elvis, recorded live just two months before he died, Ted and I needed to lighten up.  So we went to see another movie.

 

Yes, the plot was as thin as the blurb above indicates, but it was a musical and that’s what we’d expected.

Important points made in the movie:  none.

ABBA music in the movie:  great.

Happiness factor at the end of the movie:  high.

To cap off an enjoyable day, Ted and I went out to dinner.  Aaahhh, life in retirement is good.