Fantastic Film Reviews Episode 1: Why I Believe Elvis is One of the Greatest Films of All Time

officialdauking
May 8, 2024
8 min read

Updated: Dec 5, 2024

Well, Well, Well, what do we have here aye, Dauking has gone and done it he has made a film review. If you read my introduction post to my blog (which I know you did or else I will come and fight you) you would have seen me write that I may or may not be doing film and TV reviews. Well I decided screw it I am just going to do it, so for all you film buffs out there this one is for you, even if you want to hang me over the side of a bridge after, if my opinion does not match yours, but that is a risk I am willing to take so here it is my reasoning for why I believe Elvis was one of the Greatest Films of all time.

Now I am still figuring out how to review these but for now I think I will stick to a set list of categories, rating each one of them as I go, then coming to an overall rating conclusion at the end which if you can tell by my title is already probably going to be pretty high. These categories will be Cinematography or how well it was shot, story line and whether it was good or accurate depending on the film, Investment factor or how much I was invested, acting which is self explanatory and a special category that I will call the F. F. Factor which will more be about how the film made me feel. So with that explanation done lets just get straight into it with the first category cinematography.

Cinematography:

Elvis had some of the most phenomenal camera work I have ever seen. I have watched many movies and believe myself to be bit of a filmography connoisseur having made films in the past. This means that when I watch a film I don't only enjoy the ride but admire the technical work that goes into producing the film. Elvis had many types of shots, so many that I would be unable to name all of them but had a really firm focus on long establishing shots like the screenshot above and also many close ups to focus on the emotion of the scene. This created a cinematic spectacle that not only made you in awe of the actors and their performance, but also extreme perfectionism of the cameraman to create a visual masterpiece that really made you feel part of the experience. There were also many vibrant colors that were easy on the eye and made the screen look beautiful constantly. Many films i have seen tend to focus only on close up and mid shots, not really giving us a sense of the environment that the characters are in, making the film a bit boring to watch without constantly changing scenery. I am so impressed by the attention to detail, the crew of this film put into making it look as stunning as possible, which is why I believe it is some of the greatest technical work of all time.

Super Cineamo Rating: 10/10

Story and/or Accuracy:

There are two different types of film stories that can be made. One, is to create a completely new story with fictional characters in a fictional world. Two, adaptations of real life events and real life people. Depending on which type of story a film is going for depends on whether you look for uniqueness or accuracy. Due to Elvis being a film based on a real life person, I do not think it is fair to rate the story based on uniqueness, but instead rate it on accuracy, if you have a problem with that you can fight me, I will lose that fight but at least I ruffled some feathers. Nah just kidding please don't do that I am but a humble, innocent, young boy, anyways in terms of accuracy Elvis unfortunately misses the mark. After reading many articles it has become clear to me that much of the story, only used Elvis's actual life as a base and significantly dramatized Elvis's story in a quest to entertain the masses. Things like John F. Kennedy not getting shot whilst Elvis was filming his TV special, Colonel Tom Parker not being against Elvis being himself on stage, even when the media called him controversial for his seductive performances and the one of the biggest inaccuracies was the end on stage, drug induced tangent, where Elvis fired the colonel after finding out that the colonel could not travel abroad. This never happened in real life and Elvis was completely unaware of the Colonel's travel restrictions the entire time he was alive. The director Baz Luhrmann used Elvis's life as a base and build a dramatic story, built around the idea of the Colonel being the antagonist and partly responsible for Elvis's death. Even though the film was historically inaccurate, I was still highly invested and enjoyed every second of it, however the historical inaccuracies do have to effect my rating so....

Story-Line Superstar Rating: 6/10 (Just because I enjoyed it so much)

Astonishing Accuracy Rating: 2/10(Sad but has to be done)

Drama Factor My Investment:

Ahhh this scene it made me feel things that I have never felt before, I wonder if I will ever find my Priscilla, maybe if I grow my....... Oh, sorry did not mean to trail off there, but as you can see from my weird description above, this film had me fully emotionally invested from start to finish. Which brings me to my next factor the 'Investment Factor'. Whilst Elvis may not have been very historically accurate, that may not have necessarily been a bad thing. We watch movies to escape our normal reality, if you wanted to watch a truly accurate retelling of Elvis's story you would watch his documentary. Films are designed to take you on an emotional journey and make you experience things that you may never have before, this is why sometimes the more dramatic a film the better. I was so connected to the characters (based on real people) right throughout the film and was routing for Elvis right throughout. Even though many times Elvis self sabotaged himself by taking drugs or being too obsessed with his stage persona, that it effected his marriage, the main fight was that between Elvis and his manger Colonel Tom Parker. By painting the Colonel as the antagonist in the story, it added to the intensity of it and really increased the stakes of the film to such a degree, that you could not help yourself backing Elvis all the way. Because of how perfectly done the drama and story was I did not really mind, nor take any notice of the fact that it was not accurate to Elvis's life. I felt like I was watching his true story and became sympathetic and emotional for him during and after watching the film. I was highly emotionally invested from beginning to end, and experienced a roller coaster of emotions right through. So because of that Elvis gets a 'Investment Factor' rating of....

Irresistible Investment Factor Rating: 10/10

Acting:

I have uploaded this photo from my computer and the file name of the photo simply says 'The Goat', that is because it is exactly how I perceive Austin Butler as. No I do not mean a real life billy goat that you can pet and milk but actually the abbreviation G.O.A.T, standing for Greatest Of All Time. Okay, I do not believe Austin Butler is the greatest actor of all time which is why the abbreviation in not G.A.O.A.T, which sounds like a toddler trying to say goat for the first time, anyways I am simply saying that in terms of selecting him for the role it was a stroke of genius from the Casting Director. Whilst Tom Hanks was the headline star in the film portraying a great Colonel Tom Parker, Austin Butler stole the show. You could tell that he had prepared significantly for this role, analyzing every little detail about Elvis. His mannerisms, unique voice, accent, posture, way of speaking all perfection and whilst it is impossible for him to be 100% accurate, because no one can perfectly emulate another person, he did a bang up job. As I am a aspiring actor in training myself, I know the lengths that he would of gone to in order to prepare for this role. Some of that intensive vocal work even showed after he had finished filming, as in many video interviews he still sounded like Elvis showing the magnitude of his training. I was captivated by all actors in this film, but Austin most of all, he was arguably the best thing about this film and it would not have been the same without him. But enough of kissing Austin Butlers ass, this factor needs a rating, as you may have already guessed it is going to be quite high so the Oscar goes to duh da da.... Austin Butler with a huge rating of.....

Admirable Acting Rating: 100/10

F. F. Factor:

Now we reach the final curtain call, the final performance, the final song after this Elvis is ahhhh leahhhviinnn the buillddiinnnn! Hahaha good joke me pat myself on the back. Nah just kidding (not really), we have reached the final factor which is called the F. F. Factor this stands for F****** Fantastic Factor. Basically this factor is just for me to hammer home my final thoughts on the film and sort of wrap up why I hold the opinion of it that I do. Look, I know Elvis is not historically accurate and calling it the best film of all time is probably a stretch. There have been so many great films released all throughout history even those made long before I was even born. But this is my review, my blog and therefore my opinion is always the right one and that opinion is I have watched many huge films in my time but none of them come close to this one. I am a huge Batman and Christopher Nolan fan (review coming out soon) so The Dark Knight has always been my favorite film ever made and it still was even when I saw Elvis live in the cinema. But after re-watching Elvis a couple of weeks ago, I realized that from start to finish I was fully involved in the film. Whereas with the Dark Knight I sit still a watch it normally but intently, with Elvis i was getting up of the couch, dancing, singing, getting extremely hyped about each scene and I was not even drunk. When a film can do that to me it truly deserves to be high on my list or in this case at the top of my list. Call it recency bias, ignorance of the millions of other films around or just plain stupid I don't care, in my personal opinion Elvis was, is and probably always will be my favorite film of all time, at least until the story of a humble, yet spectacular and magnificent blogger by the name of Dauking comes out in theaters (Warner Brothers pretty please Make that next, even though you probably aren't reading this). But until that day comes Elvis and Austin Butlers performance of him will go down in history, for me at least as the greatest film of all time. With all that said and done thank you so much for reading I hope you found this entertaining, oh who am I kidding of course you did. I have been Dauking, you have been my subjects and always remember to dance like a chicken, live life to its fullest and have a very good night!