[NFBF-L] Elvis

[Steve Cook]

Come join us for our Friday night movie this week as we show the audio described movie Elvis 2022! Below is more about the movie and the Zoom information to join us! 

 

When: Friday, January 6, 2023

Time: 8:00 PM Eastern

 


NFB of SC Zoom


 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8032543777?pwd=QTVQd2RzN3l6QnNmZ0FmSnp6NG8vQT09

 

Meeting ID: 803 254 3777

Passcode: 124578

One tap mobile

+19292056099,,8032543777# US (New York)

+13017158592,,8032543777# US (Germantown)

 

Dial by your location

        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

 

 

On January 20, 1997, Elvis Presley's former manager, Colonel Tom Parker, is on his deathbed, having suffered a stroke. Nursing a gambling addiction that has left him destitute, he recounts how he first met Presley.

 

Raised mostly by his doting mother Gladys, Presley spends his childhood in the poorest parts of Mississippi, finding an escape in the comic book adventures of Captain Marvel Jr. and especially in song. However, upon moving with his parents to Memphis, he is ridiculed by his peers due to his fascination with the African-American music of Memphis's Beale Street. At this time, Parker is a carnival "huckster" who fancies himself a modern-day P. T. Barnum. Although partnered with country singer Hank Snow, Parker realizes Presley's crossover potential when he hears him "sounding black" on "That's All Right". That night, he sees Presley at a "Louisiana Hayride" performance, discovering a talented musician with strong sex appeal.

 

Parker meets with Presley at the carnival and persuades him to let him take control of his career, beginning a meteoric ascent that sees the Presley family lifted out of poverty. The regional public is divided in their view of the singer. Feeling that Presley's music will corrupt white children and stoke racial hostility, the segregationist Southern Democrat Mississippi Senator James Eastland calls Parker to an informal hearing, during which he questions Parker about his mysterious past.

 

After Presley's charged dance moves at a concert, he faces legal trouble. Parker persuades the government to draft Presley into the US Army instead. During his military service in West Germany, Presley is devastated by his mother's alcoholism-induced death. He finds solace when he meets Priscilla Beaulieu, the teenage daughter of an United States Air Force pilot. After his discharge, he resumes his film career and marries Priscilla years later.

 

As the popular culture of the 1960s passes Presley by, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy devastate him. Although he wants to become more politically outspoken in his music, Parker only allows him to release frivolous feel-good songs for a Christmas special television. However, this does not dissuade him. His performance choices in the special, including the closing number, "If I Can Dream", are presented and perceived as acts of not only his past songs, but also political commentary. Infuriated corporate sponsors threaten litigation, while a disgusted Parker believes Presley has been "brainwashed by hippies". Nevertheless, the show is highly successful.

 

After the special, Presley headlines at the largest showroom in Las Vegas, the International Hotel, and resumes concert tours. Parker's control of Presley's life tightens up as he refuses Presley's request for a world tour despite initially promising him and manipulates him into signing a contract for a lengthy Las Vegas casino residency. Presley's problematic behavior and prescription drug addiction overtake him, and a despondent Priscilla divorces him on January 8, 1973, taking their daughter Lisa Marie with her. Presley discovers the truth that Parker cannot leave the country, because he is a stateless illegal immigrant named Andreas (Dries) van Kuijk, and fires him on September 3, 1973. Parker and Presley argue over the latter's $8 million debt to the former and the record label for his numerous lavish expenses. Parker convinces Presley of their symbiotic relationship and, while they rarely see each other afterward, Parker continues as his manager.

 

Presley continues a rigorous schedule of shows that leaves him increasingly exhausted. In 1975, Presley expresses his greatest fear to Priscilla of being forgotten after he dies as he believes he hasn't achieved anything worthwhile. At one of his final shows on June 21, 1977 in Rapid City, South Dakota,[7] Presley, now obese and pale, sings "Unchained Melody" and ends the performance to thunderous applause. As he finishes his recollection, Parker dies in 1997, impoverished and alone, while Presley, who died on August 16, 1977, is beloved worldwide and is the best-selling solo artist in history, with his influence and legacy on music continuing to the present day.

 

Cast

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley

Helen Thomson as Gladys Presley

Richard Roxburgh as Vernon Presley

Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King

David Wenham as Hank Snow

Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow

Luke Bracey as Jerry Schilling

Dacre Montgomery as Steve Binder

Leon Ford as Tom Diskin

Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup

Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Natasha Bassett as Dixie Locke

Xavier Samuel as Scotty Moore

Adam Dunn as Bill Black

Alton Mason as Little Richard

Shonka Dukureh as Big Mama Thornton / Pentecostal singer

Sharon Brooks as Sylvia Shemwell of the Sweet Inspirations

Nicholas Bell as James Eastland

Liz Blackett as Grandma Dodger

In addition, Chaydon Jay portrays the young Elvis Presley, Josh McConville and Kate Mulvany portray Sun Records' Sam Phillips and Marion Keisker, respectively, while Cle Morgan appears as Mahalia Jackson.

 

Steve Cook

If you would like to join the Computer Science & Technology Division for the NFB of SC list serve, please send a message to SC-cstd-subscribe at nfbnet.org <mailto:SC-cstd-subscribe at nfbnet.org> 

 

National Association of Guide Dog Users Board Member

President of the Computer Science & Technology Division of the National Federation of the Blind of SC

1st Vice President of the Columbia chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of SC

1st Vice President of the SC Association of Guide Dog Users Division

 

 

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