Film offers Elvis as metaphor for what’s ailing America

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki does something rather unusual with The King, which becomes something extraordinary and insightful.

Driving across the U.S. in the late Elvis Presley’s 1963 Rolls Royce, he uses the life and death of “The King” as a metaphor to explore the troubled state of America, in a documentary that is jam-packed with archival footage, insightful commentary, musical performances.

The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president could not pro- vide a better example of what’s gone so terribly wrong south of the border, that a country once so full of promise decades ago in dealing with racial and economic inequality has simply failed to heed the lessons of history. Presley, Jarecki argues persuasively, had similar promise as a poor young man growing up in Tupelo, Miss., where he grooved to Black American music and drove legions of old- er citizens mad with worry and fear over his wicked gyrations and smouldering sexuality. The film tracks Presley’s career under the tutelage of greedy Colonel Tom Parker — including those wretched movies — until he became a pill-popping sellout Las Vegas performer who died tragically young.

Along the way we hear from some wizened (and wise) old friends and commentators like Dan Rather, Ethan Hawke and — surprisingly — Ashton Kutcher, whose take on fame is telling. Even Mike Myers has some worthy things to say from a Canadian perspective.

There’s a lot packed in this film so it may take a second or third viewing to get it all. But Jarecki’s sombre and sorrowful message comes through, an urgent wake-up call to change course.