I’ve just realized that I probably know far too much about popular singer Elvis Presley. Over the years I’ve read a couple of accounts of his life, which involve events that are truly stranger than fiction. Certainly, those depicted in Elvis & Nixon qualify as one of these odd scenarios. The film retells the meeting between the rock ‘n roll star and the President of the United States. It’s a decent movie featuring strong performances from its two leads. Yet with added knowledge, some of it appears to play out in too clean and sterile a manner.
By 1970, Elvis was still a successful entertainer, but much of his time was now spent performing in Las Vegas. This tale follows an ex-member of his entourage named Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer). When The King (Michael Shannon) arrives unexpectedly and asks for his assistance in a private manner, Jerry can’t help but agree. The goal: to set up a meeting with President Nixon (Kevin Spacey) and convince the Commander-in-Chief to give Elvis a “Federal Agent-At-Large” badge (hilariously, almost every government official isn’t even sure if the title is an actual designation). As various attempts are made and time passes, Schilling becomes concerned that he won’t be home later that week for an important dinner with his girlfriend’s family.
The stakes aren’t exactly high, but at least the two leads and supporting cast are compelling enough to keep viewer’s attention. Shannon is a bit more low-key than expected as Elvis, but after a few scenes most viewers should come around to his take on the legendary singer. Spacey appears to be having a lot of fun as the cranky Nixon, often insulting staff members like advisor Egil Krogh (Colin Hanks) in blunt ways.
While Shannon and Spacey spend most of the film apart, the climactic meeting is enormously entertaining. The performers play well off each other, with Elvis ignoring just about every protocol given to him during the summit and baffling the nervous Krogh at every turn. It leads to plenty of annoyed and confused reactions from Nixon and just about everyone else involved.
That’s why it’s unfortunate that it all feels too “cute” beforehand. Elvis is simply written as an eccentric. His behavior and motivations appear far less erratic than many have reported. He’s given a conversation or two with Schilling in which he discusses the “real” Elvis and being caught between who he really is and what people expect him to be, but that’s as dramatic as the film gets.
If memory serves, almost all writings on the man state that by this period he was addicted to a steady diet of amphetamines and sedatives like Desbutal, Escatrol Tiunal and Placidyl – quite a contradiction to his strong anti-drug comments. It has been said that his bizarre behavior at the meeting was partially a result of being so over-medicated. His ex-wife Priscilla has even noted that his ulterior motivation for obtaining the badge was to allow him to carry various substances. In this movie, the dichotomy between his personal habits and spoken beliefs are never addressed. It all seems like a missed opportunity.
In addition to his addictions, there are incredible stories about his weird nightly habits that are ignored. Furthermore, the story of his later take-down of a staff-member known as “Hamburger James” (which involved Elvis publicly claiming that he was a Federal Marshall and making an arrest on an airstrip) is omitted. Sure, it happened after the main event, but it’s meaty material that is simply left by the wayside.
It also seems kind of a sacrilege not to include a single Presley tune on the soundtrack. In a movie like this, which is so gentle and paints a far less complicated portrait of the artist, one would think the producers could have easily licensed at least one tune from the musician’s catalog. Even though it was recorded shortly after these events, “American Trilogy” would have been funny, given that Elvis’ old-fashioned patriotism is on full display here.
If you know nothing about Presley, the movie and climax is more than agreeable with plenty of strange and amusing conversational tangents. Still, as a person with some familiarity of the real story, it’s too bad that the bulk of the movie is muted and doesn’t delve deeper into the psyche of “The King”, his motivations or the even crazier background to this surreal situation… not to mention its eventual repercussions.
Elvis & Nixon is well-produced, cute and enjoyable on a surface level. However, it should have given us a less sanitized and more authentic portrait of one of rock’s most fascinating figures and this truly peculiar chapter in his life.