By Douglas Brode. 2006, McFarland Press.

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I have a huge backlog of books to get reviewed, and while I am nearing completion on the Goldfinger -- "Goooldfeen-GAH!" if you're Shirley Bassey, I wanted to get this one posted because McFarland Press was actually kind enough to send us a promo copy for review, which marks the first time Teleport City has been though of as a legitimate enough outlet to warrant a review copy of something other than a homemade camcorder movie about a fat serial killer.

If you pick through our film review archive, you'll find we've written up several Elvis Presley movies (Blue Hawaii, Girls Girls Girls, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Viva Las Vegas, and Easy Come Easy Go). I've watched just about every movie Presley made, except for Change of Habit and Frankie and Johnny. And really, I've enjoyed pretty much all of them. Elvis movies have a phenomenally bad critical and social rap. In fact, liking an Elvis movie is considered by many to be more shameful than freely admitting to liking porn. Even when you do enjoy an Elvis film, said enjoyment is often served up with the hoary old, "so bad it's good" justification. Heck, even I've been guilty of really not thinking too much about anything that happens in an Elvis movie.

Douglas Brode, on the other hand, came up with a different approach to the films of The King. What, he surmises, if these movies aren't completely superficial fluff? What if, when you pay close attention and really analyze both the career of Elvis and the world around him, you suddenly discovered that there's a wealth of material to be analyzed in these films? That in even the most innocuous of Elvis adventures, you could find underlying currents that spoke of the social evolution of America and the career cycle of one of her most important pop culture icons?

At first look, a three-hundred page book, with no photos, exploring the social and historical relevance of Elvis movies might seem daunting. But Brode handles the material in a way that is both intelligent and entertaining -- never falling back on slapstick barbs but also never lapsing into dry academic analysis. His writing style is crisp and packed with information, but like I said, he keeps it interesting and never relies on a dry recitation of facts and theories. He proves his point expertly, and it'll certainly change the way you (or at least I) think and write about Elvis films. He isn't attempting to convince anyone that these films are unheralded classics (and in fact freely admits that many of them are rather bad), but instead puts forth and brilliantly argues the notion that there is plenty to be understood and learned. As his book advances chronologically through the films, it becomes an increasingly eye-opening look at how the films reflect the man, even when the man seemed to have no interest in the films.

Brode examines the myth of Elvis the rebel, the hip-swingin' bad boy that parents and Ed Sullivan feared, and compares it to the reality of Elvis the shy Southern boy, who loved his mother, went to church, and joined the Army. And he looks at how these two personalities clashed in the movies and how these movies as a whole show Elvis' arc from counter-culture rebel to reactionary symbol of the establishment -- simply because the world moved around him while Elvis stayed more or less the same. Brode also delves into the depiction of sex and relationships in the movie and compares that to Elvis' own rather peculiar tendencies in his relationships.

McFarland has a long history of publishing books by authors who have looked at a niche cinema market and seen something greater and more important in it than most audiences. Elvis Cinema and Popular Culture continues this tradition, and it is a fascinating read both for Elvis fans as well as anyone who is interested in seeing how much social and historical relevance can be found in places that have been dismissed as meaningless and trivial. In that sense, this is far more than a simple survey of Elvis films that would be of interest only to Elvis film fans. It's a great read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of analyzing movies and is a great addition to any film studies reference library.

Labels: Film Studies