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The King (2017)
Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, a musical road trip across America in his 1963 Rolls Royce explores how a country boy lost his authenticity and became a king while his country lost her democracy and became an empire.
August 8, 1939 in Elmira, New York, USA
23 May 1950, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
June 26, 1909 in Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
21 December 1937, New York City, New York, USA
3 April 1961, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
8 January 1935, Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
31 October 1931, Wharton, Texas, USA
1 August 1960, Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, USA
15 December 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
December 27, 1931 in Gadsden, Tennessee, USA
25 May 1963, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
7 February 1978, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
April 25, 1912 in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, USA
4 September 1925, Anniston, Alabama, USA
4 October 1973, Newbury Park, California, USA
October 10, 2018
A compelling portrait of Elvis Presley that contemplates what he meant to America and its ever-evolving dream.September 05, 2018
It's all rather random, but never dull.June 28, 2018
With an insistence that borders almost comically on obsession, [director Eugene Jarecki] forces the singer's life into a larger theory of national decline-the American dream is dead, and Elvis is the emblem of its passing.August 27, 2018
The King is a visual essay - it proposes a thesis, then builds a convincing argument, bouncing between Presley's life and the state of the nation.October 11, 2018
Elvis is clearly used as a metaphor by Jarecki. Undeniably progressive in his approach and his politics, the filmmaker still crafts a compelling portrait that reaches beyond simply ideology.September 05, 2018
Jarecki's road-trip never reaches answers or a destination, but it's a curiously diverting ride.July 13, 2018
Provocative and at times unwieldy, The King is something of a stoned CNN Special Report on wheels.October 09, 2018
Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls-Royce serves as a metaphor for what 's wrong with this country in two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki's new documentary.June 26, 2018
...the movie does so in painfully simplistic terms, with encyclopedia-style snippets of history, authentically pained but insubstantial musings on "how we got here," and an odd reliance on the comments of celebrities who lack any Presley connection...July 12, 2018
Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki does something rather unusual with The King, which becomes something extraordinary and insightful.July 27, 2018
The insistence may inspire a furrowed brow here, a rolled eye there, and a shaken fist or knowing nod over yonder, but there's enough earnest comment and good music to make the effort worth seeing and chewing over.July 12, 2018
At its best, "The King" is a fever dream of American glory and American weirdness - between which there can be an even thinner line than the one separating love from hate.