I found this movie to be fairly entertaining and, if mostly accurate, how much damage a con man can do to a performer’s career, and indeed their life, if they are unscrupulous and greedy. I had heard that the man who called himself Colonel Parker had forced songwriters to give Presley writing credits before he would let him perform their songs, but I had never dug deep enough to learn how badly he was duping his own client and supposed friend.
And as often seems to happen with celebrities with fame and money, drugs appear to have shortened Elvis’s life. With early rock stars or those living that lifestyle, overdoses often did them in. But With the likes of Judy Garland and Elvis, it was prescription drugs that slowly caused their lives to ebb away. A sad story in many ways. I would have liked to see him more as a father and husband. But the acting, writing and the story of his musical journey was enough to keep me interested. It was funny, but when they related at the end the postscripts to the lives, their description of Colonel Parker’s final years seemed designed to elicit pity or ”serves him right.” But in a weird way, I wonder if her was content powering down his life in Vegas gambling his fortune away. Who else would he leave it to?