These days, biopics are all the rage. During one recent week, a number of films screening at the Spectrum, the local Albany art house, featured actors playing such diverse personalities as Ernest Hemingway, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon.
The Nixon depiction is especially intriguing, given our obsession with the whos, whys, and hows of the current race for the American presidency. Previously, in such films as Oliver Stone’s NIXON, Ron Howard’s FROST/NIXON, and Robert Altman’s SECRET HONOR, the 37th president has been presented as a driven, neurotic individual, a pathetic, psychologically-scarred man beset by deep-rooted insecurities. In a new film, the wryly funny ELVIS & NIXON, directed by Liza Johnson, which recreates a real-life 1970 Oval Office encounter involving the title individuals, the President is pompous and self-pitying. But mostly, he is not so much a certifiable lunatic as, well, a comically inept idiot.
Indeed, ELVIS & NIXON is not so much a biopic as a farce, and its title personalities are not so much complex characters as comical caricatures. Elvis is shown to be a gun-toting, karate-obsessed oddball who has hatched a scheme to become an undercover drug enforcement agent. He wants a “federal narcotics badge” in the same way that, back in the 1950s, an eight year old would dream of becoming the sheriff of Dodge City.
Nixon, meanwhile, is a laughably gruff old fogey who is mired in a Depression-era time warp. At one point, he revealingly complains that he had to work hard not just to make it in the world but to get girls to notice him, unlike the Kennedys. He does not comprehend the PR possibilities of a meeting with Elvis given that, the popularity of The Beatles and Rolling Stones aside, Elvis still was an across-the-board superstar. Nixon refers to Presley as “this Elvis” and “this guy.” One only can imagine the words he would choose to describe a John Lennon, a Jimi Hendrix, or a Mick Jagger.
But Nixon quickly bonds with Elvis. Why? Well, Elvis is as antiquated in his thinking as the president. The King claims to have been studying communist brainwashing techniques for a decade and he views John, Paul, George, and Ringo as “anti-American, possibly with communist leanings.” Nixon of course just loves hearing this.
ELVIS & NIXON is loaded with clever touches. One example: The first time we see Elvis onscreen, he is watching a clip of Peter Sellers in DR. STRANGELOVE. Others involve the manner in which a range of individuals-- particularly women-- react to Elvis’ presence. And Elvis’ karate demonstration for the president is laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Both The King and The President are respectively played by Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey: master actors who offer deft impersonations of these seemingly omnipresent celebrities. Spacey’s casting makes for a fascinating contrast to the altogether different U.S. politician he currently plays in HOUSE OF CARDS, the Netflix series. This lawmaker, who is named Francis Underwood and is of course a fictional character, is very 21st century in the manner in which he relishes, and acts on, his greed and corruption.
Rob Edelman has authored or edited several dozen books on film, television, and baseball. He has taught film history courses at several universities and his writing has appeared in many newspapers, magazines, and journals. His frequent collaborator is his wife, fellow WAMC film commentator Audrey Kupferberg.
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