Ambushed by The King

The following comes from the pages of my journal:

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Waiting to go to a movie, Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Bought ticket online so I’m committed but all I feel like doing is sleeping…

Friday, July 27, 2018

So, tired as I was, I dragged myself to the theater (The Limelight), found parking a block over and went in. The counter person was busy with a customer although another counter person was standing there doing nothing. I tried to catch his eye and wave the receipt I’d printed at home, but he ignored me. The others kept talking. I heard them mention the king but paid it no mind since it meant nothing to me. After waiting a decent interval, I just went in, found a row, excused myself to a couple sitting on the aisle and sat down a few seats in. I turned the volume off on my phone and rested my eyes. When previews started I roused a little to see what’s new. Then the feature started. It was The King and I was at the wrong theater.

At first I thought to get up and leave but was reluctant to bother the couple in my row and figured that by the time I got to the other theater I would have missed a chunk of the movie. So I stayed put. It was mildly interesting: about Elvis and exploring why he was (and is) such a phenomenon, but also paralleling his life and career with what was (and is) happening in America. I appreciated learning about some black perspectives; one, that he co-opted black music to make it palatable to whites, and two, that with so much power, he chose not to use it to speak out against the wrongs in society (think Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc.). The movie shows us less of Presley than it does of others who talk about him, musicians who play their own music, and celebrities who opine about American culture – all from the back seat of an Elvis Rolls Royce that periodically breaks down. As Don MacLean puts it, “the King has lost his thorny crown…”

I closed my eyes often due to fatigue and hand-held camera movement that could easily nauseate me and tried to keep a sense of humor about being a tricked viewer.

So, how did I get mixed up? The movie I wanted to see was playing at The Pickford (2 blocks away), but starting today (Friday) it will move to The Limelight, where I went last night. I still want to see it and hope to since its here for another week. Guess I just wrote a film review of sorts.