Elvis Meets Nixon (1997) (TV) Purple in the Oval Office: You Can't Make...(More)

Elvis Meets Nixon (1997) (TV) Purple in the Oval Office: You Can't Make This Up Separately, Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon had enough power, paranoia and megalomania to fill several shelves of history and psychology books. Think what they might have done together. The product of their only meeting is now a popular item at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif.: a photograph taken in the Oval Office of the President and the drug-addicted pop idol, who had a fancy to become a Federal marshal in the war against drugs. The hilarious mock docudrama ''Elvis Meets Nixon'' lovingly reproduces that historic 1970 photo-op. It even more lovingly reproduces the outfit Presley wore to the White House: a purple crushed velvet suit with a caped jacket, bell-bottom pants and a gold belt as wide as a tire. As two of the film's wry commentators point out, ''You can't make this up.'' As it recreates the events leading up to this odd-couple meeting, the film is based on fact, though some characters and most of the dialogue are fictional. Its playful approach to details is established at the start with a mock documentary frame. Dick Cavett is a wonderfully droll narrator, and throughout there are comments from guests ranging from Wayne Newton to Alexander Butterfield, Nixon's deputy assistant. The film gleefully makes fun of such expert testimony. As the journalist Edwin Newman says after reciting some bits of Elvis lore: ''Not that I ever knew Elvis. I just know this from reading some books.'' One of Presley's associates, Farley Hall (Curtis Armstrong), explains the logic behind the pill-popping Presley's desire to join Nixon's anti-drug crusade. Presley was addicted to prescription drugs; there was nothing illegal about that. Marijuana on the street was a different matter. Besides, Presley liked badges. In the film, he is always flashing his deputy sheriff badges from Palm Springs and Memphis, but that was local law enforcement. He wanted a badge that certified him on a Federal level. The centerpiece of the film is the singer's meandering, two-day trip from Graceland to the White House, with a side trip to Los Angeles because he got bored. In reality, he had a cohort along from the start, but the film's funnier idea is that he was traveling alone for the first time in his adult life. Arriving at the airport without money, he learns how to use a credit card. Turning up at the ticket counter and asking, ''Can't you send a bill to the Colonel?'' didn't work. Though Presley had made his big comeback appearance in 1968, slimmed down from diet pills, he was almost 36 when he met Nixon, and Rick Peters looks too baby-faced for the role. But his easygoing portrayal serves its purpose. At least he avoids the curled-lip excesses of most Elvis imitators. And he pulls off some of the film's best scenes, when the King meets the common people. ''That's the Jackson Five,'' a cab driver says of the radio music Presley can't identify. ''It scares me to think of what my daughter's going to listen to when she grows up,'' replies the man who would posthumously become Michael Jackson's father-in-law. Though the film lags when Presley roams the streets of Los Angeles, bumping into hippies, most of the 90-minute ''Elvis Meets Nixon'' is hysterical. Nixon is seen in all his isolated insecurity, peering out the window at antiwar protesters. Only someone as out of touch as Nixon would have thought Presley was the guy to restore his image with rebellious youth whose chant was John Lennon's ''Give Peace a Chance.'' Bob Gunton's Nixon imitation carries a curious undertone of Jack Benny. The film moves toward broad caricature when he's around, so it's lucky that the Nixon scenes are minimal. As this story finally brings the two men together in the Oval Office, Mr. Cavett says: ''If what you're about to see didn't happen exactly this way, it should have.'' He's right. This may be your only chance to hear Presley and Nixon sing a duet of ''My Wild Irish Rose.'' ''Other Elvis Sightings'' Aug. 16 marks the 20th anniversary of Presley's so-called death, and next week television will be overwhelmed with commemorative programs both somber and campy. News magazines are heading into Elvis overload. TNT will present the longest Elvis sighting, a 30-hour movie marathon scheduled to begin late Friday (midnight). Watch his career spin out of control as he goes all the way from ''Jailhouse Rock'' to ''Clambake.'' The most promising event is VH-1's week of Elvis tributes, beginning Monday. The documentary ''Elvis From the Waist Up'' (Monday night at 10) includes home movies and segments from his early appearances on ''The Ed Sullivan Show.'' And a special Elvis edition of ''Pop-Up Video,'' (Monday night at 7:30) presents all the comic trivia you never knew about ''Love Me Tender'' and other songs. Wherever they are, maybe Elvis and Nixon will be watching together. ELVIS MEETS NIXON Showtime, Sunday night at 9 Directed by Allan Arkus. Written and produced by Alan Rosen. Robert O'Connor, executive producer. Edited by Neil Mandelberg. Narrated by Dick Cavett. WITH: Rick Peters (Elvis Presley), Bob Gunton (President Richard M. Nixon), Alyson Court (Priscilla), Denny Doherty (Vernon), Jackie Burroughs (Dodger), Curtis Armstrong (Farley Hall), Richard Beymer (Bob Haldeman) and Glenn Hall (Egil Krogh)."Dear Mr. President. First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and have great respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do NOT consider me as their enemy or as they call it The Establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help The Country out. I have no concern or Motives other than helping the country out...""He was wearing tight-fitting dark velvet pants, a white silky shirt with very high collars and open to below his chest, a dark purple velvet cape, a gold medallion, and heavy silver-plated amber-tinted designer sunglasses with "EP" built into the nose bridge. Around his waist was a belt with a huge four-inch by six-inch gold belt buckle with a complex design I couldn't make out without embarrassing myself." A hilarious made-for-cable movie about this meeting was made in 1997 and is hard to find. According to Krogh's detailed notes, the meeting opened with several pictures taken of the two posing in front of several flags. Presley then showed the President law enforcement paraphernalia he had brought, including badges from police departments from several states. Presley expressed his belief that the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit to which Nixon nodded in agreement. Presley indicated very emotionally to Nixon that he was "on your side." He also mentioned that he was studying Communist brainwashing and the drug culture. Presley claimed the hippies and young people accepted him and he could infiltrate a group of them and that this might be helpful in the war effort. Nixon indicated his concern that Presley retain his credibility. Thanks, But No Thanks With that, this historic Oval Office meeting was over. Presley would be disappointed to learn Nixon would not be appointing him to an official post. Think of the stories we'd be able to tell today if only Nixon had appointed him as the Drug Czar or an F.B.I. agent! And he could have recorded a downright surreal cover of Johnny Rivers' Secret Agent Man! Bob Gunton's performance as Richard Nixon is astounding. He gives a humorous characterization of the man, yet shows the sadness of a persona racked with deep-rooted demons. His body twists and turns, showing the pain and the paranoia. It puts to shame Anthony Hopkins and that dull "Nixon" movie. Rick Peters is good but not great as Elvis, mainly because he's unable to capture the magnetism. Peters does capture Elvis' naive, childlike quality: Just an ignorant country boy lost in the world. Although not historically accurate, the satire is based on a real-life meeting between Elvis and Nixon at the White House. The script is first rate and captures the times well. It also has keen insights into Elvis' entourage, father, Priscilla and the life at Graceland, and Haldeman and the Nixon White House. It's perhaps the most entertaining movie about Elvis ever made, and the only one I'd sit through again. Was the above comment useful to you? 5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Good parody. I admit I'm a sucker for movies with the real people being portrayed, especially when Elvis is one of the main characters. This is a very funny movie that purports to be factual, and yet the liberties are many, but since it a comedy really, I can excuse that. It's in all the reviews I've read so far, the one inconsistency that no one caught (and I really being picky here but I feel I have to mention it) and that is that Elvis drinks a Coke when he preferred Pepsi. This would probably simply product placement and nothing more. I mentioned it because I am a dedicated Coke drinker. But anyway, the way the two principals act is meant to be exaggerated. Certainly, Elvis wasn't quite so cloddish, but knowing what I know about Nixon, I don't think they were too far off the mark there. The lead, Rick Peters, does a very good impersonation of the KING, and I'm also a sucker for good impersonations, doing a few of them myself. I guess which I were half as good at doing Elvis, but this guy looks more like him that I ever could even if he isn't a dead ringer for the King. Perhaps the coolest thing about this movie are the real people whose comments appear in different parts of the film. People like Dick Cavett, Wayne Newton and Tony Curtis. It's worth checking out. Was the above comment useful to you? 3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- Very "Watchable"comic jaunt with the King, a surprisingly good time., 25 January 2005 8/10 Author: m_samourai from vancouver, canada First off, don't expect anything super authentic. This is an imagining of what Elvis might have done on his way to meet Nixon. The actor that plays Elvis doesn't do the best imitation that I've seen by any stretch of the imagination, but he captures the narcissism, and swagger of Presley very well. It's fun to watch him interact with normal people without his handlers around. I liked the scenes that stressed how far removed from the reality of the sixties that Elvis was, being that he hated the hippies, the Viet Nam protesters, and the Beatles (who stole his thunder). A good laugh is also when you get to see Nixon's enemies list. Definitely give it a go if you see it aired, I've seen it twice, and it really has a charm to it. Was the above comment useful to you? 3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- The President lives in the White House, the King lives in Memphis..., 1 September 2002 Author: Shane Paterson from Las Vegas, NV It was perhaps THE most surreal and weird time of Elvis' life, a life marked by more than a few such times. How can an entire film revolve around the December 21, 1970 meeting of Elvis Presley with President Nixon? As it turns out, quite effectively. We're talking the moment in time when the path of history's most phenomenal entertainer intersected with that of the most notorious US President yet. Before Nixon's Vietnamization policy wound down a war that irrevocably fractured a nation. After a decade of civil-rights unrest influenced in no small way by the race-barrier bridge that was Elvis Presley. Before the revelations of Watergate and the end of Nixon's Imperial Presidency in August, 1974. Before Elvis' untimely death at 42, almost exactly three years later. The film raises an interesting point at its outset, in the parallels between the two men's lives and their professional fortunes. By late 1970, each was secure at the top after a stunning comeback, but neither was fulfilled or truly happy. Elvis, tired of being Elvis Presley and feeling as if he'd done it all, grew increasingly bored and restless. The triumphs and excitement of his first seasons in Vegas and his first touring schedules since 1957 gave way to interminable nights spent watching movies and breaking speed limits with his hangers-on, the Memphis Mafia. Nixon, despite working political wonders and demonstrating considerable prowess in foreign affairs, was the target of millions who protested the conflict in Vietnam and his growing personal paranoia did nothing to alleviate that weight. This is the backdrop against which this Showtime movie was set. It's an entertaining film - one I can watch repeatedly - though it has some factual flaws. Elvis did not hate the Beatles. He may have objected to their comments regarding drug use, but the bottom line is that Elvis went to DC primarily to secure a narcotics-agent badge and title. The key ingredient missing in this film is explicit portrayal of Elvis' almost obsessive interest in law enforcement - he'd always wanted to be a policeman but he ended up at Sun records in 1954 and the rest is history. One ingredient in that interest was collecting law-enforcement badges, preferably those with real (not honorary) credentials and powers attached. Yes, although apolitical, he considered himself a patriotic American. But what he really wanted was that badge. Elvis was like a little kid in some respects. And Elvis knew how to get what he wanted out of anybody. He got that badge, but he first had to get to the President. Yes, it was an argument over money with his father that precipitated his uncharacteristic flight from Graceland and, yes, he'd never traveled solo before. He really did have no idea how to buy things and no cash with which to do so. And, yes, he really did wear a caped purple velvet suit. Nobody knew where he'd gone to, and Graceland was in an uproar. For the only time in his adult life (such as it was), he'd broken free. He jetted to DC, then to LA, and then back to DC. Most of the script appears true to accounts from Jerry Schilling and Sonny West, the two real Memphis Mafians who were there, and from others to whom Elvis recounted the story. As unbelievable as it may seem, that includes the classic scene in the DC-ghetto doughnut shop as well as his trouble with carrying guns on to an airliner and his giving all his money to a soldier. Other inaccuracies add to the storyline. For one, I don't think he wandered along Sunset Boulevard while he was in LA. Also, though he did shoot out a TV screen at least once when the hated Robert Goulet was on it (and, yes, he uttered the same quip used in the film: "that'll be enough of that s***"), he didn't do it during this time period. The fact is that the King was fairly restrained in killing TVs and didn't make a particular habit of it. The film's very well done, with a lighthearted and ironic feel appropriate to the actual events. There're even two references that foreshadow Elvis' daughter's doomed marriage to Michael Jackson. The actors are all perfect in their roles. In particular, Rick Peters makes an excellent Elvis. He doesn't look entirely like him (well, in some shots he looks eerily like him) but he's closer than most and he's pulled off the best characterization since Kurt Russell's 1979 turn as Elvis. The voice, the mannerisms...it's all there. A little over-the-top and far more (Less)