Elvis (2022) vs Priscilla (2023) - The Battle of the Biopics

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[Music] hello everybody I hope you're all well both the Elvis and Priscilla biopics premiered just a year apart from each other and to make matters even more interesting the directors B lurman and sphere cppa are on completely different ends of the spectrum baz lurman who previously directed The Great Gatsby which really liked and Romeo and Juliet his films are a subversive maximalist Feast for the artist I actually read a review that described watching baz lurman films as feeling like you've been beaten up which I feel like is a really good description for Alvis Sophia copper on the other hand takes this more sort of muted approach with her films which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing a lot of the time the subjects of her films are women trapped in gilded cages and I think this very you know soft and gentle presentation especially with a film like Priscilla which handles some pretty sensitive subject matter not only does it get across what it wants to get across but also it utilizes sensitivity in places where I think it was really necessary both of these biopics are very much begging to be compared and contrasted I also find it quite interesting that not everyone but a lot of the people who really love Priscilla hate Elvis and a lot of people who love Elvis didn't like the Priscilla biopic and I just wanted to talk about it today to be honest and share my opinions with you guys obviously all the necessary disclaimers these are just my opinions also this is very much more of an opinion piece than like a typical video essay but honestly I just want to talk about this because I think it's really interesting all of these opinions are my own obviously all of these opinions are my own oh my God shut up obviously I want to know if you guys disagree with me because I find it so interesting but keep it nice and respectful in the comments please I'm watching you and just before we get into it I would love to thank Aura for sponsoring today's video If you Google 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VPN identity Insurance you can get everything with aura at an affordable price you don't have to pay for a bunch of different separate things it's all in Aura you can go to aura.com Jordan Teresa that's a.com Jordan Teresa to start your two we free trial today and it's also linked in the description thank you so much Aura for sponsoring today's video and let's get into [Music] it before we begin reviewing both biopics I feel like it's important to give a very quick Elvis and Priscilla Presley history lesson for anyone that is not in the know because I actually did not know about any of this before I started researching for this video so Priscilla and Elvis met when she was just 14 years old he was 24 and they both met in West Germany after Elvis had been drafted into the Army and Priscilla's dad was an Air Force pilot they met after Priscilla was invited to a party in Elvis's home and Elvis continued to take Priscilla out on dates until he returned to the US in 1960 I'm not going to get into all the details of what happened in the relationship to be honest we cover a lot of it when we start talking about both of the biopics but Priscilla moved in with Elvis in 1963 when she was 17 years old she was enrolled in a Catholic school there to finish her senior year and she was chaperoned by Elvis's dad and Elvis's grandmother Elvis and Priscilla got married in 1967 and Priscilla gave birth to their only daughter Lisa Marie in 1968 exactly 9 months after their wedding day Priscilla and Elvis filed for legal separation in 1972 and then their divorce was finalized in 1973 but they remained close after their divorce they actually left the courthouse holding hands and after Elvis's death in 1977 Elvis's father Vernon Presley was the executive of his estate and Vernon named Priscilla as his successor after his death Veron Presley passed away in 1979 Priscilla became the executive of the Elvis estate and was holding it in trust for when Lisa Marie turned 21 Graceland which was Elvis and Priscilla's home was really expensive to upkeep it cost $500,000 a year to upkeep and because of this Lisa Marie in inheritance dwindled down to $1 million dwindled down to $1 million Priscilla hired CEO Jack Soden to turn graceand into a tourist attraction which opened its doors in 1983 and just 4 weeks into this tourist attraction being up and running they earned back their initial investment and under Priscilla's guidance Elvis Presley Enterprises which Priscilla was the chairperson and president for until Lisa Marie turn 21 grew to be worth over 100 million ion I think the Priscilla biopic has almost been painted as the antithesis of the Elvis biopic which I totally understand why and I'm in partial agreement Sophia copper knew that Bas lurman was working on Elvis's biopic the same time that she was working on the Priscilla biopic and she wanted Priscilla's story to be heard and I completely agree because Priscilla in the Elvis biopic was such a tiny small role but Priscilla Presley was very openly supportive of baz lerman's Elvis biopic she even walked the metgala carpet yeah she walked at the metgala with the cast of Elvis and I think it's a real shame that Elvis's family members and the Elvis estate could not extend this same Grace to Priscilla Presley when the Priscilla biopic came out Priscilla produced written and directed by safia cppa is actually based on Priscilla Presley's Memoir Elvis and me which was published in 1985 by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon and coppa's biopic follows Priscilla played by Kaylee spany entire relationship with Elvis Presley Jacob AI from the moment they met in West Germany when she was just 14 years old to when she moved to graceand when she was 17 years old their marriage in 1967 the birth of their only daughter and then Priscilla deciding to leave Elvis in 1972 Elvis which is co-produced and directed by baz lman follows the life and death of Elvis Presley Austin Butler and is actually narrated and told Through The Eyes of his long-term manager Colonel Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks who actually financially abused Elvis and took up to 50% of his earnings to fund his gambling addiction it was believed that Parker lost at least 1 million a year and by Elvis's death in 1977 owed the Las Vegas Hilton over $30 million which in 20122 is nearly $150 million what Priscilla is over 13 years and the Elvis biop pick is spanned well over 20 years but the pacing could not be any more different Priscilla is pretty fast-paced don't get me wrong they often Mark the passage of time with like The Ripping of calendar pages but because the pacing of the film is very gentle it feels slow without feeling dragged out which is one thing I found really surprising about Priscilla was the length of the film I thought it was a neat hour and a half and it was 2 hours long and I could have easily watched half an hour more when I started watching Alvis I thought I accidentally clicked on the trailer it is a complete and utter break neck Pace especially in that first half to the point where it was so disorienting and unfortunately I don't think this pacing really worked in Elvis's favor I feel like on paper a fastpaced Elvis bile pick makes a lot of sense it matches up with Elvis's Rock and Roll Lifestyle but the pacing was so fast especially in that first half that it felt pretty devoid of emotion it felt like a very untimate look into Elvis's life nothing was ever left to sit with the audience and I thought that was actually a really big shame I actually think if the Elvis biopic was paced similarly to The Wolf of Wall Street it would have really worked it just would have been perfect but it's so it's so fast I don't know what I was expecting when I went into Elvis but it was not this it literally felt like I was being beaten up the pacing and the storytelling is honestly Indescribable and you know what I am going to give credit where credit is due one thing that I really respect about the Elvis biopic is that it's a very subversive take on the biopic in my humble opinion and I'm sure many of you guys agree I remember me and Jack were actually talking about this is that biopics these days especially in the last 10 to 15 years they feel like Oscar fodder biopics are basically a guarantee to get Award nominations Best Actor best picture and look sometimes they are deserving but also I think biopics unfortunately can fall into the Trap of being overtly sanitized which in turn makes them boring and I think that it can make them feel very uncreative and quite uninspired as well which is funny because biopic are literally inspired by a real person but this isn't for all biopics this is just for some biopics now this isn't to say that Elvis wasn't sanitized we are going to talk about that later in this video but Elvis was a really creative subversive biopic you know the pacing the cinematography the camera work it's all just really different and I honestly really really respect it and really really rate it but does that mean that I liked it [Music] guys I want to make it clear that I tried really really hard to let go of any of my biases going into watching Elvis I kind of knew that ultimately I probably was going to prefer Priscilla but like I was ready to like let go and like enjoy this film regardless of my current biases the pacing especially in that first like half hour to hour of Alves it's slightly incomprehensible it's very caricatural you know we're going to talk that talk about the acting in just a moment but it was a very fast-paced film that also because they switched up the pace halfway through which I'm not even mad about but because of the change in p and because of the fact that it's 2 and a half hour long film it felt like I was like what the [ __ ] is going on but also this is really dragging out like how can a film be fast and slow at the same time and not in a good [Applause] way I know a lot of you guys probably want me to say which Elvis I preferred Austin Butler or Jacob AI who is the superior Elvis and I'm going to keep it real with you I don't think that these performances can be compared because Austin Butler is the protagonist in Elvis meanwhile Jacob AI is very much a secondary character in Priscilla I personally really enjoyed Jacob oli's performance in prilla I think he really nailed the Mystique around Elvis he felt really distant from us as audience members I actually remember oh my God not me doing my second Jack mention in my video sorry guys I'm literally obsessed with him but I remember Jack said to me that he noticed when he was watching it that there's loads of close-ups of Priscilla but a majority of the shots of Elvis are far away and distant because we feel like we never really know him similarly to I'm sure Priscilla possibly may have felt that way in the relationship as well and something that I really liked about Priscilla is I felt like I was getting to know Elvis through Priscilla not only through her eyes the entire film has this very girlish romantic Haze about it but I felt like I was getting to know Elvis through his girlfriend like Elvis felt like my friend's boyfriend which is exact like I feel like it nailed that kind of feeling basically what I'm trying to say is I feel like the perfect amount of distance was placed between the audience member and Elvis it always felt like Priscilla's story and it never felt overshadowed by Jake A's performance I don't have any critiques for Austin Butler's performance it felt very over the top and very literal but I think it really worked with the tone of the film I do think that the pacing of the first half of the film didn't work in Austin's favor it felt like I was only ever seeing him in flashes I felt like I wasn't truly getting to know him and I felt like Austin Butler wasn't given like a proper chance to flex his acting muscles in that first half as much as he should have especially because nothing as I said earlier nothing was really left to sit with us as audience members Kaylee Spain as Priscilla I really enjoyed this performance first of all kudos to the hair and makeup team because whilst I was watching Priscilla I could not tell what age Kaylee spany was her performance was muted yet emotionally layered I felt like Kaylee spany really matched up well to the gender expectations of that time Priscilla followed a very typical storytelling structure because it felt very slow paced but also I could see the evolution of Priscilla with my own eyes it was almost that especially towards the second half of the film when she started getting sick of Elvis's [ __ ] it's almost like you could see the cogs turning in her brain and her changing and evolving and above everything it felt really natural I think playing Priscilla in this very you know sort of I guess she was quite timid kind of way it can sort of ve on caricatural territory but it always felt really natural when I was watching it I never felt like I was watching Kaylee spany acting and especially on the second rewatch Kaye Spain's performance just made me really emotional because it felt like I had taken this entire journey of 13 years with her and especially the final scene which I'm going to talk about in a moment I was literally nearly crying and if we just circle back to the her makeup for a second kayy Spain's makeup was so cleverly done because when Elvis takes Priscilla shopping and I think she's around like 17 at the time all the dresses that she's trying on look too big for her the white stilettos that Priscilla wears around the house look about half a size too big she looks like a child playing dress up because that's essentially what she was doing I don't think there's any point in comparing Kaylee Spain's Priscilla to Olivia De jeon Priscilla Priscilla in the Elvis biopic is definitely a symptom of The Wider issue that I had whilst watching the Elvis bopic and that is trying to sanitize Elvis for a more younger and more liberal audience we are going to get more into this when we start talking about like the actual contents of each of the biopics but Priscilla in the Elvis biopic is characterized drastically differently to Priscilla in the Priscilla bi pick in Elvis Priscilla's age is never mentioned she is introduced as the teenage daughter of an Air Force pilot they make zero effort to make Olivia deong look younger in fact Olivia dong and Kaylee spany are the same age yet kayy looks about a decade younger than Olivia when they're both playing Teenage Priscilla Kaye plays Priscilla as reserved sweet likable only speaks when spoken to which does match up to the gender expectations of that time mean whilst Olivia's Priscilla is more outspoken and Spunky and I'm not even necessarily against portraying Priscilla as a little bit boisterous but when it's in the Elvis bi pick it all feels a little bit intentional and I think Olivia deang alongside all of the secondary characters in Elvis her performance just felt very one not but again I don't think she was given a lot to work with but there was one performance which stood out to me and Elvis for all the wrong reasons that is Colonel Tom Parker who's played by Tom Hanks now perhaps he's leaning into like the over the toop and almost like the campiness of this film but I just canot get behind it first of all Tom Hanks is dripping drowning in Prosthetics and that wouldn't be so bad but his accent so car to Parker is from the Netherlands and Tom Hanks sort of just does this broad like Mainland European European accent the only thing that matters is that that man gets up on that stage tonight this is supposed to be a a Dutch accent and the only way that I can describe how it sounds to me is it sounds like a stereotypical European Father Christmas do you know what pull that's the only way I could describe it like he sounds like the lint master choler master choler and the problem is is that the entire El's biopic is narrated by Colonel Tom Parker and because the film is going so far as is there is an excessive amount of interjection when it comes to narration otherwise we would probably have no idea what's going on as soon as I found myself like enjoying the music or like enjoying a butler boom Tom hanks's European accent it would like take over the scene like it was like the voice of God I am the legendary Colonel Tom Parker and despite Tom hanks's Prosthetics and his European accent and the fact that he had the most dialogue in the film his performance felt the most one note out of all of them and surprisingly I'm about to defend Tom Hanks here I don't actually think this is the fault of Tom Hanks I'm going to elaborate more on this later in the video but Colonel Tom Parker is definitely characterized as cartoonishly evil like he is just the villain he's the villain is it me am I the drama every single one of Elvis's failings is the fault of the colonel so I don't know what to call him like I feel like chel Tom Parker is so official but I feel like Tom is like a bit casual like he's my mate but then Parker I don't know oh my go should I call him CTP Elvis is essentially given zero autonomy in his own biopic and look we can all get into debates of whether biopics should or shouldn't be historically accurate whether we should take these all with a grain of salt they're just a bit of fun but this very black and white good versus evil storytelling it just makes for a boring film and it wasn't that the film itself was boring I was never sat there bored but I just find these kinds of stories to be boring do you know what I mean surprisingly Colonel Tom Parker C what I call him again CTP CTP doesn't actually make an appearance in Priscilla he's referenced to a lot and he's mentioned but I can imagine this was probably because I was about to call him CTP seriously colel oh my God colel Tom Parker was like a very long-standing figure in Elvis's life they literally had a business relationship with each other for like what 30 years so I can imagine for the Priscilla biopic that only two consistent characters to be in the biopic should be Priscilla and Elvis and also I think this just referencing him and mentioning him I think that it further asserted his power over Elvis almost like this Godlike presence that he had in Elvis's life before we talk about what actually happens in both of the biopics let's talk about the music and this is why I feel like it gets really really interesting because the Priscilla biopic surprisingly was not approved by the Elvis estate and sopia was blocked from using any of Elvis Presley's music the Elvis of state were so appalled when hearing that sfia copper would be making a biopic about Priscilla Presley that Lisa Marie Presley actually wrote sfia coppler an email a very scathing one at that when she got hands on the script my father only comes across as a predator and manipulative as his daughter I don't read this and see any of my father in this character I don't read this and see my mother's perspective of my father I read this and see your shocking vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don't understand why I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you my mother and this film publicly I am worried that my mother isn't seeing the Nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father's Legacy I am worried she doesn't understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have some efforts were made to tone down the script after this email I believe they shaved off about 10 pages of the script Lisa Marie did pass away before Priscilla was released and although she didn't speak out against her mother specifically and the email seemed way more directed towards safia cppa and the creation of the film but I still think that it's really really shameful that Priscilla Presley Who is credited as an executive producer on Priscilla was not extended the same Grace that she extended to Elvis for her entire life I think the intentions behind Priscilla was to tell Priscilla's story and if Elvis comes across as a monster then maybe that's more of a reflection on his actions rather than on sfia coppa's film making again we're going to talk more about this later in the video but s copper not being able to use any of Elvis Presley's music in a biopic about his wife was obviously going to prove to be a challenge but a challenge that she very much Rose to and I also think this challenge really worked in sopia cpp's favor not using any of Elvis's music it helped bring Elvis back down to earth it stripped him from what made him a superstar his music his talent without that he is just a man and we can truly see his actions for what they are the Priscilla soundtrack is really good I was listening to a lot of it when I was working on this video not only do they use a mixture of songs pre and post 1960s but they looked at pictures of Elvis's vinyl collection and selected different songs and different genres of music that he liked to listen to and even more cleverly one of the songs that Sophia coppler really wanted to use in the film was I believe it was Love Me Tender but obviously there wer weren't allowed to use it so they found the original sample of the song which was in public domain and re-recorded it for Priscilla and the last song heard in the film which is the scene when Priscilla leaves graceand is I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton and there's actually a really interesting story oh my God am I about to mention Jack again yes I am Jack told me this Dolly Parton actually wrote the song for Elvis Presley but Elvis Presley wanted all of the rights and the ownership over the song which Dolly did not agree to so she did not give him the song in the end she recorded it herself and ended up being a huge hit girl power I think the musical numbers in Elvis is where the film really thrived and came to life and really personally connected with me you know the film it was alive the entire time I can't say that the film wasn't absolutely bursting at the scams with energy but I felt personally connected to the musical numbers so much because I feel like it was the part of the film where it really slowed down like yes they were these musical scenes were absolutely you know they were bursting with energy the energy was bouncing off of the walls but it was definitely where I felt like the film was most present it was definitely when the film slowed down the most and as an audience we could fully take it all in and I really liked Austin Butler in these scenes as well actually he sung throughout the whole of Elvis and then in post they remixed his voice with Elvis's voice and I'm going to spill something I had never really listened to Elvis Presley's music before before watching Elvis and guys he had bangers like he had bangers cuz sometimes I like listen to music where everyone was like oh this was like the music of like 50 years ago and you're like it was okay his music's great I was really blown away and it really did highlight to me why he was such an icon now let's get on to the nitty-gritty the actual contents of each of the bi piic sorry if contents is like a re really weird word to use I I don't know what else the word to use sorry I'm being weird I'm really hungry as I mentioned earlier Elvis follows Elvis throughout his entire life and his career Priscilla follows Priscilla through her relationship with Elvis I have actually SE read and seen a little bit of critique about the fact that the Priscilla biopic only follows Priscilla through her relationship with Elvis and I do understand especially at the end I was like look I could do another half an hour of what Priscilla is getting up to post divorce from Elvis Presley but also it is based off the Memoir Elvis and me and also throughout this 13 years that we spend with Priscilla we see her choosing to leave Elvis and live this completely separate life from him and have her own friends and her own hobbies and I think that's really nice to see we follow Priscilla and her relationship with a man who is 10 years older than her a man an adult but also one of the most famous men in the entire world and through her eyes we see Elvis taking Priscilla out on dates when she was just 14 years old flying her out and inevitably moving her out to graceand when she was 17 years old introducing her to uppers and downers Elvis threatening to send Priscilla back to Germany when she confronts him about one of his many affairs Elvis not letting Priscilla get a job because she has to stay at home and be able to talk to him on the phone whenever he needs it keep the home fires burning Elvis choosing Priscilla's outfits and telling her what colors she looks best in and asking her what the hell is she wearing when she Strays away from these colors advising her to dye her hair and wear more eye makeup we see Elvis's temper where he literally launched a chair in Priscilla's Direction when she critiqued his music after he asked her Elvis not wanting to have sex with Priscilla after she became a mother and continuing to have affairs and we follow Priscilla through this entire Journey until she decides to leave him something which I think Priscilla really accurately portrayed is Priscilla being seduced by the lifestyle that Elvis provides for her not only is Elvis one of the most famous heartthrobs of the time but also he provides this life for her that she would not have if it wasn't for him he moves her back to the states he takes her shopping he took her partying he almost gave her a life which any girl at that time would dream of but obviously it came with being married to Elvis and also being thrown into a completely Adult World as a child it's no wonder that the Elvis estate disapproved of this film Lisa Marie even going far enough to email Sophia cppa herself but I think this idea that fear coper is intentionally portraying Elvis as a manipulator and a monster I mean come on now if anything I think sopia Copper's film making would actually work in Elvis's favor you know soften the blow almost because we are viewing all of Elvis's actions through Priscilla we are viewing all of his actions through this very girlish Haze a very romantic lens you know the cinematography is beautiful the setting is like very feminine the music is romantic and also Elvis is played by Jacob AI who is easily like I'm getting hot bothered Jacob Ali is one of the most like definitive heartthrobs of our time if Elvis is coming across as a manipulator then maybe he was one because I don't think anything in sfia Copper's film making was making Elvis look worse than he was Priscilla is a very sort of straightforward biopic sfia doesn't really play fast and loose with the truth she's following Priscilla pre's Memoir Elvis follows Elvis Presley throughout his entire life when he gets discovered and then managed by Colonel Tom Parker the financial abuse that he is victim to under Tom Parker the moral outcry that his music and Swinging hips caused the death of his mother his marriage to Priscilla and Performing and essentially becoming entrapped in his Vegas residency there are a lot of things that I can talk about and say when it comes to the Elvis biic but I think most of my Hang-Ups when it comes to the Elvis biopic is this sanitized image of Elvis that we are presented and I feel like I could let this fly a lot easier if Lisa Mar did not email sopia copper herself and say she was going to speak out against the Priscilla biopic or if the Elvis of estate weren't so against the Priscilla biopic Lisa Marie had praised baz lerman's Elvis writing on Instagram that lurman treated her father with pure love care and respect and praised Austin Butler's performance finally done accurately and respectfully look and I'm not trying to slam Lisa Marie Presley too much in this video because she's passed away like but I find this support of the Elvis biopic alongside the vocal condemnation of the Priscilla biopic to be especially infuriating when I found out that baz lurman was playing very fast and loose with the truth and some of the most notable moments in Elvis just didn't happen and again I'm sure I would care a hell of a lot less if the Elvis estate hadn't been so against the Priscilla baric but you you know what if we're playing that game the Elvis biopic presents such a sanitized image of Elvis that I would describe it more as an iconography than a biography they gloss over his drug abuse they gloss over his Bing eating disorder they gloss over him meeting Priscilla when she was just 14 years old they gloss over his multiple Affairs the only time that they really confront his Affairs is when he's kissing the women in the audience at one of his Vegas performances but other than that his Affairs were often portrayed as being imposed onto him he was inebriated he was drunk he was high these women were always coming onto him and I don't doubt for a second that the ladies were throwing themselves at Elvis Presley oh my God I just realized I looked like the Sims robber if he slayed but the Elvis biopic seemed to consistently portray Elvis as someone who bad things kept happening to him and he didn't play any role in it and this isn't me trying to say that his binge eating and his drug addiction was his fault not at all but these were genuine heavily reported struggles in his life that the film really glossed over not that they didn't feature them at all but completely glossed over them because they didn't fit this glamorous Godlike image that we have of Elvis in our heads and also because we can't really pin these struggles on Colonel Tom Parker and I don't think that this problem is better displayed than in the character of Colonel Tom Parker CTP and don't get me wrong this this isn't be defending Colonel Tom Parker like in defense of Colonel Tom Parker no he was found to be financially abusing Elvis to fund his gambling addiction but Tom hanks's cartoonishly evil depiction of the colel alongside the fact with every bad decision ever made in Elvis's life or his career was because of the caror and this isn't to say that the Cano did not make any bad decisions in Elvis's career it was like heavily reported that Tom Parker would not let Elvis T internationally because of his own immigration status he worked him like an absolute dog to the point of exhaustion and when Elvis tried to fire him he threatened to sue him essentially in like millions of pounds worth of advances that he'd given him but not every bad decision made in Elvis's life or his career was down to Colonel Tom Parker and I think this very again black and white depiction as a real disservice to the complicated relationship that they had which I could imagine would have been really interesting to explore and flesh out but instead in the Elvis biopic it just felt very monotonous I think politics plays an interesting but very tricky role in Elvis now the Elvis biic does credit black musicians as Elvis's inspiration Elvis grew up in a majority black neighborhood in Memphis and his music was heavily inspired by Blues and gospel and country music and prominent black musicians of the 50s and 60s Big Mama Thornton sister Rosetta Tharp BB King and Little Richard are all in the film but not once is Elvis Presley profiting from industry apartheid ever grappled with yes the Elvis Bic does credit Elvis's Inspirations but it never goes any further not a single black musician or black person in the film ever speaks a bad word about Elvis Presley never criticizes him to his face or behind his back there was never any conversations about Elvis profiting from industry apartheid despite the fact that it was a widespread conversation amongst the black community at the time and honestly still to this day and once again it just does such a disservice to these issues and it could have made again it could have made this biopic really interesting to me it just seems like a very neoliberal take on the was Elvis a cultural appropriator conversation it's just yes he was inspired by black musicians now on to the next phase of his life this bi pick it just lacks a lot of nuance for me it feels very surface level and it's probably intentional because they probably had the elves EST estate looming over the production in exchange for rights to his music and something which felt very intentional to me was that throughout this two and a half hour long biopic not once did they ever feature Elvis's meeting with President Nixon where he rallied against hippies and Drug cult culture and again that would have made for a very interesting part of the film as I've mentioned I feel like a thousand times already they were clearly trying to sanitize Elvis's image so younger and more liberal audiences could empathize and like him more you know cleaning up someone's image isn't unusual for a biopic but it just makes them a little bit bloody boring and I know that people are going to say in the comment section that the Priscilla biopic did leave out some more unsavory aspects of Priscilla the fact that she I think it was she had two Affairs while she was married to Elvis Presley but presle first of all didn't really feel like it was particularly relevant to the film second of all I think with the very sensitive subject matter of Priscilla I think it was really really important to not lean into sensationalism and I think when you start adding Priscilla's Affairs into the mix it sort of leans into that sensationalist territory I think even if the Priscilla biopic did portray some of Priscilla's Affairs would it have made the messaging any different would it would that have made Elvis look better in your eyes [Music] no to wrap up this video it probably seems a little bit obvious what biopic I prefer I did prefer Priscilla and honestly I think that's got to do with the fact that the Elvis biopic just felt so sanitized to me and so intentionally sanitized as well I did find that Priscilla lacked that narrative punch at the end that I was craving I thought the first half was superior to the second half but after researching you know this film for the last couple of weeks I just have so much respect for this film I think that everyone who was involved in Priscilla should be really proud of themselves I really really enjoyed it I didn't want this video to seem like I was [ __ ] on Elvis the entire time because I actually do understand why people liked this film I've sort of just got to accept that clearly wasn't for me and I did try to let go of my biases and I am wholeheartedly convinced that even if I hadn't watched Priscilla first I still wouldn't have enjoyed watching Elvis and despite Elvis telling the story in a very subversive way I still feel like it fell into that sanitized biopic trap but yes I hope that you guys enjoyed this video I actually had a lot of fun making it and yeah let me know what your thoughts are keep it nice keep it respectful please and I'll see you soon for another video bye
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Channel: Jordan Theresa
Views: 317,075
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Keywords: Jordan Theresa, youtube Jordan Theresa, Jordan Theresa youtube, priscilla, priscilla biopic, elvis, elvis biopic, priscilla vs elvis biopic, elvis vs priscilla biopic, elvis vs priscilla movie, priscilla review, elvis review, priscilla sofia coppola, sofia coppola priscilla, cailee spaeny, jacob elordi, jacob elordi elvis, austin butler, austin butler elvis, priscilla video essay, sofia coppola video essay, elvis video essay, jacob elordi priscilla, elvis and priscilla
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Length: 38min 28sec (2308 seconds)
Published: Fri Mar 29 2024
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