Movie Review: Elvis Presley: The Searcher, Directed by Thom Zimny (2018)

Promo image for Elvis Presley: The Searcher, directed by Thom Zimny, 2018.

Elvis Presley, recording what became known as the "Comeback Special," June, 1968.

Elvis Presley: The Searcher, an HBO documentary directed by Thom Zimny, is the documentary that Elvis Presley needs and deserves. I think all too often, Presley’s true talents get obscured by his status as a cultural icon. The focus throughout The Searcher is on Presley’s music, which is the reason he became such an icon in the first place. 

The Searcher also takes you inside Elvis’ private life, but it doesn’t dwell there. If you want stories about Elvis’ odd behavior, like shooting guns at television sets, or flying to Washington, D.C. on the spur of the moment to meet President Richard Nixon, you’ll have to look elsewhere. 

The documentary uses Presley’s 1968 “Comeback Special” as a framing device, and Zimny puts forth the theory that the Comeback Special is the closest we ever get to the “real” Elvis Presley. I think that’s a good idea, and it works well. However, despite the fact that The Searcher spends time exploring Elvis’s love for gospel music, it doesn’t include any clips of the excellent gospel medley he performed on the Comeback Special. 

Something I really enjoyed about The Searcher is that we never actually see the talking heads who provide narration. That keeps the focus squarely on Elvis himself, and it means the talking heads never become a distraction. And the people chosen to provide commentary do an excellent job at contextualizing Elvis’ career. They include: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Priscilla Presley, among many others. 

There’s maybe a little too much material that deals with the theme, “Elvis was really good friends with black people,” but I understand why it’s there, given that cultural appropriation is such a huge topic in the arts these days. While Elvis certainly took a lot of inspiration from African American music, whether you’re talking about gospel or rhythm and blues, he mixed all of those influences together in his own special way, and it always came out sounding like Elvis. As he told Sun secretary Marion Keisker, when she asked him who he sounded like, “I don’t sound like nobody.”

There are small quibbles I had throughout the film, but ultimately they are minor next to the impact of the documentary as a whole. But the quibbles aren’t so small I won’t mention them. Why didn’t we get to see any footage from Elvis’ 1957 films Loving You and Jailhouse Rock? While I agree that King Creole was probably Elvis’s finest film, Loving You and Jailhouse Rock were two excellent movies filled with some really great songs. The performance of “Jailhouse Rock” is in some ways an early music video, as it presents us with creative visuals paired to the lyrics, and it’s one of the best examples of Elvis dancing in a movie. 

No details are given on Ann-Margret’s relationship with Elvis during the filming of Viva Las Vegas. That isn’t surprising, given Priscilla Presley’s involvement with the documentary. Priscilla doesn’t want to change the narrative that Elvis was being a perfect boyfriend in Hollywood while hiding her away at Graceland. 

The documentary shields us from the worst of Elvis, and that’s understandable. There are no clips of him from the TV special Elvis in Concert, filmed in June of 1977 on what would prove to be Elvis’s last tour. Elvis in Concert was broadcast on CBS less than two months after his death, but has never been officially released by Presley’s estate. I do think The Searcher would have benefitted from a couple more film clips from Presley’s really crappy movies to show how bad they were. As examples of how bad his movies got, we get clips of “Wooden Heart,” from G.I. Blues, which was a Number One single in the U.K., and “Bossa Nova Baby,” from Fun in Acapulco, which was a Top Ten hit in the U.S. Sure, they are cheesy songs, but they’re nowhere near as ridiculous as Elvis singing “Old MacDonald” on the back of a truck full of animals in Double Trouble. Oddly enough, there’s no mention at all in The Searcher of “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” which has become one of Elvis’ signature songs.

It must have been tremendously isolating to have been Elvis Presley. But, he also chose to isolate himself. At one point in The Searcher, someone is talking about Elvis performing in Las Vegas and how Elvis would never see the sunlight. Well, that was Elvis’ choice. I’m pretty sure he could have gotten up earlier, gone outside, and then done his two shows for the night. Also, someone says that the audiences in Las Vegas were too fancy for him. I would disagree with that: just watch the footage of Elvis singing “Love Me Tender,” going through the audience and kissing women in Elvis: That’s the Way It Is. The audiences seem pretty thrilled to see Elvis. 

That’s enough of my quibbles and nitpicking. What I really enjoyed about The Searcher is how it presents Elvis as a singer and a musician. That’s really what he was; he just happened to be a singer and musician who made it very, very big. One of the most interesting anecdotes in the film is from one of the musicians who worked with Presley in the 1970’s. He said that Presley had a hard time singing “Burning Love,” because he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to sing the upbeat song. It’s hard to believe, since it was such a great song and one of the last rock and roll songs Elvis ever sang. But the song that spoke to him more was the beautiful ballad “Separate Ways,” recorded the day before “Burning Love.” At the time, Elvis was dealing with his separation from Priscilla, and “Separate Ways” was his way of addressing the pain he felt. It made me realize how Elvis really had to feel the lyrics he was singing to give a great performance. Of course, there were many times in his career when he wasn’t feeling the lyrics of the song he was singing (see: all those crappy movies) but those songs didn’t end up being great performances. It’s easy to criticize Elvis for not singing more rock and roll his last few years, but that’s just not where he was at that time. Finally realizing this made me cut Elvis a little more slack for the last few years. 

The Searcher doesn’t shed any new light on Elvis’ death. However, in interviews promoting The Searcher, Priscilla Presley has put forth her own theory that Elvis committed suicide. It really shocks me that Priscilla would say that, since she has worked for decades to build and maintain the Elvis Presley brand worldwide, and suicide wouldn’t seem to be part of the Elvis Presley brand. I do think Elvis Presley was severely depressed the last few years of his life. I think his aversion to the recording studio during his final years shows that he wasn’t feeling well. After a week of recording sessions in December of 1973, Elvis only entered a recording studio once more during his lifetime—in March, 1975. Elvis’ 1976 recording sessions were done with RCA’s mobile unit in the Jungle Room at Graceland. Elvis was probably depressed and needed a break from the treadmill of touring that his life had become. But I just can’t imagine him choosing suicide. Elvis was also deeply religious, and I don’t know how he would have justified suicide with his religious beliefs. Of course, no one will ever know for sure. 

The villain of The Searcher is “Colonel” Tom Parker, Elvis’ huckster manager. Long a figure of criticism among Elvis fans, Parker’s management of Presley from 1955 until 1960 was actually pretty shrewd. Parker negotiated a $40,000 buyout of Elvis’ Sun Records contract by RCA Victor, and also masterminded Elvis’ entry into the movies. When Elvis entered the U.S. Army for a two-year stint, Parker didn’t want Elvis to record during those two years. It was a huge gamble, as pretty much everyone at the time thought that rock and roll was merely a fad, and there was no guarantee that anyone would want to buy an Elvis Presley record two years in the future. It turned out to be a shrewd move, as Presley’s absence from music caused a pent-up demand for new product upon Presley’s return to civilian life in 1960.

From 1961 on, Parker’s management of Elvis was pretty much a disaster. Parker’s theory seemed to be, keep repeating what worked until it no longer makes money. So, during the 1960’s Elvis turned out three mediocre movies a year, with soundtracks to match, and when he returned to live performances at the end of the decade, the 1970’s turned into a never-ending tour of U.S. cities. Apart from five shows in Canada in 1957, Presley never performed outside of the United States. The reason for this? Parker was an illegal alien from the Netherlands who didn’t have a passport. Parker was afraid that if he left the United States, he might never have been allowed back in. (In retrospect, that might have been the best thing for Elvis’ career.) Presley needed challenges to keep himself fresh and on top of his game, and touring foreign countries would have certainly provided him with new challenges. 

The Searcher also made me think about just how revolutionary Elvis Presley must have seemed in 1956. His name was weird—who had ever heard of someone named Elvis? He looked weird—who wore sideburns that long? He moved weird—what was he doing with his hips on stage? However unlikely a star Elvis Presley may have seemed in 1956, his influence on popular music continues to be deeply felt more than sixty years later.