A Filmmaker's Review: "Elvis Presley: The Last 24 Hours" (2004)

Elvis Presley is one of my heroes. My entire family is obsessed with him. My father owns a statue of him, a record collection, various pieces of merchandise. Elvis practically lives in my house constantly and was always there when I was growing up. Since I can remember, he has been a constant shining light of music in my life - as were people like Michael Jackson, Prince, Lionel Richie and others of this kind I listened to from a very early age. Elvis was always the obsession of the entire family though. I remember going to my aunt's house on his birthday and there was just Elvis music on all day, all the merchandise was out (including tupperware, cutlery and plates etc.) There was a massive cape-like shroud with his face on it and obviously, there were pictures my aunt took when she went to Graceland. My parents' wedding song was "Love Me Tender" and yes, I had my own disc collection of Elvis songs.

Now, I have read maybe in excess of 30-40 books on Elvis Presley, listened to the vast majority of his songs, watched many movies and studied his career through various literatures and critiquing journals. This documentary is one of many I have seen on the King and his rather excessive lifestyle and though it covers many points through and through, there is a key reason it only received a 4 and not a 5. And no, it has nothing to do with the subject matter, rather the information conceived on the show - or shall we say, the information it left out.

Summary and Overview

Let's start with the main subject matter of the movie and how it goes about telling us the story of the career of the world's biggest music icon in human history. Well, it begins with his death obviously - it starts with what it's going to end with and it goes through the few hours leading up to when he actually died. Then, it goes back to the very beginning of his career and when he released the song "That's All Right, Mama" (sometimes called simply "That's All Right"). It goes through his Sun Records career and a close analysis of the infamous and controversial Tom Parker, who to many is an antagonising figure of the music industry's establishment-like attitude towards human life. All this part is well and good, it gives us the key information that we need to start painting the bigger picture of what was happening to Elvis Presley as he climbed the ladder not to stardom, but to superstardom.

The fact that it goes through each and every little detail as a piece of overview is probably a good idea for a man who crammed so much into such a short space of time. It touches on his film career, his marriage to Priscilla, his lifestyle and trip to Vegas, but his drug use remained front and centre at all times and the drug use of those around him. It was attempting to normalise this so that it didn't make Elvis look like a bad person for using and abusing drugs. This, I quite liked because it puts it into perspective of the time period - remember this is the 60s/70s when he starts doing drugs. It's not a new thing by this time.

It ends with concentrating on the final year of Elvis's life and how those around him were deeply concerned about his bloating, his eating habits, his arteries and heart, his liver damage and most of all, his prescription drug abuse. Explained to be an 'open secret', Elvis Presley's prescription drug use was said to be a product of the lifestyle set to him by Tom Parker - whom many also blame for the King's early and untimely demise. Let's discuss the advantages of what this documentary teaches us about the King.

Advantages

- We have a good overview of Elvis's career and life so that we can see what becomes of him and we can make a good, easy timeline of the whole situation

- We have numerous accounts by people who not only knew him but also people who spent a considerable amount of time with him. It helps us to understand that yes, Elvis Presley was the King, but he was also a human being once

- It spends a lot of time on the final year of his life and therefore, we get to put the last 24 hours into better perspective as actually being the product of something that happened over a long, long period of time as opposed to just in the space of that one unfortunate day in August

Disadvantages

The reason why this got a 4 and not a 5 has absolutely nothing to do with Elvis but was actually to do with the research done on to the theories of why he died. The documentary seems to go through the prescription drug abuse to the extent of dismissing the various other theories that were brought about by people who knew him, these include: pain - Elvis was in a great deal of pain and the overdose was probably a result and a bi-product of that agony, tiredness - Elvis would've required to be awake or asleep at this certain time and therefore, needed pills to do so, yet another accident that sent him over the edge, and finally one that nobody likes to hear: suicide - the question of whether Elvis Presley committed suicide is always there but never discussed. It's like some people would like to keep the myth the way it was and not even think about the prospect that the King had some mental health problems caused by the controversial and destructive influence of Tom Parker.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this documentary does present the Elvis myth as what it was, a myth. But, in reality it doesn't really shine a light on the other theories surrounding his death whilst also acknowledging that there were other theories surrounding his death. It's a confusing state since the documentary is called "The Last 24 Hours" and so, should be about the theories upon his death as well as a timeline of his life, as well as the private life of the man, as well as who he was in person and what he was actually like. All in all though, if you are new to the King and don't really know much about him - this is a great documentary to watch. But for those of us who have heard the story a billion times over, it's time for us to probably do our own research.

Note: Details and reports on the death of Elvis Presley will not be released officially until 2027.