Elvis & Nixon opened over the weekend with little fanfare but with a barrage of unconstructive, ineffectual reviews. Liza Johnson directed this slice-of-Elvis-lore, which chronicles the time that Presley flew to Washington, D.C., on the spur of the moment to meet President Richard Nixon. Their meeting resulted in a famous photo of the two iconic figures shaking hands, which is the most requested image from the National Archives. Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey star as Presley and Nixon.
The movie prompted me to go back to my collection of Presley bios and resources to reexamine the incident. I checked in All Shook Up: Elvis Day by Day, 1954-1977, which is my favorite reference because it objectively and succinctly chronicles Presley’s actions on a day by day basis. I also reread parts of Peter Guralnik’s definitive, two-volume biography. I offer a pared down version of the event here, not to accuse the film of inaccuracy but to provide a proper backstory. On December 19, 1970, after an argument with his family about overspending for Christmas, Elvis boarded a commercial flight in Memphis bound for Washington, D.C. He checked into the Washington Hotel as Jon Burrows, one of his aliases. That night, he boarded a flight to Los Angeles, arriving well after midnight. Jerry Schilling, a former member of Elvis’s Memphis Mafia, met him at the plane with a limo. After dropping off at least two stewardesses, whom Elvis had promised a ride, he and Schilling arrived at Presley’s house on Hillcrest Drive. The following morning, December 20, the pair flew to Washington, D.C., with Elvis using the alias Dr. John Carpenter (his character’s name in his last film, Change of Habit).
THE MOST REQUESTED PHOTO FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
On the plane, Elvis spoke with several soldiers heading home from Vietnam, and he ended up giving them all of his cash. He also spoke with George Murphy, a movie star-turned-politician who was the Republican senator from California. In the course of the conversation, Murphy promised to phone John Ingersoll, who was the director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), and also try to get hold of J. Edgar Hoover on Elvis’s behalf. By this time, Presley had an objective in mind for his trip to Washington—to obtain a federal agent’s badge from the BNDD. On the plane, he composed a hand-written letter to President Nixon, requesting a meeting to discuss becoming “a Federal agent at Large [sic].”
There are a couple of murky details about the incident that Elvis & Nixon does not address. For example, when exactly did Elvis’s escape from Graceland turn into a mission for a badge? Was it his goal as soon as he arrived at the Memphis airport on December 19, or did it occur to him after speaking with Senator Murphy, who agreed to arrange a meeting with Ingersoll? Whatever the case, the writers of Elvis & Nixon chose to leave Murphy out of the story all together. Also, Elvis’s desire to be a federal agent at large is treated as an outrageous idea in the film, which to some degree it is. But, the film does not acknowledge that there was a kind of precedent that had influenced Presley. Just a few weeks earlier in Los Angeles, he had been introduced to Paul Frees, a voice-over actor in cartoons and commercials. Frees was also an undercover drug agent, and he had just been given his badge from the BNDD, which he showed to Elvis.
THE MOMENT RECREATED IN ‘ELVIS & NIXON’
Schilling and Presley landed in D.C. early on the morning of December 21. They drove directly to the White House, and Elvis delivered his letter for Nixon to the guard. The pair checked into the Washington Hotel, where Sonny West, another member of the Memphis Mafia, later joined them. Despite efforts on Murphy’s part, which remain unclear, Ingersoll was out of the office that day. Instead, Presley met with Deputy Director John Finlator, who dismissed the singer and his request. Elvis’s meeting with the President was set up by aides Bud Krogh and Dwight Chapin, despite the misgivings of H.R. Haldeman. To get his badge, Elvis merely went over the head of Finlator by asking Nixon for it, and the President agreed to the request. The two discussed America’s drug problem, communism, the youth movement, even the Beatles. Elvis left after coercing Nixon into meeting Schilling and West and giving them souvenir pins and cuff links with the White House insignia on them. Elvis never did meet Hoover.
EVAN PETERS AS DWIGHT CHAPIN
ALEX PETTYFER AS JERRY SCHILLING
Elvis & Nixon dramatizes the event beginning with Elvis’s hasty escape from Graceland and concluding with the trio’s departure from the White House, emphasizing certain parts of the story while eliminating others. Over the weekend, there was the obligatory “exposing inaccuracies” article that always seems to accompany a narrative film based on history. Inevitably, these types of articles miss the bigger picture. To me, the screenplay exhibited an in-depth knowledge of Elvis, not only in regard to this incident but of his life and career in general. I sensed this from the sympathetic portrayal that was unafraid to depict his foibles and eccentricities. I could also detect the tiny details of the story that reveal a depth of knowledge, such as the meaning behind the pendant that Elvis wore on this occasion, the small box of face creams and toiletries he always carried, or why he liked to watch a trio of television sets in the TCB room at Graceland. The screenplay is credited to an unlikely group of writers—Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, and Cary Elwes. The latter is the handsome blond star of The Princess Bride. Joey and Hanala Sagal were married when they wrote the script, though they have since gone their separate ways. Joey is also an actor; he played Elvis in a TV mini-series based on Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes, in the film Unbeatable Harold, and in the TV series Chronicles. Sagal makes an appearance at the beginning of the film as Elvis tribute artist Joe King who takes the real Presley for a fellow impersonator. Joey is the son of Boris Sagal, who directed Elvis in Girl Happy, which airs on TCM on May 1. I suspect it was Mr. Sagal who knew the Presley lore and literature so well.
NIXON MEETS THE REAL-LIFE SONNY WEST AND JERRY SCHILLING.
I found the iconic figures in Elvis & Nixon to be doppelgangers of each other; a doppelganger is a pair of characters who are exact opposites, that is, alike but opposite. At first, their differences are readily apparent. The idea of the two meeting—a conservative, unattractive politician in a forgettable suit and a drop-dead handsome rock ‘n’ roller in a cape and monogrammed sunglasses—is considered absurd, even by Nixon. It appears they have nothing in common; their worlds just don’t mix. But, as the film progresses, their similarities are clear. As the King and the President, both have reached an exalted station in life. Each has two trusted aides who pamper, prepare, and protect their commander in chief; each have a protocol that must be followed when meeting outsiders. In this time frame, both are experiencing career high points—Nixon has been elected president and he is actively working on a plan to visit China, while Elvis reinvigorated his career by returning to public performances. But, the scandals and disgrace that will later destroy their reputations and legacies hang over the film like a shroud. Alienated and lonely, partly because of their professions and partly because of their personal proclivities, Presley and Nixon—as presented in the film—are eccentric, spoiled, troubled, and out of touch with the everyday world. This is the price they pay for their ambitions and success as the King and the President, and, down the line, we know they will pay in full.
IMAGES SUCH AS THIS IN WHICH CHARACTERS FACE EACH OTHER IN A BALANCED COMPOSITION SUGGEST THEY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.
I was taken aback by the reviews and publicity articles for the film. I stopped reading after five or six articles, because the same, decades-old clichés about Elvis were trotted out once again. One reviewer thought director Johnson missed a chance to make a movie that was much more fun; in other words, she did not take the opportunity to present Presley and Nixon as jokes, a la talk-show humor. Another reviewer brought up the old—and completely unfounded—criticism that Elvis appropriated the music of African Americans and therefore was undeserving of his fame. A reporter for the CBS website interviewed star Michael Shannon; he began with a joke about whether Shannon feared that he was too fat after producers asked him to play Presley. Later, he couldn’t resist asking Shannon if had experienced any Elvis sightings recently. Fat jokes and Elvis-is-alive references! You would think younger press people would come up with some new material. It only proves my belief that in the 62 years since the start of his career, the press has never really understood Elvis Presley.
Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon give interesting performances as Nixon and Elvis. Spacey captures Nixon’s tics and expressions without resorting to caricature, and much of the film’s humor revolves around the president. Shannon has entered that unique group of actors who have played Elvis with varying degrees of success. Next week, I will follow up with a post about the many actors who have tried to bring the King to life on the big screen.