• "Elvis & Nixon" (no spoilers)

    From JG Rove@21:1/5 to Russell Watson on Sat Sep 18 16:02:52 2021
    On Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 7:37:09 PM UTC-5, Russell Watson wrote:
    Not sure how this could BE spoiled since it's a "true story" everyone
    knows. Amazon made this and did a good job of it in my opinion. It's the story of two very powerful men who were also both very insecure and
    needy of the people with whom they surrounded themselves, with the
    latter being as much who this is about as the titular characters whose meeting it chronicles. The craggy, pockmarked Michael Shannon seems a
    poor choice for the almost prettily handsome Elvis, but he grows on you
    in the role, and they may have actually been very deliberate about
    choosing him. I see it as a similar case of picking George C. Scott to
    play Patton: to get a guy who wasn't so much like Patton as the kind of
    guy Patton saw himself as being. Shannon doesn't "speak Elvis"
    consistently, but that also appears deliberate, like something he can
    put on and take off as easily as the silk scarf under his collar when he wants to use it, and he never overdoes it to the point of parody. That
    is left to another character in a very funny scene. Kevin Spacey does
    his usual good job as Nixon, nailing his mannerisms and speech patterns (salted with profanities, of course). The movie contains cut away shots
    of views out of car windows etc., some of which are obviously vintage
    and others that may or may not be modern but done in the same grainy
    style, and the movie overall has a bit of a late '60s/early'70s look and
    feel as far as the colors, etc. Probably not for everyone, but if you
    like this sort of thing this is very well-done, in my opinion.

    Elvis came across as a chicken hawk willing to see kids DIE in Vietnam after he spent his Army "draft" years in cushy post Nazi Germany. His crew ran around with police badges from various Southern yokel sheriff's.

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  • From Ed Stasiak@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 19 05:58:39 2021
    Russell Watson

    Not sure how this could BE spoiled since it's a "true story" everyone knows.

    I'll have to check this out if I can find it.

    Elvis was something of a gun-nut and showed up at the White House with several of his handguns to show the President (freaking out the Secret Service) and gave
    Nixon a custom commemorative Colt M1911 pistol, while Nixon got him registered as a DEA "agent at large", which was Elvis' reason for the meeting, as he figured
    it would allow him to legally travel the world with guns and drugs on him.

    https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1085/4732252286_c02c8af2ab_b.jpg

    http://cdn5.upsocl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Rare-Celebrity-Photos-24-58133e17a7a63__605-2.jpg

    But IMO the best version of Elvis (albeit, an old Elvis) was played by Bruce Campbell
    in "Bubba Ho-Tep", which is a hilarious flick and if you can find the DVD, watch it
    again while playing the the voice-over track, where Campbell stays in character the
    whole time. It's even funnier then the movie itself.

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/9a/7c/6a9a7c346e153d4bd2e2af3d63f98005.jpg

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  • From JG Rove@21:1/5 to Ed Stasiak on Mon Sep 20 11:42:15 2021
    On Sunday, September 19, 2021 at 7:58:41 AM UTC-5, Ed Stasiak wrote:
    Russell Watson

    Not sure how this could BE spoiled since it's a "true story" everyone knows.
    I'll have to check this out if I can find it.

    Elvis was something of a gun-nut and showed up at the White House with several
    of his handguns to show the President (freaking out the Secret Service) and gave
    Nixon a custom commemorative Colt M1911 pistol, while Nixon got him registered
    as a DEA "agent at large", which was Elvis' reason for the meeting, as he figured
    it would allow him to legally travel the world with guns and drugs on him.

    https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1085/4732252286_c02c8af2ab_b.jpg

    http://cdn5.upsocl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Rare-Celebrity-Photos-24-58133e17a7a63__605-2.jpg

    But IMO the best version of Elvis (albeit, an old Elvis) was played by Bruce Campbell
    in "Bubba Ho-Tep", which is a hilarious flick and if you can find the DVD, watch it
    again while playing the the voice-over track, where Campbell stays in character the
    whole time. It's even funnier then the movie itself.

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/9a/7c/6a9a7c346e153d4bd2e2af3d63f98005.jpg

    I'll look for Bubba.
    The Elvis entourage packed their usual sidearms to the Nixon visit.
    Nixon traded a photograph and signed autograph for the DEA badge.

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  • From super70s@21:1/5 to JG Rove on Tue Sep 21 04:14:15 2021
    In article <b528af49-54b7-4dab-b740-0c932402aa70n@googlegroups.com>,
    JG Rove <jgrove24@hotmail.com> wrote:

    Elvis came across as a chicken hawk willing to see kids DIE in Vietnam after he spent his Army "draft" years in cushy post Nazi Germany.

    ? Elvis was out of the army by the time there were any significant
    number of US troops in Vietnam, there were only a few US advisers there
    during his hitch and they weren't draftees.

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