The King

R

Released Jun 22, 2018

1 hr. 47 min.

Documentary

Music

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List

77%

96 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis's transition from country boy to "The King" to America's transformation into an empire.

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Critics Consensus

The King pursues a wildly ambitious thesis through some fairly bumpy territory, but emerges as a provocative and insightful look at modern America.

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lise l

Really powerful and critical look at USA and the American dream using Elvis Presley as a lens and a soundtrack.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

david f

A nice road trip movie about Elvis and Americana.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Big Bag of garBAGE..... mY MOM GOT THIS CAUSE THE THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY ABOUT ELVIS. ITS LIKE 10% ELVIS THR REST IS GARBAGE ABOUT TRASHING TRUMP AND SAYING AMERICA SUCKS. aLSO IT HAS PEOPLE CURSING AND RAPPING WITH THE F WORD AND N WORDS. BUNCH OF GARBAGE.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I don't see how you can't like this film. Even the appearances of celebs who I previously disliked, I got something out of what they had to say. Even Dan Rather, who I feared would ruin the middle of the movie. Lots of fresh non-Elvis music, too. I'll watch it again. I think the premise of the movie is valid, but it is not a dogmatic presentation. A sad story, told in an earnest, light-hearted, humurous and heartfelt manner. Jarecki does it again.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

aN ambitious look at Elvis' back story. Maybe it's a familiar story to elvis fans, but for one who's not, like me, it was a wonderful metaphor for how a talented person (usa) filled with trust and naivite (USA) can be taken advantage of by con artists and blame-shifters (usa), and decline into self-destruction due to innocent greed (USA). I loved how people who knew elvis, whose music was influenced by elvis, or who otherwise have strong feelings about elvis were invited to reminisce, sing or opine in the back seat of Elvis' Rolls Royce as it crossed the USA!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

william k

Unusual documentary tracing Presley's life with a colourfully mixed collage of statements from film stars, musicians and analysts; the result is both a portrait of the artist as well as a critical comment to his cultural impact.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Eugene Jarecki

Director

Eugene Jarecki

Self

Alec Baldwin

Self

Chuck D

Self

Ethan Hawke

Self

Mike Myers

Self

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Peter Rainer

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

Way too ambitious for its own good.

Dec 14, 2019

Full Review

Claudia Puig

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

I liked this film. This is kind of a rare documentary ride along.

Dec 14, 2019

Full Review

Tara Brady

Irish Times

It's all rather random, but never dull.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 6, 2018

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

The King is a vastly entertaining and at times uncomfortably intimate account of a life whose rise and tragic fall Jarecki asserts is a metaphor for a parallel demise of the American Empire.

Jun 2, 2020

Full Review

Charlotte Harrison

VultureHound

A lament for something that everyone thought they knew but never actually existed, not as we wanted it to be anyway.

Rated: 4/5

Jan 28, 2020

Full Review

Chris McCoy

Memphis Flyer

The King is required viewing for not just Elvis fans and Memphians, but anyone who strives to understand the state of our sprawling democratic experiment.

Jan 17, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis's transition from country boy to "The King" to America's transformation into an empire.

Director: Eugene Jarecki
Executive Producer: Steven Soderbergh, Joel Thibout
Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co: Charlotte Street Films, Backup Films
Rating: R (Some Disturbing Images|Language|Brief Drug Use)
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 22, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 18, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $253.0K

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