Likely you have seen the photo: Richard Nixon, President of the United States, shaking hands with Elvis Presley, the King of Rock N’ Roll in full Las Vegas costume. It looks like a joke, one staged with impersonators, but the photo is real and, as the film tells us, the most requested photo of the National Archives.
This absurd, unlikely meeting is the basis of ELVIS & NIXON a hilarious satire starring Kevin Spacey as Nixon and Michael Shannon as Elvis. The film, directed by Liza Johnson with a script by Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal and Cary Elwes, is sly, clever and funny, with a little thoughtful reflection on the insular nature of great fame or power, and human relationships.
In 1970, Elvis Presley (Shannon) unexpectedly shows up at the White House gate, accompanied by friend Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer), to request a meeting with President Richard Nixon (Spacey). Elvis wants to offer to help the President in the war on drugs, by becoming a Federal agent at large. Nixon’s staffers, Egil “Bud” Krogh (Colin Hanks) and Dwight Chapin (Evan Peters) think it could be good PR for the “youth vote” in the next election. Nixon does not even know who Elvis, even though he is one of the most famous men in the country. He dismisses the meeting as a trivial waste of time.
Yet the delusional does meet the paranoid in the end. Nixon and Elvis are two iconic figures of an earlier era but ones you would never expect to see in the same room. Presley was one of the most beloved figures in entertainment, whose death spawned denials and decades of Las Vegas impersonators but also a symbol of the excesses of fame – a man who shot his TVs when he didn’t like what he saw, loved his guns, held politically conservative views, but drank, drugged and lived the life of rock n’ roll excess. Nixon was once called “the most hated man in America,” a politician known as “Tricky Dick” noted for both underhanded politics, personal paranoia and his serious, wonky un-hipness, who ramped up the Vietnam War, secretly bombed Cambodia, opened China and was the only president to resign.
That two such people existed in the same time period seems odd enough. The possibility they would meet seems unimaginable. Yet there is the photo.
There had to be a story behind this absurd image, and ELVIS & NIXON tells one, mixing some facts with satiric fiction. The story is based in part on the memoir by Elvis pal Schilling, and his character acts as a kind of grounding in reality for the absurd situation. Spacey does not look like Nixon and Shannon does not resemble Elvis, but with a little help from costume and make-up, these two great actors make it work.
The film succeeds due to the actors and the strong script, which reveals the human side of both figures and avoids the cliches. The actors wisely play their parts straight-faced, since the comedy is inherent in the situation. The majority of the film is the lead-up to the meeting, as Elvis, disconnected from reality by too much fame, has not a clue what he is asking, and Nixon, famously resentful, seriously focused on politics and international affairs but clueless about popular culture, move in their own spheres towards their meeting.
Once the film puts Shannon and Spacey in the same room, it is like magic, with two terrific actors brilliantly playing off each other in hilarious fashion. It is worth the ticket price all by itself. But the film also offers other gems, particularly reflection on the isolating, disconnecting nature of fame or power, and the price of maintaining an image. Most of the film focuses on Elvis, and tells its story through his relationship with Schilling, a childhood friend with whom Elvis can be himself, not his public persona. Nixon gets his moments of insight and humanization, partly through his love for his college-aged daughter, an Elvis fan, but also in his discussion with Elvis.
The details may not all be true, but the satiric humor is spot on and the insights on human relationships are universal. With strong performances by Shannon and Spacey, ELVIS & NIXON is a film worth seeing, even if you don’t care about either guy in the photo.
ELVIS & NIXON opens on April 22nd, 2016
OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS
