This is a biopic. What intrigues me is it takes the conventional “Cradle to Grave” approach and plays around with it. Three things jump out at me.
First: One can argue that the Protagonist is not Elvis Presley, but Colonel Tom Parker. The story is told through his perspective. In this construction, Elvis is the story’s Central Character. This approach is the same as the movie Amadeus in which Salieri is the Protagonist and Mozart the Central Character. Here is the IMDb plot summary of that movie:
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Not only is the narrative construction the same, both Salieri and Parker can be seen as contributing to the death of each story’s Central Character.
Second: Yes, befitting a Cradle to Grave approach, the script tracks the birth, life, and death of Elvis Presley, but because Parker is narrating the story, he can bounce around through time and inject his perspective on events. This is not an objective documentary, but rather a subjective telling of the Elvis’ rise to fame … and tragic fall. This is as much Parker’s journey into the past as Elvis’ journey into the future.
Third: Despite the story being told through Parker’s POV, the final sequence in the script – and movie – which depicts Elvis’ final days before his death switches to Elvis. No Parker. Elvis with Priscilla. Elvis performing Unchained Melody. By contrast, Amadeus ended with Salieri. “Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all.”
Elvis zeroes in on the Central Character’s final days. “I’m all out of dreams,” he tells Priscilla, his parting words to her.
Thus, while the overall structure of the plot has three acts – Act One: Discovery and signing with Parker / Act Two: Rise to fame ending with firing Parker / Act Three: Caught in a trap, he brings Parker back and resigns himself to his father – there are some interesting twists within the narrative.
Next, we consider the characters and their respective narrative functions.
