Douglas Brode's aproach to the Elvis Presley film legacy is an important study of the singer's movies and their place in american popular culture.
It's too easy to dismiss the films of Elvis Presley as mediocre examples of Hollywood's genre production during the 1960's, a time when musicals were out and counterculture films were in. However, even if the Presley movies are not what we can conventionally describe as major film works, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, G.I Blues, Blue Hawaii, Follow That Dream or Viva Las Vegas, make for a respectful body of work among the late Hollywood Classic period musical production.
Interestinlgy, Brode looks at this films as cultural artifacts of a specific period in american history, able to provide the viewer with important clues to understand the cultural climate of 1950's and 1960's.
What's most important to point out, it's that the Presley movies, like so many other films produced as pure entertainment, can be read as filmic texts with a deeper meaning than most viewers would notice at first glance.
Even if I do not share all of mr. Brode's opinions on this subject, the issues he raises in this book are certainlly of great interest to students of american popular culture and Elvis Presley more open minded fans.
Jorge Carrega author of "Elvis Presley e o Cinema Musical de Hollywood".
