Your thoughts on the Letterboxd reviews for prisiclla? I’ve gotten mixed messages from them, about the movie overall and Elvis’s portrayal
for now (even though I was refreshing letterboxd every 1.2 seconds yesterday🤧) I’m trying to stay away from reading letterboxd reviews- solely because of the amount of review inflating by the anti-elvis crowd and because of the review bombing by what I’m assuming is elvis fans: it’s just incredibly hard to find an unbiased review atp
but yes definitely a lot of mixed messages: I’ve seen people complain that the film was too sensitive to Elvis, and people complain that it wasn’t sensitive enough to him, like ma’am which one is it 😭
@septembersghost changed my brain chemistry yesterday with all of their amazing responses to asks about this film, and this one in particular helped me realize why we are seeing such a wide variety of reviews, and even reviews that are contradictory to one another ⬇️
tbh I was very naive with my expectations of how I thought Elvis would be received by audiences because for some reason I thought people would be able to go into this film without their own biases and without any preconceived opinions of Elvis- but of course I was wrong about that 😭
I think most people are seeing this film with the hopes that it will validate their beliefs that Elvis was an “abuser” and a that Priscilla was a “victim”, and like septembersghost said, if they want him to be a monster, they will see him as one regardless of the film’s intent
and so many reviewers are doing exactly that
like mistaking Elvis’ genuine innocence, and his “little boy”-like qualities as something perverse and harmful. like I saw a reviewer say that his baby talk with Priscilla was creepy… bffr
Elvis never had any ill intent with his baby talk, it was simply something he grew up with, but of course people are twisting the narrative to make it seem like Elvis was baby-talking with Priscilla in a perverse way. Not to mention the fact that Elvis would baby talk with literally everybody from his cousin Billy to his dad, to his daughter, to the Graceland staff etc. etc., it wasn’t something reserved for Priscilla because she was younger than him
“him yuvs you and her yuvs him” in what universe is that anything but cute 😩
excerpt from “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley
I’ve also seen reviewers say that Elvis was “physically neglectful” towards Priscilla in the years leading up to their marriage because he wanted to save penetrative intercourse for marriage… it just seems like no matter what Elvis’ intent was, or what the film’s intent was, people will twist it in a way to make Elvis look worse
I’m personally not surprised that a man from the silent generation aka a man who was born in 1935 in a Christian household believed that sex was for marriage 😭
of course he didn’t abstain from it completely but it doesn’t shock me that Elvis intended to marry a virgin woman, especially knowing that he abstained from penetrative intercourse with many other women that he considered for marriage like June Juanico and Anita Wood
That was not only typical of his background (being from the south, and being raised in church) but it was also typical of that time period- I also saw a reviewer say that Elvis had “dated” ideas of marriage and I’m sorry to be crass but no shit??? the man was from a generation that practiced those standards of marriage, so he wasn’t alone in those beliefs nor did he start them
ahh I’m sorry it just bugs me when people completely avoid using context when speaking about Elvis 😭 like why are we using a 2023 mindset to judge a man from 1935?? anyways that’s why I’m now trying not to take every single negative review for its’ word because it’s very possible that these people are simply misinterpreting Elvis and his intentions
of course that is easier said than done, and as Elvis fans I think we all feel protective over him and anything negative about him, especially negativity that isn’t even true, is just so hard to have to see and to read. I truly wish that everyone loved him as much as we do, the world be a kinder place to say the least 😭
in order to keep my mind from imploding I’ve been reading reviews from more independent critics as opposed to larger companies like rollingstone (their review made me want to find a hole and stay there)
I found this guy’s review of the film just by searching “Priscilla review” on Twitter, and this is probably one of the most unbiased takes that I have seen so far ⬇️
review courtesy of Rory Doherty on flicks.co.uk
“but the conditions that his love came with appear to an outsider completely unfair” I don’t think this is a harsh assessment at all, Elvis expected a lot out of the women he was with and I truly sympathize with all of them in that regard
like Elvis telling Mindi Miller that she looked scary without makeup made me die laughing when I first read it because imagine having the nerve to say that but if I was her I would have cried 😭!!
and if his review if completely accurate, it soothes my worries to know that Coppola “is not interested in moral judgement” as it seems like people who hate Elvis are only interested in the film if it does that
if you made it this far I’m sorry I don’t know how to stop this word vomit lmao but I’d love to know what you guys think or if you have read a review that gives you more hope for this film <3!!
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