In December, 1970, an addled Elvis Presley was isolated and indulged by his hangers-on and feeling cranky enough to shoot out a TV set in Graceland. He decided that he needed a “federal agent at large” badge, and his quest sparked an impromptu visit to the Nixon White House, resulting in the all-time most requested photo from the National Archives (below). All this really happened, and the historical comedy Elvis & Nixon imagines the details, with the iconic characters fleshed by two of our finest screen actors, Michael Shannon (Elvis) and Kevin Spacey (Richard Nixon).
In the movies, Shannon usually projects a hulking menace, but here he uses his imposing presence to dominate and suck the oxygen out of a room. Of course, Shannon doesn’t have the sexual energy of Elvis, but his intensity makes up for it. As impaired and wacky as Shannon’s Elvis is, he can be a charming flatterer and knows how to make the most of his celebrity and sexual power. He wins over Nixon by bringing up their common distaste for commies and the Beatles, and shamelessly complementing Nixon’s homely looks.
Spacey goes beyond impersonation of Nixon’s well-known mannerisms to reach the seasoned pol, the cagey and amoral tactician, the doting father, and, above all, a man submerged in an unquenchable pool of resentfulness. In particular, Spacey perfectly delivers one classically Nixonian chip-on-the-shoulder monologue. And few can portray social awkwardness as well as Spacey.
In Elvis & Nixon, Nixon forces himself to keep a straight face as Elvis explains that “I want to go undercover”. Because his movie experience has given him a mastery of disguises, Elvis continues, he can infiltrate the Rolling Stones and the Black Panthers, slipping back and forth between them with no one the wiser. [Note: There were only five Rolling Stones – wouldn’t they have noticed a sixth one?] The real Elvis reportedly coveted the federal badge so he could take his guns and drugs on airplanes.
The two men size each other up and probe. Each man is using the meeting for his own ends. The humor comes from Elvis’ eccentricities and the hopelessly square and insecure Nixon’s reactions.
Elvis & Nixon is not a guffaw fest, but it has a few LOL moments. Otherwise unadorned, the Elvis-Nixon meeting itself is bizarre enough, but Shannon and Spacey make it especially worthwhile.
