Film examines Elvis 1968 comeback special after divisive election
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Elvis Presley during his '68 Comeback Special on NBC. Photo: Frank Carroll/Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
A new Netflix documentary is tackling Elvis Presley's 1968 comeback special that revitalized his faltering career and aired amid racial violence, assassinations and a divided country.
The big picture: The documentary to be released Wednesday comes as other recent projects on Elvis have re-examined his role in racial desegregation after previous generations dismissed him as an appropriator of Black art.
Zoom in: "Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley" looks at the rock-n-roll pioneer's attempt to stage an artistic return to the public eye following a string of unforgettable movies and not performing live for years.
- Interviews and rarely-seen footage show Elvis taking what he thinks is his last shot at saving himself and, by chance, creating one of the best musical specials in television history.
- "He would not be the king of rock-n-roll, if not for those two nights of taping in late June 1968," Jason Hehir, the film's director, tells Axios.
- Hehir says he pitched the documentary idea to Priscilla Presley and Netflix as a sports story. " This is a guy who has one play left. He's on the 50-yard line, and he needs to throw a Hail Mary to continue his career."
The intrigue: The film shows how Elvis and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, were locked in a battle over the content of the special, and how Elvis eventually got to perform old hits with his old band via a jam session.
- Elvis also ignored Parker's insistence for a Christmas song ending and instead performed the gospel-inspired "If I Can Dream" in what would become one of his most iconic performances.
- The song was a homage to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was murdered in Elvis' hometown of Memphis.
Context: Before the special, Elvis was on the verge of becoming irrelevant with the emergence of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Motown, Jimi Hendrix and more politically charged music.
- Robert Kennedy and King had been assassinated, riots besieged cities, college students were protesting the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon was about to take the White House following a tense presidential election.
- Once a dangerous artist who faced critics wanting to ban his ground-breaking music, Elvis had become a family entertainer to some and a joke to others.
What they're saying: "He comes out, and he's the best-looking guy on the planet," Conan O'Brien, late-night host and comedian, says in the film.
- "I felt like my team came back and they're winning again," Bruce Springsteen says.
- O'Brien and Springsteen talk about seeing the special and thinking that the real Elvis had returned.
Zoom out: Production of the documentary began during the pandemic and after Priscilla Presley gave the green light, Hehir says.
- Hehir says he did not anticipate that the documentary would come out similar to the time when the special aired — after a divisive election and violent campaign.
Between the lines: For years, Elvis has been attacked by some Black critics as a performer who used his white privilege to make hits of songs originally performed by Black artists like Big Mama Thornton.
- Public Enemy's Chuck D famously called Elvis a racist in the 1990s anthem "Fight the Power," but later said he now sees him as a more nuisance figure.
- Hehir says that's why it was vital for him to get into the documentary voices like Darlene Love, a Black Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who performed with Elvis on the special as a member of The Blossoms.
The bottom line: Hehir wants the documentary to show how the Elvis special inspired hope during a trying time and end on a happy note during the performer's long career.
- "Because we know how it will all eventually end."
