ViewGuide

Created Jun 21, 2014 11:05PM PST • Edited Nov 27, 2014 09:26PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   What a treat this 45 minute documentary is, full of home movies featuring Elvis during the summer when he went from regional star to superstar. It captures the King of Rock & Roll as both the first rockstar and the perfect rockstar. Not yet jaded or degraded, this is the Elvis who soon became more myth than reality.

   Elvis: Summer of `56 could have been titled Elvis & June since it’s largely based on the recollections and family movies of June Juanico, the girl he loved at the time. They spent the summer together in Biloxi, including deep sea fishing trips captured on film by her stepfather. When not with June, Elvis did things like go on the Ed Sullivan show, where 83% of the American TV audience tuned in. Don’t Be Cruel indeed.

   The bright lights happen in the background however. The doc is a portrait of the artist as a young man — who just happens to be burgeoning into the quintessential rockstar. It’s full of profound observations.

   • Elvis wanted to be moviestar, but didn’t want to sing in the movies. He soon learned from Col. Parker that Elvis Presley movies were musicals that featured his singing. We learn he hated musicals, no doubt because they’re phony, which he couldn’t abide. Yet he was so inchoate that the reason is never given. Now that’s some kingsized internal conflict.
   • Elvis was always a wild dresser, even in high school.
   • He was also a traditional Southern gentleman, polite and courteous. June claims they never had sex, because good girls didn’t do that and because Elvis thought he might marry her one day, and expected to marry a virgin.

   Nevermind 50,000,000 Elvis fans, rock & roll fans must consider Elvis: Summer of `56 required viewing.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Elvis Presley is seen and heard only in archival footage. This is seminal Elvis, up on his toes, slicked-back hair piled high, a ballad singer who was even better belting out rhythm and blues. The King had arrived.

   Other than that archival footage and the fascinating home movies from ‘56, the doc features contemporary interviews with several people who were then in Elvis’s orbit.

   • June Juanico: Pretty to this day, June still sounds kind of girlish as she describes her famous young love. For instance, her eyes roll when she mentions that she and Elvis had made eye contact while he was performing in Biloxi. How many girls had that sensation? Of course, June’s Elvis fantasy came true, as he sought her out after the show. Amongst other anecdotes, she describes competing with Deborah Padgett, Elvis’s costar in Love Me Tender, his first motion picture.
   • June’s stepfather describes taking first Elvis and later his parents deep sea fishing. The Presley’s arrived in a pink Cadillac. Fortunately he captured much of this on his movie camera.
   • Scotty Moore, Elvis’s guitarist, describes what Elvis was like before he was King.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    The original footage from family movies is the thing: pictures of Elvis off-stage, hanging out with his entourage, parents and girlfriend.

    There’s not a lot of music, not even a single song played through. Not being cruel, just saying.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.4

    No sex, no drugs, lots of rock & roll attitude.

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Polite 1.5

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    Elvis is in the house.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0