FLAMING STAR is generally regarded as the film which provided Elvis Presley the best performance of his disappointing film career.It is totally out of kilter in what you would expect from a typical Elvis "romp".With a top director (Don Siegel),a literate script and story (by western veteran Clair Huffaker) and a solid supporting cast (John McIntire,Dolores Del Rio,Steve Forrest,Barbara Eden) behind him,there is indeed a very good case for this being the King's best dramatic performance,along with his other two oft-quoted top big screen vehicles (JAILHOUSE ROCK,KING CREOLE).Elvis himself only sings two songs,over the titles and in a fairly light-hearted opening scene during a birthday party for his half-brother (Forrest) involving family and friends at his parents' ranch.
After these jollities,things quickly turn very grim;in a surprisingly graphic (for it's time) sequence,the friends aforementioned are brutally massacred by a group of Kiowa Indians;it is revealed soon after that Elvis is half-white,half Kiowa,and finds himself on the receiving end of much racist abuse from the same family and local townspeople thereafter.After seeing his parents killed,he decides he's had enough of the hostility he receives for being a half-breed,and reluctantly returns to his mother's people.But after witnessing a Kiowa attack on his brother,he again changes sides and nurses his half-sibling,guiding him by horse into town for medical treatment.But being torn between two races becomes too much for him;he rides into town one more time to bid goodbye to his brother,and rides away,dying,into the valley to see the 'flaming star',like his mother before her passing.
All this is very well done,with a convincing performance by Presley.He shows himself perfectly capable of delivering his lines persuasively and effectively,with the right kind of resonance and depth;the number of sad,terrible events that overtake his life are believably conveyed,and he more than holds his own with such reliables as McIntire and Ms Del Rio.
If there is a problem with FLAMING STAR,it is so relentlessly solemn and downbeat,with so many tragic events and often brutal killings abound.Siegel does a fine job of the direction (particularly with the action,in which he was always something of a master),but the sheer gloominess of the plot does not make for great entertainment;escapism this definitely isn't.
This was probably the reason it wasn't a particular box-office success when first released;Elvis' manager,Colonel Tom Parker (curiously credited as a consultant on the film) apparently got cold feet after FLAMING STAR,and decided to plop Elvis into the fluffy,trite,and later increasingly asinine musicals for which he became so familiar with the next film onwards,in which all virtually had the same plot.Presley himself tired of this,and stopped making films in 1970.This was a considerable shame as Elvis certainly proved he was a perfectly good movie actor in this and his two other best films (as mentioned previously); if the script,production team,supporting cast and story were up to scratch.Post-FLAMING STAR,he rarely at all got the chance to work with anything like this quality,and although the King of rock n'roll was never the King of movie acting,subjects like FLAMING STAR proved that he was by no means a peasant or commoner when decent material was at his disposal.It is something of a tragedy that the Colonel didn't present him with such after this film.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.
After these jollities,things quickly turn very grim;in a surprisingly graphic (for it's time) sequence,the friends aforementioned are brutally massacred by a group of Kiowa Indians;it is revealed soon after that Elvis is half-white,half Kiowa,and finds himself on the receiving end of much racist abuse from the same family and local townspeople thereafter.After seeing his parents killed,he decides he's had enough of the hostility he receives for being a half-breed,and reluctantly returns to his mother's people.But after witnessing a Kiowa attack on his brother,he again changes sides and nurses his half-sibling,guiding him by horse into town for medical treatment.But being torn between two races becomes too much for him;he rides into town one more time to bid goodbye to his brother,and rides away,dying,into the valley to see the 'flaming star',like his mother before her passing.
All this is very well done,with a convincing performance by Presley.He shows himself perfectly capable of delivering his lines persuasively and effectively,with the right kind of resonance and depth;the number of sad,terrible events that overtake his life are believably conveyed,and he more than holds his own with such reliables as McIntire and Ms Del Rio.
If there is a problem with FLAMING STAR,it is so relentlessly solemn and downbeat,with so many tragic events and often brutal killings abound.Siegel does a fine job of the direction (particularly with the action,in which he was always something of a master),but the sheer gloominess of the plot does not make for great entertainment;escapism this definitely isn't.
This was probably the reason it wasn't a particular box-office success when first released;Elvis' manager,Colonel Tom Parker (curiously credited as a consultant on the film) apparently got cold feet after FLAMING STAR,and decided to plop Elvis into the fluffy,trite,and later increasingly asinine musicals for which he became so familiar with the next film onwards,in which all virtually had the same plot.Presley himself tired of this,and stopped making films in 1970.This was a considerable shame as Elvis certainly proved he was a perfectly good movie actor in this and his two other best films (as mentioned previously); if the script,production team,supporting cast and story were up to scratch.Post-FLAMING STAR,he rarely at all got the chance to work with anything like this quality,and although the King of rock n'roll was never the King of movie acting,subjects like FLAMING STAR proved that he was by no means a peasant or commoner when decent material was at his disposal.It is something of a tragedy that the Colonel didn't present him with such after this film.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.