The King (2017 American film)

The documentary's central director and producer Eugene Jarecki is award-winning in his investigative documentary field. Winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for his 2002 film The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Jarecki went on to win the 2005 Peabody Award for his 2005 film Why We Fight. Jarecki's success in both the directing and production of films continued with his viral 2010 short film Move Your Money, which functioned to encourage Americans to shift their money from “too big to fail” banks to community banks and credit unions in response to the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Jarecki's interest in the investigation of America and its values, as reflected through The King, is further evidenced through his 2013 film The House I Live In. Winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival as well as, a second Peabody award, Jarecki's critique of America through the exploration of the nation's war on drugs led to the conception of the article subject The King.

An organic and continually altered process, the production of Jarecki's 2017 film The King took 2 years. Specifically, this included; filming which occurred between 2015 and 2016, and editing which occurred between 2016 and 2017.[13] The conception of The King came to Jarecki while touring for his 2013 film The House I Live In. Stunned by the nation's transformation from patriotism to disillusionment prior to Trump’s 2016 election, Jarecki described the nation’s transition during a film-related interview, as an “overnight transformation into fat Elvis”.[13]

While confident in the exploration of Elvis Presley's rise and fall as a metaphor for America, the documentary's road trip method was not Jarecki's original concept. Originally planning to convey the “young nation’s rapid transformation solely through archival footage and direct interviews, Jarecki’s decision to change this method prevailed as a result of his vision to unify the film. As, through the exploration of Presley, Jarecki wanted viewers to resonate with the film personally, deciding for themselves whether they resonate more with Presley’s story or the broader exploration of the American Dream. This was further enforced through the choice of the car for the film. Buying Presley’s 1963 Phantom V Rolls-Royce at Bonham’s auction in 2014 for $396000,[12] Jarecki selected the Rolls-Royce over a Cadillac or Thunder Bird, as he believed the Rolls-Royce more authentically reflected the “venturing off-script”[13] of the country boy and the nation.

Although aware of Presley's story, and the significant locations which framed his rise and fall, Jarecki's integration of interviews throughout the documentary were spontaneous, often occurring within real-time. A prominent example of this was Jarecki's interviewing of students in Memphis. Discussing Elvis Presley and the issues of race and appropriation, the students authenticated the interview sequence in their singing of gospel songs and reclaiming of blues music conventions. Stating within an interview that there is, “a virtue in just showing up”,[13] the organic production of the 2017 documentary is further evidenced through filming in Nashville. Turning up to the significant location with no plan or contacts, it was through conversation with locals that Jarecki became acquainted with the country singer EmiSunshine who became a central interviewee for the documentary.

Premiered as Promised Land at the 2017 Cannes film festival, The King was further edited prior to its commercial release. Trimmed and made more concise, the documentary shifted from a broad exploration of Elvis Presley as a metaphor for America, to a nonfiction chronicle urging audiences to consider What happened to America? This questioning is specifically in relation to the nation's distance from reality, and obsession with wealth and material gain. Warning audiences of the dangers of transitioning into the ‘Fat Elvis’, the final documentary presents the rise and fall of Elvis Presley as a rehearsal and warning of the rise and fall of America.

Commercially released in the United States on June 22, 2018, after its international premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the film generated $29,050 from two New York City theatres in its opening weekend. An average profit of $14,525 per venue, the film was the third-best of the weekend and one of the best of the year for documentaries.[14]

The documentaries positive reception is affirmed by the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, in which the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 86 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The King pursues a wildly ambitious thesis through some fairly bumpy territory, but emerges as a provocative and insightful look at modern America."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15] This positive reception is supported by Steve Pond who described the film as, “hugely moving and enormously bombastic in a way that is pure Elvis”[16] and the film's nomination for multiple awards as reflected in the table below. Criticisms of the film are limited, with the only major criticism referring to the documentaries inconsistency in storytelling. This is acknowledged by Wall Street journalist Joe Morgenstern who described it as, “ fascinating and infuriating in unequal parts, the latter far outweighing the former”.[5]