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Elvis pervades today’s popular films

Elvis made 33 movies during his lifetime, from Love Me Tender (1956) to Elvis on Tour (1972).

But death hasn’t stopped the King from making his presence known in the nation’s movie theaters.

If anything, the Grim Reaper has boosted Elvis’s movie career as well as his record sales. Presley, in fact, is getting more respect onscreen now than he did when he was a living, breathing movie star.

After all, films like Clambake and Kissin’ Cousins may have pleased Presley aficionados, but they didn’t have the box office appeal or worldwide interest of Men in Black and Jurassic Park: The Lost World, to name two recent movies that allude to Elvis.

In the 14 months that I’ve been reviewing movies for The Commercial Appeal, I’ve seen 26 movies that paid homage to the King. About the only movies that don’t mention Elvis nowadays are adaptations of Jane Austen and Henry James.

By the time Elvis made movies like Tickle Me and Harum Scarum, he was being parodied within his own narratives, even if unintentionally. Now, however, Elvis is evoked onscreen with a sort of comic reverence, solidifying his position as a universally recognized icon and unprecedented pop cultural touchstone, at once cool and campy.

In these films, “Elvis” becomes shorthand for a myriad of associations and contradictions. These films often connect Elvis with angels, aliens, ghosts, presidents and other larger-than-life or legendary figures, adding to the post-death deification of the King that so fascinates Elvis scholars.

So, for the sake of all you scholars, here’s a list of recent films that have alluded to Elvis:

– Striptease: Demi Moore keeps a picture of Elvis on her apartment wall.

– Independence Day: As the aliens approach, a woman moans: “Oh God, I hope they bring back Elvis.” After blowing up the alien mothership, the heroes speed away, saying: “Elvis has left the building!”

– The Frighteners: A bust of Elvis is levitated by an invisible ghost, as the bust’s owner exclaims: “He’s alive!”

– Fools Rush In: The title alludes to the Elvis hit, Can’t Help Falling in Love; snippets of Jailhouse Rock and It’s Now or Never are played; a marquee at a Las Vegas motel reads “Elvis Slept Here”; bride Selma Hayek is given away in marriage by an Elvis impersonator.

– Trainspotting: The character of Sick Boy mentions Elvis as among the stars who were cool but “lost it.”

– Joe’s Apartment: In this fantasy about talking cockroaches, an Elvis stamp is seen on the wall of a tiny room in a roach porno film.

– The Long Kiss Goodnight: Starts out with Elvis on the soundtrack singing Santa Claus is Back in Town.

– Get On the Bus: During a stop in Memphis, marginally racist bus driver Richard Belzer decides to abandon a bus filled with black men; Charles S. Dutton responds: “You just want to go to Graceland.”

– Dear God: A character explains that the dead letter office is where postal workers send mail addressed to “Superman, Elvis and God.”

– Beautiful Thing: A homosexual boy’s room in a lower-class British apartment building features an Elvis postcard decoration.

– Caught: A son surprises his parents by showing up at home dressed as Elvis in a white jumpsuit, decorated with angel wings. “I’m back from the dead,” he announces.

– My Fellow Americans: An Elvis impersonator in a jumpsuit shows up in a small-town train station bathroom where two ex-presidents (Jack Lemmon and James Garner) are relieving themselves. He mistakes them for presidential impersonators. “Let’s rock ‘n roll!” he tells them. Soundtrack song: Treat Me Nice.

– Michael: An Elvis stamp is displayed on a letter in a tabloid newspaper office.

– Beavis and Butthead Do America: Elvis is seen running through a casino.

– Jerry Maguire: Elvis can be heard on the soundtrack, and Elvis is mentioned at a bachelor party.

– The Pest: An Elvis statuette is shot to pieces by the evil hunter gunning for John Leguizamo.

– Meet Wally Sparks: Rodney Dangerfield says he knew a girl who was so wild, “When she licked the stamp, Elvis started smiling.” Later, Dangerfield, who plays a talk-show host, says he doesn’t want to host any more “stupid shows with alien lesbian Elvis impersonators.”

– That Darn Cat: The cat, named D.C. in the film, is portrayed by a cat named Elvis.

– Inventing the Abbotts: In this film, set in the early Elvis era, Joaquin Phoenix - using the cover of Elvis’s second album as a guide - paints on sideburns and puts his hair up in a pompadour while singing Love Me Tender.

– Father’s Day: Robin Williams breaks into an Elvis impersonation: “Thank yuh very much.” Later, when Billy Crystal lets Williams borrow his car, Williams says: “You’re giving me a car, Jack? That’s so Elvis of you.”

– The Lost World: Jurassic Park: As the automobile-riding trackers pursue a heard of dinosaurs, Pete Postlethwaite describes a parasaurolophus as “The one with the big red horn - the pompadour-Elvis.”

– Con Air: A character says, “If that aircraft’s carrying 30 prisoners, than I’m Elvis Presley.” Later, when the plane is forced to land on the Vegas strip, Nicolas Cage says: “Well, Viva Las Vegas.”

– Speed 2: Pop reggae band UB40 performs the Elvis hit Can’t Help Falling in Love.

– George of the Jungle: At the film’s climax, the ape named Ape, aping Sinatra and Presley, sings My Way on a Vegas-style stage.

– Men in Black: While driving with Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones puts on an 8-track of the Elvis album Promised Land. “You do know Elvis is dead, right?” Smith says. “No, Elvis is not dead - he just went home,” replies Jones, meaning that Elvis was an alien.

– Contact: The thousands of people who gather in New Mexico after learning scientists have made contact with aliens from the star system Vega include an Elvis impersonator holding a guitar emblazoned with the words, “Viva Las Vega.”

In other words, Mojo Nixon was right: Elvis is everywhere.