FLAMING STAR (1960) **1/2 "Maybe some day, somewhere, people'll understand people like us." Thus quoth the King. I'm not going to say that Elvis was a great actor, but he had an incredible way of expressing emotion. Not just by movements, however subtle ("Darlin' ah don't thank we're in Kansas anymore. They're callin' Elvis' movements subtle!" ), but more because his face somehow has a transparency that the rest of us lack. Maybe a reflection of his profound innate honesty. Whatever the reason, it works on film, but you could destroy your own momentum by trying to describe it much on paper. Despite several scenes that don't make sense or at least don't ring true, and a tone and timbre fit for an evening soap, the film works well with serious issues. The necessary evil-or is it just evil-of tribalism-racial, class and religious-is laid bare as overlying a framework of contradiction. Poets can only argue over whether it's more stupid or tragic, vengeance burns it all down in flames, starting with each tribe's most sacred ideals. When Elvis finishes emoting, and the burning ceases all around him in accordance with nature's reflection of his internal wizard, ambivalence and ambiguity are the remaining totems of even the closest family ties. Are love and truth and justice greater than extended human loyalties, and do they fall before the ties of brothers or even internal individual strife, or do they fall at the subatomic level. That's kind of how the movie feels-they're serious questions, but sometimes the presentation…you just can't help but laugh. It don't make the questions any smaller, but it does go a ways towards suggesting that the best answers probably aren't gowna be found at the cinematic molecular level. John McIntire does a really good job in loving counterpoint, the hobo farmer cast across the backscape of a rock star's sky. A simple man weaving his way through the complexity, guided by a compass that works. That's how you get to marry a good woman like Delores del Rio , an' there ain't never been more reward than that.
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