Film
Flaming Star
- Director
- Don Siegel
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 88 mins
Reputation suggests that Elvis Presley‘s cinematic oeuvre was a steaming pile of shite. Sadly, the evidence confirms this. But that’s not the whole story. Early in his career, The King did star in some excellent films, and this Don Siegel western from 1960 was the best of the lot. It was also the last good movie he made.
https://youtu.be/6vSkt4x_3Uk
If your woke sensibilites can deal with the notably caucasian Elvis playing an, ahem, ‘half-breed’ or ‘mixed-blood’, you’ll be relieved to find that Flaming Star is impeccably liberal in its intent. It’s also impressively violent for its time. In a role originally intended for Marlon Brando, our boy finds himself torn between the native Kiowas and white settlers as they go to war in West Texas. But he soon finds that his role as peacemaker is difficult to sustain. It’s all impressively tense, with a great tortured perfomance by Elvis and superb cinematography. You may or may not be overjoyed to learn that he sings just the one song (apart from the title ditty).
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