In 2010, film maker Joel Gilbert set out to prove that Paul McCartney is dead. Now, with Elvis Found Alive, he shows us that the King of Rock and Roll isn't. In the film's first few minutes, with nothing more than a box of heavily but insufficiently redacted Freedom of Information documents, Gilbert and his film crew trace Presley to a modest, suburban home in which he has apparently been living for quite some time under his longtime alias "Jon Burrows."
Presley supplies a two-hour narrative with so many cultural and political footnotes that only an intrepid and indefatigable researcher could have fact-checked them all. The part of Presley's tale covering his official lifespan is rife with so much insider information, it will be only somewhat familiar to most rock-and-roll fans. The film goes on to not only connect many well-known Presley dots (Col. Parker's gambling debts, Presley's Memphis Mafia and the actual Mafia, his Federal Agent status, his identification with Captain Marvel, Jr., and his choice of stage apparel) but also supplies many new and even more explosive facts, including but not limited to Presley's role in Bob Dylan's conversion to Christianity, his stopping the Weather Underground, his failure to stop the ascension of either its leader, Bill Ayers ,or Ayer's close friend, Barack Obama, and the conditions under which Presley will make yet another comeback.
More than anything, Elvis Found Alive is an adventure, a romp through an unknown Elvis "history," insider stories, and amazing and shocking connections that will leave your head spinning. The film could be easily be described as a psychological thriller. Elvis Found Alive is certainly the most fascinating and innovative documentary ever made about the America's greatest socio-cultural icon, highly recommended!
Arsenio Orteza - World Magazine
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