“Finding a Dream and Leaving It”
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What You Need To Know:
PRISCILLA is a well-acted and impressionistic character study. Since it concentrates so much on character rather than story, the movie plays slowly. Basically, the story presents Priscilla’s Romantic perspective of life, Elvis and their relationship. It’s actually a coming-of-age story. PRISCILLA is marred by some strong foul language and heavy kissing scenes in the Presley’s bedroom. The movie contains scenes of drug use and mentions of affairs Elvis had with Nancy Sinatra, Ann-Margret and women while on tour.
Content:
Romantic worldview with a strong feminist subtext told from the perspective of Elvis Presley’s child bride, Priscilla, who met Elvis at the age of 14 in 1959 and, three years later, began an intimate but unconsummated relationship with Elvis at his Memphis estate in 1963, married Elvis in 1967 and had a baby nine months later, but divorced in 1973, with a feminist subtext about a woman finding her “identity” as an independent woman, and Elvis briefly sings a gospel song, and there are light references to Christmas
Six obscenities (including one “f” word), 11 GD profanities and five light profanities
A pillow fight between Elvis and Priscilla gets a little out of hand when Priscilla accidently hits him hard in the mouth, and he strongly hits her back with his pillow, and
Unmarried couple in pajamas fools around on their bed (kissing passionately) but stop at intercourse, implied marital sex on a wedding night, Elvis is shown sleeping in a bed next to another woman while on tour, and there are mentions to a possible affair Elvis had with Nancy Sinatra in 1960 and with Ann-Margret during the filming of their 1964 hit movie VIVA LAS VEGAS
Upper male nudity in two scenes
Some alcohol use
Brief smoking, people take amphetamines to stay awake and downers to sleep, and man and his wife are shown using LSD; and,
Rock star and movie star is very controlling and won’t let his girlfriend or wife hang out with him on his movie sets or on his singing tours, which leads to their separation and divorce.
More Detail:
PRISCILLA begins in late summer of 1959 in Germany when one of Elvis Presley’s Army buddies invites 14-year-old Priscilla to a party Elvis is having in the apartment where he lives. Her mother and stepfather give permission for her to attend. At the party, Elvis actually shows an interested in the young teenager, even though he’s 24. They begin seeing each other regularly.
Elvis leaves the Army in March 1960, and Priscilla thinks the romance is over, even though she talks to Elvis on the phone. However, after an invite from Elvis, Priscilla’s parents agree to let her stay at Graceland, Presley’s home in Memphis, for two weeks in the summer of 1962. Elvis agrees to have Priscilla chaperoned by his grandmother as part of the deal.
During her visit, however, Elvis takes Priscilla to Las Vegas, where they’re seen at the gaming tables as celebrities. The atmosphere in Vegas is heady for Priscilla, and it’s there that Elvis introduces her to amphetamines to stay awake and sleeping pills to fall asleep.
After another visit at Christmas, Priscilla’s parents let her stay in Memphis for good. Part of the agreement, however, is that Priscilla finish high school at a local all-girls’ Catholic school. It’s hard for her to make friends at the school because of all the gossip about her and Elvis. Also, it’s very lonely at Graceland when Elvis goes away to Hollywood for weeks at a time to make more fluffy, critically derided musical movies. Also, Priscilla and Elvis begin sleeping together in the same bed (after she turns 18), but Elvis refuses to consummate their relationship, because they aren’t married. He also refuses to let her come with him to Hollywood when he’s making movies.
Elvis finally proposes in 1966, and they get married in 1967. Nine months later, Priscilla gives birth to their daughter, Lisa Marie. However, Elvis’ penchant for shooting his movies without Priscilla being there and, later, to go on tour without her, eventually leads to their separation and divorce in 1973. The movie shows how controlling Elvis was. He wouldn’t let her wear patterned dresses and insists she die her hair black.
PRISCILLA is a well-acted, well-produced and impressionistic, but realistic, character study. Since it concentrates so much on character rather than story, however, the movie plays rather slowly. Basically, the movie presents Priscilla’s Romantic perspective of life, Elvis and their relationship. It’s actually a coming-of-age story where Priscilla learns to cope within the stifling bubble of Graceland in which Elvis placed her, then decides to burst the bubble when it appears that Elvis will never give up his compulsion to separate his career from his family life.
PRISCILLA contains some strong foul language. Also, Elvis gets angry with Priscilla two or three times. In one scene, he barely misses her head when he throws a small chair at her in a recording studio. In addition, the movie shows Elvis and Priscilla abusing pills. In one sequence set in the late 1960s, Elvis becomes immersed in New Age philosophies spreading within the hippie culture, and he and Priscilla take LSD. Elvis’ manager, however, Col. Tom Parker, tells him to stop reading so many books, and Elvis stops cold turkey.
Finally, the movie contains intimate scenes in the Presley’s bedroom before Priscilla and Elvis married and consummated their marriage in 1967. It also alludes to affairs Elvis had with Nancy Sinatra after he got out of the Army, with Ann-Margret when Priscilla was staying at Graceland with him, and with women while he toured on the road between 1968 and 1973. The movie doesn’t really mention, however, a brief affair Priscilla had in 1968 and a more serious one she had in 1972. That said, it leaves viewers with the idea that Priscilla still loved Elvis after their divorce and always will love him.
The fact remains, however, that Priscilla has had numerous romances after divorcing Elvis. Her longest relationship has been 22 years with Brazilian screenwriter and computer programmer Marco Antonio Garcia. They never married, however. Priscilla starred in the popular TV series DALLAS in the 1980s and the NAKED GUN comedies with Leslie Nielsen in the late 1980s and early 90s.
To sum up, therefore, although the movie celebrates Priscilla finally breaking free of the claustrophobic atmosphere surrounding Elvis and Graceland, Priscilla never has settled down with only one man. She has four grandchildren through Lisa Marie, who died suddenly in 2023, but her only grandson committed suicide in 2020. Her granddaughter, Riley Keough, has one
daughter. Priscilla joined the Church of Scientology in 1977 when Elvis died, along with Lisa Marie, but distanced herself from the church in 2016.
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