Rotten Tomatoes
Suggestions will appear as you start typing. Submit search Movies Tv shows RT App New News Showtimes

The King

Play trailer 2:26 Poster for The King R,  2018,  1h 47m,  Documentary/ Music Play Trailer Watchlist
The King: Trailer 1 The King: Trailer 1 Now Playing View more videos
Watchlist 77% 95 Reviews Tomatometer 53% 250+ Ratings Popcornmeter
77% Tomatometer 95 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls-Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis's transition from country boy to "The King" to America's transformation into an empire.
The King

What to Know

Critics Consensus

The King pursues a wildly ambitious thesis through some fairly bumpy territory, but emerges as a provocative and insightful look at modern America.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More
Peter Rainer FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 14, 2019
Way too ambitious for its own good. Go to Full Review
Claudia Puig FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 14, 2019
I liked this film. This is kind of a rare documentary ride along. Go to Full Review
Tara Brady Irish Times Sep 6, 2018
3/5
It's all rather random, but never dull. Go to Full Review
David Lamble Bay Area Reporter Jun 2, 2020
The King is a vastly entertaining and at times uncomfortably intimate account of a life whose rise and tragic fall Jarecki asserts is a metaphor for a parallel demise of the American Empire. Go to Full Review
Charlotte Harrison VultureHound Jan 28, 2020
4/5
A lament for something that everyone thought they knew but never actually existed, not as we wanted it to be anyway. Go to Full Review
Chris McCoy Memphis Flyer Jan 17, 2020
The King is required viewing for not just Elvis fans and Memphians, but anyone who strives to understand the state of our sprawling democratic experiment. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Abraham R Feb 27, 2019 A nice road trip movie about Elvis and Americana.
Finn S Jan 5, 2019 Big Bag of garBAGE..... mY MOM GOT THIS CAUSE THE THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY ABOUT ELVIS. ITS LIKE 10% ELVIS THR REST IS GARBAGE ABOUT TRASHING TRUMP AND SAYING AMERICA SUCKS. aLSO IT HAS PEOPLE CURSING AND RAPPING WITH THE F WORD AND N WORDS. BUNCH OF GARBAGE. See more
Kylo W Dec 12, 2018 I don't see how you can't like this film. Even the appearances of celebs who I previously disliked, I got something out of what they had to say. Even Dan Rather, who I feared would ruin the middle of the movie. Lots of fresh non-Elvis music, too. I'll watch it again. I think the premise of the movie is valid, but it is not a dogmatic presentation. A sad story, told in an earnest, light-hearted, humurous and heartfelt manner. Jarecki does it again. See more
Ron R Oct 22, 2018 aN ambitious look at Elvis' back story. Maybe it's a familiar story to elvis fans, but for one who's not, like me, it was a wonderful metaphor for how a talented person (usa) filled with trust and naivite (USA) can be taken advantage of by con artists and blame-shifters (usa), and decline into self-destruction due to innocent greed (USA). I loved how people who knew elvis, whose music was influenced by elvis, or who otherwise have strong feelings about elvis were invited to reminisce, sing or opine in the back seat of Elvis' Rolls Royce as it crossed the USA! See more
George W Aug 19, 2018 Unusual documentary tracing Presley's life with a colourfully mixed collage of statements from film stars, musicians and analysts; the result is both a portrait of the artist as well as a critical comment to his cultural impact. See more
Harry P Aug 17, 2018 Update...I apologize. My rant about the sound was not the fault of the producer/director. I was the fault of the theater. I'm so sorry to have shot from the hip. . Please ignore all comment about sound problems. I will go see it again now that I have informed and straightened out the theater. It was a new guy running the show who didn't know what the heck he was doing. Please notice I up my star rating to a full 5. This film had enormous possibilities.There was/is a wealth of info and drama to be seen. I say seen because this pos movie had the worst sound track/dialogue rendering I have ever,make that never heard. Music is far,far too fuckin' loud. All the dialogue was over powered so as to be inaudible. It wasn't the theater. I've seenalotoffilmsinthesametheaterbuthaveneverhadsuchahorrible experience. All that said, If you can tolerate such auditory assault better than I, by all means give it a go. More of an indictment of the shithole country we were and are than revealing Elvis. Nice, nee, great effort on the filmmaker part but some one should have told him to fix the fuckin' sound. It wasn't just me. There was a theater full of pissed off folks. See more
Read all reviews
The King

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine 75% 57% Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Watchlist TRAILER for Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Joshy 84% 54% Joshy Watchlist TRAILER for Joshy How to Build a Girl 79% 53% How to Build a Girl Watchlist TRAILER for How to Build a Girl 6 Underground 36% 60% 6 Underground Watchlist TRAILER for 6 Underground Low Down 50% 49% Low Down Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls-Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis's transition from country boy to "The King" to America's transformation into an empire.
Director
Eugene Jarecki
Producer
Christopher St. John, Christopher Frierson, Georgina Hill, Eugene Jarecki, David Kuhn
Screenwriter
Eugene Jarecki
Distributor
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co
Backup Films, Charlotte Street Films
Rating
R (Some Disturbing Images|Language|Brief Drug Use)
Genre
Documentary, Music
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 22, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 18, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA)
$253.0K
Runtime
1h 47m
Join The Newsletter Join The Newsletter Cookie Settings