Protecting the King (2007) starring Matt Barr, Tom Sizemore, Peter Dobson, Karl Hamann, Dey Young, Brian Krause, Mark Rolston, John Bennett Perry directed by D. Edward Stanley Movie Review

Protecting the King (2007)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Matt Barr in Protecting the King (2007)

The Bodyguard Brother

"Protecting the King" is the story of David Stanley the younger stepbrother of Elvis Presley who in 1972 started travelling with him as part of his close crew and went on to become his bodyguard. Now not only is "Protecting the King" Stanley's story but he also wrote, produced, directed as well as narrated the movie. The thing is that whilst David Stanley must have got to see a very different side to Elvis than most this movie ends up coming across as self serving and I hate to say this as if Stanley wanted a slice of the Elvis Presley Pie even if that wasn't his intentions.

Now the thing about "Protecting the King" is that it isn't really about Elvis but about David himself and his life from 1972 when he first joined Elvis on a tour. We see him introduced to the in crowd, learn karate, fall out with people and mess up and a lot more whilst growing up in the process. The question is that for Elvis fans, who to be honest are the ones who will seek this out to watch, do they want to watch a movie about Elvis's little stepbrother. It is why it comes across as self serving and why it is a bit of a struggle.

Peter Dobson in Protecting the King (2007)

But there is another reason why fans of Elvis may find "Protecting the King" hard work and that is the portrayal of Elvis. Now firstly there is an obvious issue over Peter Dobson who is cast as Elvis and I get a feeling that someone saw that he played young Elvis in "Forrest Gump" and thought he could then play the older version of Elvis. He can't as whilst the voice is okay he doesn't look right as the old Elvis, he doesn't have the right face for it.

But it is not just Peter Dobson as it is also what David Stanley says that Elvis was like such as an early scene where he joins the tour and Elvis who having promised his mother to get him tutors gets him to attractive women to educate him in bed. There is more and whilst fans of Elvis know that his life was messed up with an addiction to pills and junk food in many ways they don't want to know it. In fact it almost makes "Protecting the King" a movie which alienates Elvis fans rather than interesting them.

What this all boils down to is that "Protecting the King" is a movie which in a strange way doesn't have an audience as it is the story of Elvis's stepbrother rather than Elvis and do people really want to know about his little stepbrother. Even beyond that issue it has others from weak character portrayals and a style which does little to draw you in.


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