The things we expect from an Elvis movie—mindless joviality,
pretty actresses, mediocre songs—arrive early in Flaming Star. Then just ten minutes in, shocking acts of violence transform it from an Elvis movie into a movie starring Elvis Presley. The title does not
refer to a celebrity pop singer; it refers to “the flaming star of death,” and this western
is nothing if not elegiac and serious as a stopped heart.
A hint that this might not be your typical romp with the
King of Rock & Roll is dropped in the opening credits when the words
“Directed by Don Siegel” flash on the screen. Siegel is renowned for dead-dark stuff like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Killers, and Dirty Harry. He doesn’t let any light shine in no matter who’s
starring in his movie, and though Elvis is really part of an ensemble cast in
Flaming Star, there’s no question who its star is. As the half-Native American
son of a multiracial frontier family, Elvis is clearly the stand out player.
He took his work on the film so seriously that he insisted the other
unnecessary musical numbers Siegel shot be cut from it.
Elvis is Pacer. He and his family are caught in the middle
of a war between white invaders and the Kiowa tribe. Depicted as craven,
hot-blooded racists and rapists, the whites want Elvis’s all-white
half-brother Clint (Steve Forrest) to fight alongside them. Led by Chief
Buffalo Horn (Mexican actor Rodolfo Acosta) and driven by honor and the
understanding that the whites intend to wipe them off their own land, the Kiowa
believe Pacer should stand with them. The brothers vow loyalty to their
family alone until another act of violence impels Pacer to take a side.
Not only is Flaming Star unusually serious, violent,
and light on music for a movie with Elvis Presley, it is uncommonly thoughtful too. The filmmakers clearly side with the Kiowa (and rightfully so) yet they are completely honest about
the violence and tragic mistakes either side of any war perpetrates. That honesty
extends to the way Siegel shot his film. He curbs the stylized strokes he
brought to Body Snatchers and The Killers for a more straight-forward,
more realistic approach in Flaming Star. Siegel works with pale daylight exteriors, dim
blue nighttime ones, and shadowy interiors, making Flaming Star a sort of color noir without the weird angles.
Twilight Time’s new blu-ray of Flaming Star respects
its muted aesthetic with fine clarity, depth, and grain. Film Historians Lem
Dobbs and Nick Redman provide an audio commentary in which they discuss Elvis’s movies without pulling punches and relate how the relative commercial failure of Flaming Star
ultimately did them a disservice. Interesting to my fellow horror fans is an
extended discussion of how Barbara Steele was originally cast for a minor
role that ended up going to Barbara Eden (who is quite good). The disc also
includes original trailers and an isolated score track.
