The Burger & the King: The Life & Cuisine of Elvis Presley

There is no denying that Elvis loved his food – indeed it was more or less this love that killed him as he bloated outwards, ever outwards. This documentary focuses on this aspect of his life and takes us on a culinary tour of what he would eat, whether it be from his own cook or a sandwich of several thousand calories that was good enough to fly across states just to eat and come back. It is a strange mix this film as we get the recipes for the meals flashed up on the screen but never in the detail that would suggest it is meant to be a cookery show.

Of course it is not intended as such because this is more about how his food brought him to an end and as such it is interesting. The detail of his death is not the most savoury viewing but up to that point it is engaging as we roughly follow his eating patterns as he got bigger and bigger (as a star and a trouser size). For Elvis fans it will be interesting but even for those with a passing interest in the man, the film has sufficient cultural detail around him to be of interest. Hell, if nothing else the film will amuse simply because of the meals being cooked up; on one hand even thinking about them made my blood thicken but most of them do sound delicious! Overall then an engaging film that is slight but has enough around the subject to be of interest for fans as well as the casual viewer.

The Burger & The King is a documentary that suggests that Elvis Presley's true love of his life wasn't actually music--it was food. One can easily find any number of books and documentaries exploring the life of Elvis Presley, but to my knowledge The Burger & The King is the only one that is dedicated to the King's food intake, which is why the film is of course unique and interesting.

It is competently-made, like the majority of BBC made documentaries, and definitely insightful into some of the inner-workings of Elvis' psyche that seem to be rarely touched on elsewhere (don't get the idea that this doc' is really "deep" though, because honestly it isn't... you shouldn't really be expecting it to be either). The documentary even provides recipes for some of Elvis' favorite foods (his favorite sandwich, Fool's Gold, feels like it hardens your arteries just looking at it).

All in all, a unique documentary on Elvis Presley's eating habits and well-worth an hour of practically anyone's time.