 Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Bob Ivy
Director: Don Coscarelli
Year Of Release: 2002
Plot: Did Elvis die or not? Although he’s officially known to the staff as Sebastian Haff, a resident of an old folk’s home insists he that is actually Elvis and that he swapped places with Presley impersonator Haff many years ago, but was unable to swap back. Now he’s slowly wasting away in a miserable rest home, lamenting his past choices. However a very unusual shot at redemption comes when he and fellow resident Jack (who’s convinced he’s JFK despite the fact he’s black), team up to take on a soul-sucking reanimated mummy that’s stalking the halls of the old folk’s home. |
Bubba Ho-Tep is a very strange movie. You have to wonder what was going through Joe R. Lansdale’s mind when he wrote the story the film is based on. It’s a tale where Elvis isn’t dead but slowly dying in a retirement home and has to team up with an old African American man who thinks he’s JFK in order to take down a reanimated Egyptian mummy that sucks people’s souls out of their body through their asshole.
See, told you it was weird.
However what’s probably the best thing about it isn’t the very strange plot, but that underneath the weirdness it’s essentially a rather sweet story of two old men who’ve been pretty much forgotten and are now waiting to die, but who get the chance to be relevant one more time and prove to themselves that despite their decrepitude they’re not totally worthless. It’s quite an unusual subject, and Bubba Ho-Tep should be applauded for ensuring that there’s a real emotional heart to a film that might otherwise purely seem like parade of strangeness.
The only thing that’s a bit of a shame is that they got Bruce Campbell to play one of the old codgers. Although he’s a b-movie legend and very good in the role of the elderly Elvis, it would have been nice to have a real old person in the role, rather than someone in their 40s under a tonne of makeup to make him look ancient. So few films are made about old people that it feels a bit of a shame they had to cast someone younger in the main role.
That said, without Campbell’s involvement, the makers probably wouldn’t have gotten the relatively small $500,000 budget, both because few people are interested in films starring old people, and also that without a cult figure like Bruce agreeing to star, it’s unlikely they’d have found anyone to put up the cash based purely on the odd story. In fact, while I say it’s a shame they cast Campbell, the truth is that because Bruce is known for unusual movies, it does actually help Bubba Ho-Tep, as it keys you into what to expect. With anyone else in the lead, the film was always in danger of seeming silly and therefore never finding an audience.
However they did cast one older gent in one of the lead roles in the film – the wonderful Ossie Davis, who plays Jack (who thinks he’s JFK), and teams up with Elvis to take on the mummy. If there’s one Hollywood figure who deserves far, far more praise and adulation than he’s generally had, it’s Davis, who sadly died in 2005. To many African-Americans he is a revered figure, and rightly so. From his earliest days as an actor in the 1950s, he tried to challenge the idea that black people could only play servants or subservient roles. While at the time this was an immense struggle, he was one of the few African American actors to find commercial success before the 1970s. However he really came into his own during the civil rights struggle in the 1960s.
Ossie played a pivotal role in organising the 1963 March on Washington and served as emcee at the event. It was a key moment in the battle for civil rights and the event at which Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Davis also delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X’s funeral (a role he re-enacted in voiceover in Spike Lee’s biopic), and gave a stirring tribute at a memorial in New York's Central Park the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated, as well as speaking at his funeral.
In the 1970s he was one of only a handful of African American film directors, helping pave the way for black people to get behind the camera. To more recent generations he’s probably most recognisable from his appearances in Spike Lee’s movies, such as Do The Right Thing, School Daze and Jungle Fever. In fact the 1990s and early 2000s were amongst his most active period, with audiences rediscovering what a good actor he was
Although he and his wife, Ruby Dee, were given many awards of the years, for both their work in the arts and their important role in the civil rights struggle, neither seem to have got the credit they deserve amongst the general population. Sadly Davis died in 2005, but he really ought to be saluted not just for being a wonderful actor, but also someone who really made a difference during one of the most important social movements of the 20th Century. Bubba Ho-Tep may have been a bit of a strange film for him to choose, especially as it ended up being one of his last movies, but he is absolutely wonderful in it.
Ossie Davis, I salute you.
Bubba Ho-Tep is certainly a very peculiar movie, but it’s one that’s very entertaining, so if you haven’t partaken of its peculiar charms before, I’d recommend you seek it out.
Incidentally, there’s talk of a prequel called Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires, in which Ron Perlman would take over the role of Elvis (Campbell having dropped out because he disagreed with the direction the director wanted to go). However at the moment it’s still uncertain whether it’ll ever actually get made.
TIM ISAAC
PREVIOUS: Brothers & Sisters - Season 1 - Or, why so few US TV shows are made for people over 35
NEXT: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling - Or, what's happened to the cast of Buffy?
CLICK HERE to see the index of 909 films and TV shows the Movie-A-Day Project will be covering
CLICK HERE to find out more about the idea behind The Movie-A-Day Project
CLICK HERE to follow Movie_A_Day on Twitter
