My review of Baz Luhrmann‘s EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert) is now up at Ebert . As someone intimately familiar with the two original concert films – the restoration-resurrection knocked me out. Last summer I introduced Elvis: That’s the Way It Is at Jacob Burns Film Center as part of their concert film series – it was sold out – Elvis still packs them in – so the film is really fresh in my mind. If you’re not aware: while making the biopic in 2022, Baz Luhrmann went on a quest to see if he could find the “lost” reels (audio / visual) of Elvis That’s the Way It Is – rumors of their existence have persisted for decades. And he found them. So there’s shit here I legit have not seen before. Luhrmann used Peter Jackson’s state-of-the-art restoration facilities to restore the films, adding in the new footage, and weaving it all together. It’s major. So it was fun to write about it.
Again: here’s my review of Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.
If Baz is the Poet Laureate of Elvis, are you the St. Jerome of Elvis?
;-)
I’m the Boswell.
Really loved this description by Sheila for Baz.
The film is indeed a giant love song for Elvis.
Great review. As expected.
Many thanks! I just saw it again today in IMAX!
Yours is the EPiC review I’ve been waiting to read, Sheila. Thank you, as always, for your insights.
As an Elvis fan, my reaction to EPiC continues to be that I can’t believe this has finally happened. It truly feels like a dream.
Troy – your words mean so much!! thank you!
// I can’t believe this has finally happened. //
Me too. I just can’t believe it. It looks and sounds SO GOOD. and the new footage! also just the way BL put it together. It’s about TIME someone did this for him – it’s just crazy that people don’t seem to know somehow how incredible he was as a performer.
It’s overwhelming, honestly. I want to see it again!
Excellent review. It reminded us all of why we first got into this Elvis phenomenon (do-do do do the do deh
thanks Noel!!
Troy – I just read your last couple of posts – your detailed reviews – which was really great – I just got back from seeing it the second time. I took my nephews and nieces – ages 16 to 8. 5 of them. They know about Elvis because they know I love him – and the oldest saw the Elvis biopic. I wondered how they would do – it’s a long movie. they’ve only seen one concert movie (Taylor Swift) – I just wasn’t sure. On the drive, I prepped them – I didn’t go on and on – I just prepped them for what this was and what they should expect. and they LOVED it. The 8 year old (boy) got up and danced at one point. (sob) They all said to me, in more ways than one, “I just didn’t know anything about him.” My niece (16) said, “I didn’t want it to be over” which made me want to cry.
They understood. They had never thought about him – or about the fact that someone actually came before the big stars THEY all know – and just how big HE was. So we had a great discussion after at Denny’s. It was so cool.
I loved seeing it a second time – that new footage. Oh Happy Day! I can’t get past it!!
Thank you for the generous words, Sheila, and pointing people toward my writing. It means more than I could state here. I loved your story about taking your nieces and nephews. The moments you described, the dancing, the not wanting it to end, those are why EPiC matters. It is putting the fun back in Elvis. For too long, Elvis documentaries have been, at best, roller coaster rides ending in death.
I’ve also been experiencing EPiC with family, but not as a group. Going one-on-one with people lets me fit more screenings in (I’m at 4 and counting!). Just one example – my sister, who grew up around Elvis thanks to my mom, brother, and, later, me, was “Elvis aware” but not really a fan. She was floored by this movie. She wanted to see it again and loved it just as much the second time.
As for “Oh Happy Day,” I’m in complete agreement. What a special moment. The extended version of the remix on the soundtrack is terrific, too.
// For too long, Elvis documentaries have been, at best, roller coaster rides ending in death. //
Exactly. The end foreshadows the whole life – which I get but … I think it’s important to resist! I used to write those posts called “I refuse to be sad about Elvis Presley” – lol which was my way of combatting it. He was at the top of his field for over 20 years. People need to understand who these people were in their work – because ultimately it’s the work that matters. Marilyn Monroe is another casualty of this – her image so so everywhere, still, that she doesn’t even seem real. weirdly … people aren’t even curious about her? Or they assume they know everything they need to know? It’s weird. You’d think it would be the opposite – that people seeing Marilyn everywhere would be like “huh, I wonder why she was really famous, let me check out her movies” – but it’s the opposite.
I can’t tell you how many comments I’ve seen about EPiC that are like “… I had no idea!”
I am not judging these people. You can’t know what you don’t know. But what on earth is going on in our culture when information like that isn’t passed down? Like, you need to know what Elvis was famous FOR. (I feel the same way about Judy Garland, too. And that recent Judy biopic with Renee Z not only didn’t help, but HURT. Talk about focusing on “the end” as opposed to her extraordinary body of work, her catalog. Let’s just boil her down to her final moments when she was drug-addled and pathetic. This is my main issue with biopics – and one of the reason why I was so pleasantly surprised by Baz’s 2022 film.)
I think this concert/documentary REALLY does that – and we have it now – so nobody can claim they don’t know anymore!!
Oh, I definitely remember those “I refuse to be sad” posts. They were empowering, taking Elvis back from the death that has defined him for most of my lifetime. And you’re right, Marilyn Monroe is almost completely lost to image now. For a time, it seemed like Elvis would suffer the same fate, but projects like EPiC are putting the emphasis back on the human being and, as you and your colleague noted, his artistry.
Going to see it again tomorrow night!
I think the restoration really helps in what we are talking about. I have been watching grainy poor quality videos of Elvis doing the most amazing performances for years – and I am fine with it. I am used to watching silent movies, 1930s movies with bad sound – like I can look past technology no problem. But I realize other people can’t.
And so having grainy dark-ish footage of Elvis makes him seem very “back then”, separated from now by a gulf of years.
Having such a pristine restoration makes him seem like he’s very right now – as I said in my review – and I think will draw in so many more people, who aren’t going to be going down YouTube rabbit holes, etc. The obsessives like us will do what we do regardless – but it’s great to see other be so captivated!
I just gasped at “Oh Happy Day” – the vocals on the audio that we have CLEARLY show that Elvis was totally abandoned and in it – but to see him, and his body – that red shirt – the notes seemed to be coming up from his toes – It was so exciting. and it was basically a throw-away moment in rehearsal!
Oh, and too funny – a film critic colleague of mine who wasn’t really into Elvis texted me after seeing it: “Is Elvis real?? I’m a mess.”
lollll He is a Trekkie so he loved the one Star Trek joke (“Kirk?”) and he’s also a big Grateful Dead fan, so he is very familiar with Ronnie Tutt, for the Jerry Garcia connection. But he just never gave Elvis too much thought, except thinking that maybe he was a little “corny” in the 70s with the jumpsuits and everything.
I also loved that he texted ME immediately upon leaving the theatre. I mean, we know each other but we’re not dear friends or anything. But he needed to talk about Elvis and so he knew who to reach out to.
It was so great!
I said something like “I just don’t understand why his artistry is so rarely mentioned.”
He said something really great, I think – especially since he himself had never really considered Elvis a subject worth getting into:
“It’s because he had his quirks and for so long, and the Vegas/How Great Thou Art stuff was considered tacky/corny. But this movie blows that myth.”
I love that! I hope so!
I hope he writes about it!
Elvis’ art, in a bizarre way is underrated.
The dramatic life story, the revolution he brought in, the iconicness- all these get talked about way more than what made him- the music and performing it.
Why just seventies – even the haloed fifties are mostly discussed in terms of the great rock revolution and Pelvis. While the astonishingly pure and supernatural vocals rarely get mentioned, especially the ballads.
How cool is the Love Me remix from EPiC? Echoes Blue Moon – which also is used so very effectively in the film.
So glad Blue Moon made an appearance! Dave Marsh called it an “eerie masterpiece” and I’ve never forgotten that – I think it’s a very accurate description of his extremely unique – and really startling, actually – cover.
If you want to read Troy on this – his blog is wonderful – here’s just one of the recent posts. .
what a thrill ride Sheila, what a spectacle!! what a celebration of power! we left the cinema elated and laughing.
the way the first 15 minutes of documentary mosaic and then shift into a process focus of rehearsal all to rev up to the first curtain rise was masterful – when the sound dropped and the pace slowed in the dark I held my breath – felt like I was in the presence of an enormous engine powering up. the subsequent explosion put me in the back of my seat.
I will be thinking about the way this was assembled for a long time, I reckon. I normally get really annoyed when performance is interrupted but somehow it just worked here. It never felt like it was working to contain him – it felt just as abandoned as its subject but just as controlled as well. Yeah, that dual abandonment-control that marks all the great ones. Every cut had a purpose. Every single moment had the just right amount of context supplied. It developed a narrative and had a point of view, but because it centered and exalted the performance, and the personality, and the emotion, and the immediacy of his skin and flick of his eyes and drive of the guitar and pulse of the bass, it felt untranslated and pure. Oh, you say this better in your great and moving review: *he* is the spectacle!
I’m so happy for you and all the Elvis people everywhere that you get this, what a treat! at times our seats were shaking from the movement of the people behind us. I’d normally be so annoyed but I could only agree that it was so fitting.
Jessie! Hi!! I am so glad you went to see it – and in the theatre! He loved live audiences – and I am just so touched hearing all the stories of crowd just loving it and being vocal and everything.
I felt the same way about the cutting. The section with Polk Salad Annie – which is such a notoriously filthy funky number where he gives this crazy feral performance – in the original tour film, it plays out in full. Here we saw him in rehearsal – in that RED SHIRT with the PUFFY SLEEVES – HOW did he get away with this – so we saw him rehearsing the song, doing it full out – cutting to the performance of it – which honestly wasn’t that different from the final performance. He was drenched in sweat in the rehearsal., I’m 90% that rehearsal footage – or a lot of it – was part of the never-before-seen material because I just was not familiar with it. and I really loved the choice to do that, to SHOW his process – and also how even in rehearsal, with all the goofing off, he went for it 100%!
I also loved how seamlessly the documtary stuff was woven in – AND with him talking over it!! it felt so organic. Elvis fans know this audio exists – but I don’t think anyone else does. I loved how it was incorporated.
// the pace slowed in the dark I held my breath – felt like I was in the presence of an enormous engine powering up. the subsequent explosion put me in the back of my seat. //
InCREDible moment. There’s that shot of him standing all alone in the shadows – with his arm out – hearing the band rev up – and he’s just waiting. that’s definitely footage I’ve seen before but not that pristine. it’s one of my favorite moments, because … being HIM, and the stakes always so high for him – he’s just standing there, getting himself together – like emptying himself out before getting onstage. I’m just speculating. But he was this still figure with black curtains around him – and his white jumpsuit. It was SO gorgeous and SO tense with anticipation. So beautiful.
watching those concerts it’s almost amazing that he had like 8 years left to live. how can that be ??
I loved how it was such a positive celebration of him. Centering him as you say. And they didn’t include footage of him in the last two years when things were getting really sad and I can’t watch that stuff. He should have been in a hospital not onstage. :(
But here, we just get to have him entertain us. It was very moving!!
Thanks so much for showing up here to talk about Elvis!!
the Polk Salad Annie section was when I really sat back and went okay, this is phenomenal work. It was the first full song and one of the only ones that played without interruption go to whoa, assembled as you say with the sound switching seamlessly between contexts; it was like a thesis statement: here it is, you asked for it, this is it and this is how he did it. They could get away with interrupting other songs because we’d already been forcibly surrendered.
I appreciate learning more from you about what was previously known to the world and had meaning for Elvis fans; I find it really moving that the film doesn’t foreground all of Baz’s effort. A lesser movie wouldn’t have been able to resist any of that. Title cards about the archive, the restoration, how special it all is. Never before seen footage! You are witness! No. He doesn’t muscle in on Elvis.
Thank you for sharing what it means to you, it gives me a lot of insight!
You know, I hadn’t thought of that. So true that BL did not center himself and his discovery. (although he’s been talking about nothing but in his interviews – which has been really exciting to hear – the whole process was crazy. the film was so deteriorated that he said it smelled like vinegar when they opened the metal reels. He had to raise the money to get them restored – he said something funny like “nobody wants an elvis concert film so I had to do this myself” – and of course Elvis fans donated!
But yeah the whole restoration process – I’d like a documentary too on THAT.
But the film just was pure. there were time jumps and we just had to go with it. some of the sound is degraded so he incorporated the music from the album the Royal London Symphony Orchestra did accompanying his songs – he did this on Burnin’ Love – which I normally would hate the anachronism of that – but there isn’t really much footage of him doign that song – one of his huge hits from the concerts in the 70s. I think putting the symphony behind that helped really communicate why that song was so huge for him (not a radio hit, just a staple in his shows).
So in the first concert when he asks for a guitar and sits down – TOTALLY new footage. never seen it before. I couldn’t believe it!! we have the audio of it on the double album released – but never seen it! You can tell it’s live but I had no idea he was sitting down and playing the guitar. I was in tears.
I need to do a deeper dive on what else was new – a lot of the rehearsal stuff, much of that was new. and him singing “Oh Happy Day with his backup singers – basically just messing around. But he was just thrashing around, singing from what felt like his FEET.
I need to see it again!
// we’d already been forcibly surrendered..//
hahaha
a whole doc on the restoration process, to complement the film, would be fabulous! It’s meticulous fascinating work.
That moment with the guitar is a perfect example of how the movie’s very effectively built for both know-nothings like me and deep fans like you – for me, there’s this context provided about his musicianship so I can appreciate this moment as like hey, he’s got chops, he loves playing, it sounds great, it’s part of his mastery of the dynamics of the concert as a whole. and it’s this whole other miracle for you. I love that.