The first time that Baz Luhrmann paid cinematic tribute to Elvis Presley – pairing the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s story with the Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby director’s trademark spectacle-is-substance flair – the world screamed with enthusiasm.
Catapulting Austin Butler to both a BAFTA Award and superstardom, collecting eight Oscar nominations, cleaning up at the AACTAs and claiming fourth spot on Australia’s list of highest-grossing homegrown films: the 2022 biopic Elvis achieved them all.
The movie’s greatest feat? Its ability to make those watching feel like they were stood among the throngs of feverish fans at Presley’s live shows – and, more than that, to feel as those swooning crowds did in the 50s, 60s and 70s – to fully convey Elvis’ impact.
For the audience, such a vivid, visceral, like-you’re-there sensation was electrifying. For the man behind the camera, it might’ve even been addictive; he’s chasing it again with his stunning new documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.
EPiC review – quick links
EPiC: Elvis’ story in his own words
When scenes are as skilfully crafted as the lively and meticulous recreations of Presley’s performances in the biopic Elvis, viewers can’t help falling in love. Still, there’s nothing like watching the real thing.
EPiC wouldn’t exist without Elvis, or without Luhrmann discovering a 59-hour treasure trove of previously lost and unseen footage – including from the 1970s concert films Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour – in the Warner Bros vault in a Kansas salt mine when he was working on his Butler-led feature.
Aided by his regular editor Jonathan Redmond (an assistant on Moulin Rouge! before splicing The Great Gatsby, TV series The Get Down and, yes, Elvis), the Aussie filmmaker has combined that now-gloriously restored material, plus also never-before-seen Super8 from Graceland, with unheard recordings of his subject speaking about his life.
The result: Presley getting the Moonage Daydream treatment.
Luhrmann has always danced to his own tune and rhythm, which doesn’t change here, of course. In having Elvis tell his own tale in his own words and via his inimitable, intoxicating presence on- and off-stage, however, EPiC is as much a perfect companion to Brett Morgen’s visionary Grammy-winning David Bowie documentary as it is to Luhrmann’s previous picture.
A feast of archival performances
In case anyone didn’t catch Elvis before sitting down to EPiC, the latter begins with an energetically compiled photo and news montage that mostly mirrors its beats. The opening also doubles as a Presley primer, stepping through his rise to fame, the adoring masses, the puritanical reaction to his swinging hips, his stint in the army, his film career and more. (His personal life, as also covered in Sofia Coppola’s Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny-starring Priscilla, earns less attention.)
When Elvis calls his distinctive dance moves a ‘jiggle’, then, or mentions the difficulties of trying to live up to an image, Luhrmann has already given his statements ample context.
From there, the bulk of the movie focuses on its pompadoured singer doing what he did best, peppering in songs from laidback rehearsals and Presley nattering behind the scenes amid the feast of on-stage numbers.
His jumpsuits change frequently, flitting from white to blue to red and back, as the film weaves each track together from multiple shows.
While crooning his own array of hits alongside a selection of covers, Elvis’ knack for mesmerising those in his company remains constant, sparkling as brightly as the rhinestones and chains adorning his outfits. That proves true whether his band and backing singers are his only witnesses or he’s looking out onto a frenzied swarm of concertgoers seduced by his every word.
Watch the trailer for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
The man behind the mania
As renditions of songs as varied as Love Me, Polk Salad Annie and Bridge Over Troubled Water demonstrate, and not only gleaming costume embellishments but also the clarity of the beads of sweat on Presley’s brow back up, EPiC’s archival footage is dazzling. In IMAX, even more so.
If it didn’t already conjure up thoughts of Peter Jackson’s Beatles docuseries Get Back, Elvis breaking out that very tune among several by the Fab Four cements the connection.
Unsurprisingly for a music documentary-meets-concert film, every syllable uttered equally leaves an imprint. Influenced by gospel, infused with yearning, belting it out to the rafters and everything in-between, depending on what each track calls for, Elvis’ voice while he’s singing is golden.
Hailing from interviews and adding a little more conversation, his narration is reflective, candid and revealing.
There’s a raw air to time spent listening to and watching him chat, too, imparting an unguarded, eagerly welcome sense of the person, not merely the performer – and someone weathering all that his fame entailed for the pure and burning love of music.
Beyond the mania when he was alive, the mythology surrounding Presley has only grown and solidified in the nearly five decades since his untimely death in 1977 at the age of 42. Accordingly, glimpsing him talking casually, sharing his passion, valuing musicianship, hanging out and goofing around, as EPiC offers, feels like peering into his inner world.
EPiC: one of the great concert films
Suspicious minds might think that concert movies are as simple as pointing lenses toward the stage, letting the talent unleash their brilliance and cutting together the best vantage for the audience. As the genre’s finest examples illustrate, with EPiC belonging in such company as The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense, Amazing Grace and American Utopia, that’s never accurate.
The extensive efforts required to bring the film’s unearthed finds and painstakingly synchronised audio to the screen – lip reading was used to fit the tunes to the vision – instantly marks this as a technical wonder.
Even if Presley hadn’t always been on Luhrmann’s mind for years of late, one flamboyant artist honouring another, EPiC is also clearly a labour of the utmost affection.
That said, as the filmmaker did with Elvis, he doesn’t shy away from darker chapters, or from impressing a viewpoint; You’re the Devil in Disguise soundtracks the segment dedicated to Colonel Tom Parker, for instance.
And although the aptly named EPiC serves up a hearty reminder of just how expertly and uncannily that Butler physically embodied the part in every swagger, shake, smile and drawl – because if you’ve seen Elvis, you’ve seen more than a few of Presley’s moves here – there’s no more exhilarating ode to Elvis for obsessives, the somewhat fond and the barely aware alike than this, thank you very much.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is in cinemas from 19 February.
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