Baz Luhrmann loves Elvis Presley so much, and he’s not ready to let go. After discovering never-before-seen footage of Presley’s infamous Las Vegas residency, the Australian director returned to Graceland for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, a companion piece to his 2022 biographical film Elvis. Luhrmann’s undertaking makes perfect sense; the filmmaker is enamoured by the dazzling lights of showmanship and who better embodies the epitome of a stage spectacle than the King of Rock and Roll?
Luhrmann’s journey to the aptly titled EPiC sounds like the plot of a heist film. After hearing whispers about the mythical recordings, Luhrmann embarked on an extensive archival search. In the salt mine vaults of MGM, he struck gold: boxes of unseen negatives containing 59 hours of preserved film footage for the 1970 documentary Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and the 1972 concert film Elvis on Tour, sat waiting for him. Luhrmann and his close collaborator and editor, Jonathan Redmond, stitched together this footage with candidly intimate behind-the-scenes interview audio, allowing Elvis narrate the pinnacle of his career in his own words.
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Flitting between 1950s TV performance montages and disappointed musings on his 1960s Hollywood career, Luhrmann locates the man behind the iconography. In doing so, EPiC becomes a major contribution to Elvis lore, breathing new life into the singer’s mythology. The maximalist director finds small details, like the singer entertaining his band with the same seriousness as the packed Vegas crowd, and presents Elvis as you’ve never seen him before. Visually, that is thanks to restoration by Peter Jackson’s team. The result is an extraordinary, technicolour treat that is so alive with vibrant energy. Colour flushes Elvis’ cheeks as every bead of sweat and hair on those impressive sideburns is visible. Furthermore, Luhrmann has proudly noted nthat ot a single frame of this film was touched by AI; it’s Elvis through a clearer lens, but not tainted.
Redmond’s editing moves like the pace of a concert, some revealing crowd work (making out with half the crowd) before returning to Elvis’ grandiose stage presence. His powerful vocals at full volume will push you back in your seat like the thrill of a rollercoaster. Though one slight misstep comes with Luhrmann doubling down on his hatred of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ strict manager, who was bitterly portrayed by Tom Hanks in Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic. There is very little subtlety when a jarring montage of Parker is soundtracked to Elvis performing “You’re the Devil in Disguise”.
By the time EPiC reaches its swan song, a euphoric performance of “Suspicious Minds”, it becomes clear Luhrmann has created no average Elvis documentary nor repetitive concert film. The director has described his film as a poem, but its rhythms feel more abstract, like recalling the best concert of your life in a dream. Brilliantly forgoing nostalgia to frame Elvis in the present, Luhrmann offers the closest experience of a live Elvis show that we may ever see. And like the Vegas residency, EPiC deserves a standing ovation when Luhrmann’s curtain falls.
