By John Corrado
A companion piece to the cinematic spectacle of his excellent 2022 biopic Elvis, Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert answers the question of what a Luhrmann-directed documentary looks like.
We get the flurry of flashy images, editing, and title cards, with Luhrmann delivering all the visual razzle-dazzle we expect. And that’s just the opening montage. But the real draw of this project is the electrifying concert footage, that practically makes us levitate out of our seats.
The film is assembled from 59 hours of archival footage from Presley’s Vegas residency and preceding rehearsals, which has been fully restored from camera negatives that were discovered by the filmmaker and his team, and thrillingly cut together by editor and executive producer Jonathan Redmond. The narration is taken from interviews with Presley; this is Elvis in his own words, telling “his side of the story,” with no commentators or armchair historians weighing in on his legacy.
Luhrmann wants that legacy to speak for itself this time around. If the presence of Presley’s manager loomed large over Luhrmann’s biopic, Colonel Tom Parker is largely kept on the sidelines here, though the filmmaker does slyly put Elvis singing “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise” over images of him.
This feels like a concert movie first and foremost. The film’s crisp vocals and sound, best experienced in a movie theatre, allow us to revel in experiencing the power of Presley as a performer, including glimpses of fans shaking and going out of their minds. In its biggest moments, the film brought the house down, and turned the Princess of Wales theatre into a giant dance party at the Saturday afternoon premiere.
It’s impossible to watch this clean, up-close footage of Elvis tearing through hits like “Burning Love” and “Suspicious Minds” and deny that he was one of the greatest performers who ever lived. Luhrmann, again, thrillingly brings him back to life with this film.
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