Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert may be the greatest concert documentary ever made
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EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert presents an icon at the peak of his considerable powers.Elevation Pictures
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Starring Elvis Presley
Classification N/A; 97 minutes
Opens in IMAX theatres Feb. 20, in other theatres Feb. 27
Critic’s Pick
Watching prime Elvis Presley in all Baz Luhrmann’s IMAX-dimensioned glory is not just entertainment, it is a revelation that suggests the unthinkable: The King, as a pure rock ‘n’ roll animal, was actually underrated.
Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert presents an icon at the peak of his considerable powers, mostly at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in 1970. Among the performance highlights are Tiger Man and Polk Salad Annie. The former is a high-tempo declaration of fact (“I am the king of the jungle”); the latter finds Presley extremely comfortable within the swamp-rock choogle of the Tony Joe White classic.
He wears a tasselled white jumpsuit fit only for him (and possibly for Evel Knievel, the daredevil motorcyclist and dime-store Elvis). Big buttons and chest hairs glisten. The size and sharp angles of Presley’s outrageous collars and sideburns fight for attention. On the big screen, his bedroom eyes are as big as bedrooms; his facial pores, the size of swimming pools.
Luhrmann is nothing if not a maximalist. His previous attempt at presenting Presley, the fevered hot mess of a biopic that was 2022’s Elvis, was way over the top. But while Presley is hardly a subject to consider casually, EPiC is often intimate.
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A disembodied Elvis, speaking from the grave through an unearthed audio recording, serves as the film’s honest, vulnerable narrator. Among the subjects covered are his drafting into the U.S. Army in 1958 (overnight his career was “gone”), his unfortunate film choices (“It was nobody’s fault except maybe my own”) and the death of his mother.
With its shifting timeline, audio effects and smooth cutting from archival black-and-white footage to vibrantly enhanced colour shots, a dreamscape is achieved. Rehearsal footage is woven into multiple concert pieces, with the sound perfectly synchronized.
“At certain times you push out and pull in,” Presley says about the rhythmic tension of gospel music. Luhrmann seemingly took that advice to heart. The result is an electric biography, crack editing job and meaningful, dynamic and adrenalized performance film that reanimates a legend while restoring a legacy tarnished by a late-career demise.
The accurately titled EPiC is the greatest concert documentary ever made, and I’ll say that while standing on Martin Scorsese’s coffee table, holding my Blu-ray edition of The Last Waltz.
Fun fact: Scorsese worked on the 1972 concert film Elvis on Tour. Sourcing material for EPiC, Luhrmann and editor Jonathan Redmond went through boxes of film reels originally shot for that movie and 1970s Elvis: That’s the Way It Is. The 35mm and 8mm footage was preserved for decades within a Kansas salt mine by Warner Bros.
Luhrmann expands the soundtrack with snippets of studio recordings paired with plot points. The 1964 song Little Egypt is used in a segment about the anticipation for Presley’s residency at the International Hotel: “I went and bought myself a ticket, and I sat down in the very first row.”
If Elvis doesn’t have anything bad to say about his Svengali manager Colonel Tom Parker, Luhrmann does. The song You’re the Devil in Disguise accompanies images of the controlling Parker.
A backstage moment is a nostalgic vision of polyester and Pall Mall cigarettes. It was a simpler, if cancerous and curiously fashioned, time. Sammy Davis Jr. and Cary Grant are there, making the scene.
My only complaint? When Luhrmann uses a ghostly, reverb-drenched quote from Presley for segues, the sentence is repeated multiple times for emphasis. It is a trick used too often − too often, too often, too often…
That’s a minor issue. After the audacious failure of 2022’s Elvis, Luhrmann has redeemed himself within the canon of Presley movies. The director’s comeback is a substantial achievement, second only in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll to, well, Elvis’s black-leathered ’68 Comeback Special.
