Elvis is alive and well up on the big screen and the surround sound music takes you there!
Many times I caught myself smiling, laughing, and I had to exercise restraint to keep from clapping at the end of some songs because I forgot I wasn’t at a concert!
It’s a first-person
experience!
The movie is all Elvis talking and singing, with backstage interviewers asking questions and other than that, the only voice is mostly his.
His biggest hits are, natch, here and not just snippets but most with close to full versions and some, new to me.
He often, many times (!) kissed women in the audience who literally threw themselves at him, some even making it to the stage, hard to consider in our security-conscious world today.
His Army career from 1958 to 1960 didn't deter Elvis long, and after formulaic
movies, he returned to the venue he loved the most: in front of a
live audience which is what we were at the University of Tennessee in
Knoxville on April 8, 1972.
I must say it wasn’t a great show then: too short, he didn’t come back to the stage to sing one last song and from our vantage point (near the ceiling), he was no bigger than the size of the tip of my little finger.
Readers: This film is much, much better than our personal experience! This is live! This is solid entertainment!
In Las Vegas he performed to constant sold-out shows, sometimes twice a day, losing four to five pounds.
His huge orchestra was much bigger than I ever thought.
Elvis seemed to love joking around with his backup singers and crew,
loved by all.
He was such a sexually hunk of man, so appealing with those
beautiful blue eyes, long eyelashes, and mannerisms.
His marriage to Priscilla (b. 1945) is treated wordlessly on screen but with a song, and included are videos of his daughter, Lisa Marie (1968-2023) as an infant and toddler.
Nearing the end of the film, I wondered how his death would be handled: respectfully, as it was.
Epic: Elvis in Concert is a great escape from the
world today.
A note near the end says between 1969 and 1977 Elvis gave 1,100 concerts, sometimes three a day including the year he died, 1977.
It’s been years (say, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Waaay back in 1969 ) that I’ve wanted to see a movie twice.
I be goin’ back to Elvis!
Congratulations to Baz Luhrmann for the Best Documentary and a rockin' good time at the movies!
patricialesli@gmail.com
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