The hips of Elvis are still well worth talking about. Blending concert footage with documentary, Epic sees the virtuoso performer gyrate with such intensity that the audience’s sciatica twinges as their defences dissolve.
When Australian director Baz Luhrmann was making his swinging biopic Elvis (2022), he combed through both unseen and familiar footage, eventually turning to two previous concert films: Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970) and Elvis on Tour (1972). Unused footage was also discovered, which Luhrmann restored for Epic. He utilised technology from the studio of New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who had previously used it for his three-part Beatles documentary Get Back (2021).
The result is dazzling both visually and aurally. Luhrmann spends the first half hour flashing his rapid-fire editing style to recap Elvis’s life, but the remainder of the movie is all about the hips, “Hound Dog”, big-band arrangements, “Burning Love”, the intimacy of the rehearsal room, “In the Ghetto” and a closing medley. The recordings are seen and heard with a clarity whose power is undeniable: whatever Elvis Presley was offstage, on stage he truly was the King. The crowd in the karaoke tent is his court for this performance.
Kaisu Tervonen