Spring Film Festival - Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert
- Matt Palmer
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
The Dietrich Theater’s annual Spring Film Festival is now ongoing and it’s time to check out as many film selections as possible. And just like the previous film festivals, I will ultimately get to the films that I missed once they are available on streaming (SVOD). So, for this review, I took a look at the film festival selection “Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert.”
Elvis sings and tells his story like never before in a new cinematic experience from visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann. Never before seen footage and recordings feature Elvis Presley in concert at his Las Vegas residency during the later stage of his career.
If there are any Elvis fans out there, “Elvis Presley in Concert" is just the documentary for you! This documentary is a visually stunning celebration of Elvis’ prime as this experience is a must see and a joyful look at his career’s best era, featuring newly discovered footage and digitally restored 4K visuals that can make you feel as though you’re watching the concert live.
The film focuses primarily on the 1969-1972 Las Vegas residency era, which is widely considered his peak performance (along with some glimpses of his life as well). Unlike traditional biographies, the documentary avoids the “later years” narrative of decline and instead highlights his physical energy, raw charisma and unmatched musicianship. Throughout the film, we also get to see Elvis directing his band with such precision, experimenting with song tempos, and mastering genres from gospel to rhythm and blues.
We also get to see a more relaxed Elvis in this documentary as we see him relaxing, laughing and joking around with his bandmates during numerous rehearsals. There are numerous times where we see him in a jovial mood playing with music and even sometimes joking around with fans in the front rows. The film also captures his ability to command the room and connect deeply with the concert audiences, making this viewing experience feel really intimate.
And, yes, you can’t have an Elvis documentary without an awesome soundtrack. Throughout the film, we hear some favorites, such as “Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Blue Moon” and so many others!
“Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert” is widely hailed as an immersive cinematic experience that functions as both a high-definition concert and a personal documentary narrated by Elvis himself from numerous audio recordings. The film was created using over fifty hours of unreleased archival footage - much of it discovered in a storage facility in Kansas - meticulously restored by Peter Jackson’s team to achieve “surreal clarity.”
MPA: Rated PG-13 for smoking and some language (runtime 96 minutes)
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Whitney Houston's Mother Cissy Houston, sang backup for Elvis Presley in the late 1960s as part of The Sweet Inspirations. She performed with him during his iconic 1969 Las Vegas residency, and Whitney, then a child, met Elvis during this time.
Roughly 80% of the footage used has never been seen publicly before.
Director Baz Luhrmann discovered the footage he used in this film whilst doing research for his biopic film Elvis (2022). He was bowled over by how much unseen 35mm footage (some of it outtakes and deleted scenes from other projects) there was in the Warner Bros film storage facility, which was located in an old salt mine in Kansas. Not all of the footage had a corresponding soundtrack so some creative editing was required but over the course of two years he was still able to edit together this film through a variety of sources and archive sound recordings.
Sammy Davis Jr. is seen both in the audience and backstage. Davis and Elvis were very close friends, all the way since the 1950s. Davis was in attendance at all of Elvis's Vegas openings, spanning from 1969 to 1977.
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