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Right now there is a chorus of critics and fans heaping praise on Baz Luhrmann's newest Elvis project, and rightly so. For fans of Elvis it's a chance to see him onstage, backstage and offstage in footage they may not have seen before. For people who aren't fans it's a chance to see Elvis in a way they might not have. People know Elvis the icon, Elvis the movie star, even Elvis the rock and roll star. But many may not be as familiar with Elvis the entertainer, the man who puts himself fully into a song even if it's just rehearsal, and Elvis the band leader who conducts his band in a way that a casual viewer might not even realize he's doing so. They also may not be familiar with Elvis the goofball, who makes corny jokes and sings silly lyrics to his classic songs. I personally know of one person who is a newly converted Elvis fan because of the movie (I convinced him to go watch it with me).
I almost put Baz Luhrmann's name in the title of this post, because as much as this movie is about Elvis it's also about Luhrmann and how he feels about Elvis. In fact as entertaining as the movie is if I had to pick a nit it's that I wish Luhrmann had let more songs play through without audio of Elvis talking being edited in, often in ways that are very editorial in nature. The context make what the King is saying come across in ways Elvis himself may or may not have agreed with. For instance, one opinion made very clear (and also the main theme in Luhrmann's Elvis Biopic) that Elvis himself would have strenuously disagreed with is Tom Parker as villain who stifled Elvis' career. The portion of the movie that focuses on Parker has photos and video of him over the song The Devil In Disguise. Not terribly subtle, not that I disagree with the sentiment. But in cutting into songs or showing partial songs I feel some of the power of the performance was diluted. I came home from the movie and put on my vinyl copy of Elvis live at the International hotel so I could hear the songs in their complete versions.
The song choices were great, and mostly really show his strengths as a performer. Elvis could sometime phone in a performance of a sing he was tired of singing, but Luhrmann doesn't show that side here. If you feel you want to see it, it's visible in the movie whose outtakes this one was made from, 1972's Elvis On Tour (along with 1970's That's The Way It Is). Cutting between the stage and rehearal makes the songs a little uneven, but's it's interesting to see him putting in the same energy whther there's an audience or not. It's also fun seeing his interactions with his band, which could have been featured more as well. As a Beatles fanatic I loved seeing him singing 3 different Beatles songs (though he seemed unfamiliar with the George Harrison penned Something). In The Ghetto, a song I am normally lukewarm about, had an arrangement that made it one of my favorite songs in the film. Even the remixed songs that played over the end credits were a lot of fun.
The musical portions were in fact so powerful that I think the film's main failure is not letting them stand on their own. I know there are already concert films, but I think the movie could have kept the story and commentary separate before or even between numbers and the movie would have been more powerful as a result. Hearing Elvis sing part of a song only to cut away, sometimes caoming back and sometimes just moving on. I came home on put on my vinyl copy of Elvis Live at the International just so I could hear the songs uninterrupted. And for those of us who were too young to see Elvis live, it would have been the next best thing. Again, I'm not saying the movie is bad. It was very enjoyable. I would have just edited it a little differently. Overall I think it was a great look at Elvis the person, Elvis the music lover, and most importantly Elvis the entertainer.
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