“I’d like to talk to you a little bit, ladies and gentlemen, about how I got in this business. There’s been a lot written and a lot said, but never from my side of the story.. “
The above quote shows up at the very beginning and very end of Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC, so you pretty much know what he considered his mission to be on this film. EPiC cleverly spells out to Elvis Presley in Concert, but this is so much more than a concert film. So much so that I suspect anyone expecting this to be a concert film is likely to be disappointed. I think it was a mistake for so much of the film’s marketing to leave that impression. What you get is actually so much deeper and better than a concert film. It doesn’t really stand up to any traditional label. It’s a documentary, but it’s not. It’s a concert film, but it’s not. So what exactly is EPiC, and should you care that NEON and Alliance Entertainment have tag-teamed to bring it to you in UHD Blu-ray in wonderful 4K? Let me try to answer that for you.
Everyone should know by now that Baz Luhrmann devoted a significant part of his life and career to Elvis Presley. He delivered Elvis starring a surprising Adam Butler as Presley, and while I believed it to be too much of a Colonel Parker narration, it was still a dynamic bio-film and gave us one of the best since Bohemian Rhapsody from director Bryan Singer. Of course, he did a ton of research, and it’s obvious that he submerged himself into anything Elvis. During all of that work he made a couple of important discoveries. Buried deep in a Kansas salt mine he found a Warner Brothers archive site. Inside he discovered footage that hadn’t been seen before. Some of it was originally used to create a couple of Elvis films many years ago, but he knew that he had found gold in a salt mine. He tucked all of that away for a couple of years while he finished Elvis. He went back to all of that footage and spent a great amount of resources and time to have this 35mm footage restored and edited into something that mirrors Elvis himself. It isn’t quite an easy thing to put a name to it,, but you just knew it was going to be something special.
Here’s the format the film follows. Most of the footage was taken during Elvis’s 1970’s residency in Las Vegas. That means we get some remarkably solid footage and sound of many of those performances. Baz splices many performances together during many of these songs. We jump from show to show without a blip in the song presentation. I can’t even begin to understand the sound editing that went into that feat alone. But Baz didn’t stop there. Intercut into these songs, again with no blip or signs of transition, we get rehearsal footage with Elvis and his core band. As Elvis himself describes it, they would work out 100 or so songs with the core band and narrow it down to the show before it went to the big production guys. These rehearsals is where I found most of that gold I’ve been yammering about. This was pure Elvis. Not the glitter stage Elvis. This was Elvis playing with the guys and having fun. I loved the shots of their interactions. As a musician myself, I recognize most of these elements, and it’s truly where the man himself comes out better than anything that’s ever been released about him. It’s a relaxed Elvis not focusing on putting on a show, but a candid Elvis, the man so many of his fans wished they’d known. Well … now they do.
The film is an honest film. Baz allows us to see Elvis when he messes up a song. Musicians love to see that, because we know how much we mess up, and it just makes me feel great when I see such a consummate pro do it. It’s the most human thing a big star can do in front of the public, and Baz doesn’t shy away from it, because he wants us to see facets of this diamond that only his closest Nashville Mafia ever really got to see. The man let his guard down, and Baz pounced on it all to show us the man and not so much the idol.
Of course, the idol is never far from sight. We get to see the effect of stardom on the man. We get several montages of Elvis shaking hands with the crowd, kissing the girls, and even one instance when a girl is trying to rip one of his costume tassels off and he’s pleading with her that it won’t come off. He handles these moments with charm intact, and it’s all there for you to see in this film.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an Elvis fan. I’m not really a huge fan. I liked him OK and have a lot of respect for the impact he had on the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to hear an Elvis record. That doesn’t matter here, because what you get here is something fans rarely see, and it’s worth your time to see it even if you’ve never owned a single Elvis record. It’s a perfect companion film to his Elvis bio-pic, and I’m so happy that I got to check it out.
The film was native 4K because it was all from 35mm sources, but a lot of restoration is apparent here, and this does not show its age at all. Equally the sound delivers the music with crystal clarity, and the mixes are beyond what you can usually expect from a 1970’s concert shoot. There is also some vintage footage here, and it looks as good as it could, but some of it comes from period equipment that just didn’t hold up to time. Baz doesn’t go overboard here but includes some classic bits to provide perspective. He was called the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll and for a little over 90 minutes you get to be a part of the king’s court. These kinds of things are what a film critic gets to enjoy on a regular basis. “Hard way to earn a living.”
