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As diehard fans go, Australian showman Baz Luhrmann has done more than most to spread the gospel of Elvis. He pretty much reinvented the wheel with his big, brash 2022 biopic on the music icon. Elvis – a wild rollercoaster of a ride on the singer’s life – made a star out of Austin Butler, snagged a pile of awards, cleaned up at the box office and introduced the singer to a new generation. Suddenly, everybody knew who Elvis was again.
Empowered by this, Luhrmann went back through the 60-plus boxes of concert archive he’d hauled out of Warner Bros.’ deep storage (literally, they were in a salt mine in Kansas) for his original research. Finding reels of ‘lost’ footage shot for two 1970s docs on the King was like discovering gold. Why not, he thought, turn it into one epic concert movie?
Here, then, is a glorious mash-up of that material, preceded by a speedy summary of pre-1970s Elvis for those who don’t know. Elvis Presley shocked white America by popularising rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s. But then, the former dirt-poor truck driver from Tupelo got drafted for national service in the US Army. When he got out, his wily manager, the self-titled Colonel Tom Parker (not his real name) turned him into a lucrative family entertainer in Hollywood, pumping out three increasingly inane musicals a year. By the end of the 1960s, Elvis had had enough and put his foot down Which is where EPiC takes off.
A joyous, energetic and inclusive experience
Drawing from 10 professionally shot concerts, multiple rehearsals and a handful of interviews, EPiC lets Elvis tell his own story through candid voiceover and breathtaking performance. Backed by a super-tight band, with a group of soul singers and a gospel quartet by his side, Elvis sings his heart out, profoundly connecting with, and feeding off, his bandmates and his audience. Women go weak at the knees. Men want to high-five him. No-one leaves without a kiss, a handshake, an autograph, a sense of connecting with the King. In one scene, a terminally ill fan on crutches goes to meet Elvis backstage before a gig in Albuquerque. He never turns anyone away. As he himself later admits, he enjoys being Elvis. He clearly works his butt off, night after night after night, yet never loses his focus, nor his innate sense of fun.
EPiC looks and sounds immaculate – Peter Jackson’s team restored the picture and sound – with a selection of songs to please everyone: from the raw rhythm and blues of Mystery Train and Hound Dog through to the grand set pieces of Suspicious Minds and Burning Love, as well as insanely good, operatic covers like Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. On his opening night in Vegas, Elvis even attempts a tap dance for his VIP guest Sammy Davis Jr, to the Rat Pack star’s delight.
It all makes for a joyous, energetic and inclusive experience – one that will have you singing Elvis on repeat, and demanding more.
EPiC previews on IMAX screens Feb 20. In cinemas worldwide Feb 27.