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Baz Luhrmann’s “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” is a stunning, four-star triumph

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EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert


Starring Elvis Presley. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. 100 minutes. Currently playing in IMAX theatres; general release starts Feb. 27. G


(4 stars out of 4)


Peter Howell

Movie Critic


Near the end of Baz Luhrmann’s spectacular new Elvis film, a whisper breaks the silence: “Do you miss me?” — a fragment from “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” that carries the ache of lost connection.


“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” answers the question with a resounding yes. Drawing from long-buried archives, Luhrmann’s found-footage chronicle revives the late King of Rock ’n’ Roll not as the tragic figure of more recent memory but as the dazzling live performer of legend.


The film assembles newly restored early-1970s footage — 59 hours of 35-mm and 16-mm film, stored in a Kansas salt mine — into a concert portrait narrated by Elvis himself.


Edited by Jonathan Redmond and digitally restored by Peter Jackson’s team (the wizards behind “The Beatles: Get Back” series), the result bathes familiar songs like “Suspicious Minds” and “Burning Love” in startling clarity. Colours blaze, the mix hits like a modern show, and Elvis’s baritone voice commands centre stage. It’s leaner and more alive even than memory suggests.


Luhrmann stumbled across this material while making his 2022 Oscar-nominated narrative biopic “Elvis,” discovering leftover reels from MGM’s “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is” (1970) and “Elvis on Tour” (1972), plus 8-mm home-movie gems from Graceland. The find yielded something more than nostalgia: it gave Elvis back his agency.






 
 
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