Bow before the king

Guest reviewer SHAYNE CARTER contemplates the new Elvis Presley in-concert movie assembled from his Vegas years.

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EPIC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT

Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis was brash and colourful, a cheerful skimming-over of the Elvis Presley legend, complete with meticulous shot-by-shot reconstructions of Presley's most famous performances. Luhrmann returns to these images with EPiC, a composite concert lifted from the early-70s Presley documentaries Elvis: That's The Way It Is and Elvis On Tour. As with The Beatles' Get Back, the film has been restored in high definition so, half a century after his death, Elvis is made contemporary and placed in the present, and we can regard him all over again.

We see him in his safe spaces: in the rehearsal room, on stage, and being noncommittal on the press podium. He's aware of the effect he has on others and often wears the small blank smile that people who are used to being stared at wear. His eyes are a vivid blue, radiant and opulent like the copious bling on his wrists and fingers. His sunglasses have the “TCB” taking-care-of-business legend on the arms and his initials between the lenses, and he puts them on upside down at rehearsals as he joshes with the other musicians.