Elvis
Studio: Shout! Factory
US DVD Release Date: March 2, 2010
Television Broadcast Year: 1979
Rated: PG (as listed on the DVD cover, although there is no listing in the MPAA database)
Running Time: 169 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles: None
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Produced two years after his death, John Carpenter's made-for-television movie Elvis follows the life of the legendary singer up until his headlining act at the International (now known as the Las Vegas Hilton). On the eve of the famous concert, Elvis (Kurt Russell in a career-turning role) looks back at his life growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi as a shy high school student with a love for music, and his eventual climb to a rock star and dealing with the demons of being a success in the entertainment industry. The film contains some exceptional performances, including Shelley Winters and Bing Russell (Kurt's father) as Elvis' parents, Gladys and Vernon, Robert Gray as best friend Red West, Carpenter favorite Charles Cyphers as Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, Pat Hingle as manager Colonel Tom Parker, and a very young Joe Mantegna as road manager Joe Esposito. Season Hubley (whom Russell would marry shortly after the completion of this film) is one of the weak links in the cast, playing Priscilla Presley without much range of emotion. The Elvis songs featured in the film were recorded by Ronnie McDowell, best known for his 1977 Elvis tribute song The King Is Gone.
Written by television veteran Anthony Lawrence (Bonanza, Hawaii Five-O), the film feels like a CliffsNotes version of the King's early career, despite its marathon running time of 169 minutes. Many of the highlights are hear, such as the recording sessions at Sun Records, his time in the Army, the hiring of Colonel Parker, and his seclusion at Graceland prior to his re-emergence in Las Vegas in 1969. Not much time is spent on his movie career or the raising of daughter Lisa Marie, and completely skips over his failed first concert appearance in Las Vegas, as well as his famous comeback special in Hawaii. The production values are often quite high, although the sometimes overly melodramatic score and very brief cheesy visual effects remind you that this is a movie made for television in the late 1970s.
Still, Elvis has become a template for film biographies of musicians, establishing a formula that would later be used on films such as Taylor Hackford's Ray (the life of Ray Charles) and James Mangold's Walk The Line (Johnny Cash). The film would also be referenced in several comedies, including 1984's Top Secret (a spoof of Elvis movies starring Val Kilmer, who would later play the King in True Romance) and Jake Kasdan's 2007 biographical spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (a marriage of sorts between Elvis and Walk The Line). The movie would establish Kurt Russell as a dramatic actor, previously best known for his role as Dexter Reilly in a series of Disney comedies set at fictional Medfield Community College (Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Hime Now You Don't, and Strongest Man In The World). Elvis was also the first time Kurt Russell and John Carpenter worked together, and would lead to the two making four other films together (Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, and Escape From L.A.).
Video: 3.5 out of 5
Although originally broadcast in 1.33:1, Shout Factory has brought Elvis to DVD in a new 1.78:1 transfer with anamorphic enhancement for widescreen displays. While some may grumble about the aspect ratio, the movie never looked overly cropped, as if director John Carpenter and director of photography Donald Morgan originally framed their shots for widescreen. Before home video and cable, most television movies were given a brief theatrical release overseas as a way for the studio or production company to recoup some of its costs. Thus, many of these films were shot in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio with a TV safe zone, allowing for an acceptable theatrical appearance. The cover of the DVD indicates that the movie was restored from the original film elements, but don't expect a restoration along the lines of Warner Bros. work on North By Northwest. Although IMDB indicates the negative film format as 35mm, I suspect this movie was shot in 16mm, based on the overall grain structure and color fidelity. The print used for this transfer contains a lot of dirt, nicks, and scratches, likely inherent in the negative. Still, Elvis looks better than it ever did, including its original 1979 broadcast.
Audio: 2.5 out of 5
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track, encoded at 192 kbps, is a fairly straightforward mix for a television movie from 1979. Dialogue, although intelligible, often has a hollow quality to it. The songs by Ronnie McDowell fair better, but this is still a mono mix intended to be heard on a standard television set, not a home theater.
Special Features: 3 out of 5
Considering the film's close to three-hour running time, there is not a while lot of room for extras on the disc, but what is provided is quite good.
Audio Commentary by Ronnie McDowell and Edie Hand: McDowell and Hand, co-authors of Genuine Elvis, discuss their experiences in making the film and Elvis' life. Not much ground is covered, but the two are quite engaging. I would have preferred a commentary track with Carpenter and Russell, but this will have to do.
Bringing A Legend To Life (10:14): This 1979 featurette takes a look at the making of Elvis, including interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Shelley Winters, The quality is horrendous, as if it was taken from a bootleg copy. Still, it is nice to see it was included here.
Elvis Day on American Bandstand (July 4, 1964) (4:52): Old kinoscope clips from a special Elvis episode of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Clark speaks to gossip columnist Rona Barrett and four female members of the show's audience.
Photo Gallery: A set of production stills, including a movie poster that has an MPAA rating of “G” listed on it (although there is no listing for this film in the MPAA database).
8-page Booklet: The booklet insert includes a few production photos plus an essay by Michael Felsher about the movie and the resulting relationship between Carpenter and Russell.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
This long-awaited movie made for television finally arrives on DVD, and that is reason enough for fans to celebrate. Special features are decent, and the audio and video are probably as good as they will get without a full-blown digital restoration.
