{"id":14111,"date":"2026-03-02T20:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14111"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:34:32","slug":"epic-elvis-presley-in-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/03\/02\/epic-elvis-presley-in-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Baz Luhrmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 20, 2026 (US, IMAX)\/February 27, 2026 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Elvis Presley<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Recent concert films have featured the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and K-pop boy band Stray Kids. I didn\u2019t bother with them. There\u2019s no reason for me to watch them. I\u2019m not a fan of any of these artists. When it comes to concert films, I\u2019ll take Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones), The Last Waltz (The Band) and Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads) any day of the week. They\u2019re the best!<\/p>\n

\u00a0As of today, there\u2019s a new addition to the short list. It\u2019s Baz Luhrmann\u2019s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong>, both a documentary and a concert film. It\u2019s interesting how it came about. While doing research for his 2022 biopic Elvis starring Austin Butler as \u201cThe King\u201d, he discovered 68 boxes of unseen 35mm and 8mm footage hidden in the Warner Bros. archives in some salt mines in Kansas. Much of it is outtakes from the documentary Elvis: That\u2019s the Way It Is (1970) and the concert film Elvis on Tour (1972). Unfortunately, there was no audio so Baz spent two years painstakingly restoring the footage and syncing it to existing audio sources. He also incorporated a 45-minute recording of Elvis talking about his life. The result is nothing short of impressive. It looks and sounds amazing!<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what we\u2019re talking about with EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong> is Elvis\u2019 story in his own words. There are no talking heads or interviews with those who knew him personally and\/or professionally. Nobody shows up to explain Elvis or his impact. It\u2019s just Elvis performing intercut with behind-the-scenes stuff like rehearsals and clips from what few interviews he granted (Elvis wasn\u2019t big on that). We also get archival footage and a montage of clips from his movies. That\u2019s at the beginning. Baz takes us on a quick trip through Elvis\u2019 career to show us why his shows in Las Vegas were such a big deal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0According to the titles near the end, Elvis performed about 1100 shows in Vegas from 1969 to 1977, sometimes as many as three a night. It was exhausting, but you wouldn\u2019t know it by the amount of energy he put in his performances. It\u2019s exhausting just watching him. The shows were a departure for him. They were more elaborate than the ones from the 50s. He went BIG with orchestras, horns and choruses. And why not, he was already a legend. It befitted a man of that stature. His main venue was the International Hotel where he did 636 consecutive sold-out shows. The audience loved him and he loved his audiences. Sometimes he\u2019d have the crew raise the house lights so he could see and talk to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Baz, with a valuable assist from editor Jonathan Redmond, did the work on EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong> at Peter Jackson\u2019s facilities in New Zealand. It\u2019s a lesson in cinematic craftsmanship. The images are crystal clear. The colors are vibrant. The sound is crisp. You\u2019d never know the footage is more than 50 years old. It captures Elvis in all his glory as he reinvents himself as a Vegas performer. It captures the audiences filled with screaming women who\u2019d love nothing more than to f*** their idol\u2019s brains out, but they\u2019ll settle for a kiss and maybe an article of his clothing. BTW, those jumpsuits of his are COOL!<\/p>\n

\u00a0The music is absolutely phenomenal. The highlights include a mash-up of \u201cLittle Sister\u201d and \u201cGet Back\u201d, a soulful performance of \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d, a fun \u201cPolk Salad Annie\u201d and an exuberant rehearsal of \u201cOh Happy Day\u201d. It\u2019s great how he interacts with his band and back-up singers. And they\u2019re no slouches. Just listen to guitarist James Burton and drummer Ronnie Tutt. The only word that comes to mind is \u201cWow!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0I highly recommend EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong>. It\u2019s an absolute must-see for fans. More importantly, it\u2019s an opportunity for young people to discover one of the most important names in music. Elvis was influential. He experimented with different types of music- e.g. country, gospel and blues. Some say rock and roll started with Elvis. He was a magnetic performer and this is an opportunity for the world to either be reminded of this or see it for the first time.<\/p>\n

P.S. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert<\/strong> is showing in IMAX at selected theaters. I didn\u2019t see it in that format but I wish I had. Maybe a second viewing is in order?\"\"<\/p>\n

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EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Baz Luhrmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 20, 2026 (US, IMAX)\/February 27, 2026 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Elvis Presley Rating: *** \u00bd \u00a0Recent concert films have featured the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and K-pop boy band Stray Kids. I didn\u2019t bother with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-documentary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/EPiC-Elvis-Presley-in-Conce.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14126,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111\/revisions\/14126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}