Movie Review: EPiC-Elvis Presley in Concert, Directed by Baz Luhrmann (2025)

While director Baz Luhrmann was researching his 2022 biopic about Elvis Presley, titled simply Elvis, he discovered numerous rolls of film that were shot for the 1970 documentary Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, but hadn’t been seen for decades. That footage forms the basis for Luhrmann’s concert film/documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2025 and was just released nationwide.  

Elvis Presley in Concert is an amazing look at one of the most transformative musicians of the 20th century. The film is narrated by Elvis himself, and it’s refreshing to hear Elvis’s own thoughts and feelings about his career. We watch Elvis and his band rehearsing for his third residency in Las Vegas during the summer of 1970, and it’s so fun to watch Elvis having so much fun. In 1970, Elvis Presley might have been at the peak of his powers. His voice was rich, warm, and inviting. He looked great, still showing the slim and trim physique fans would remember from the 1968 Comeback special. Elvis was relaxed, funny, and confident. He was also changing up his setlists more. In the summer of 1969, during his return to live performing in Las Vegas, Elvis’ setlists leaned heavily on his 1950’s hits. That’s no complaint, as his 1969 shows were amazing and energizing. But during 1970, as Elvis was growing in confidence, he was adding more musical variety to his concerts. Elvis was dressing mostly in white jumpsuits on stage, as he had discovered that white made him stand out more on the Las Vegas stage. (Side note: I want Graceland to start making versions of the beautifully colored shirts Elvis was wearing to rehearsals in 1970.) Elvis loved performing live, and you can see from Elvis Presley in Concert that he was putting everything he had into his performances. If I had a time machine to see Elvis at any point during his career, I might very well set the controls to 1970.  

Elvis Presley in Concert shows us how Elvis was influenced by so many different genres of music, and how his concerts were a mixture of blues, gospel, country, pop and rock and roll. I find it really fascinating that Elvis opened most of his concerts during the 1970’s with an old blues song, “See See Rider” (sometimes spelled “C.C. Rider”) popularized by Ma Rainey in a 1924 recording. Elvis could have opened his concerts with one of his many hit singles, but instead he chose an old blues song that he had never even recorded a studio version of. A highlight of the movie is Elvis’ passionate version of the gospel song “How Great Thou Art,” which we see and hear him sing in 1972, in footage that was filmed for the concert movie Elvis on Tour. It’s a spine-tingling moment to hear him belt out “How Great Thou Art.” Elvis still looked great in 1972, and we see him in an array of colorful jumpsuits: powder blue, royal blue, and red. It’s easy to make fun of Elvis’ jumpsuits—they’ve become a staple of every Elvis impersonator, and it’s easy to see them as 1970’s excess that Liberace would surely have approved of. But being at Graceland in the summer of 2023 and seeing Elvis’ jumpsuits up close was very cool, and I’ve come to appreciate how they were all singular works of art. Those jumpsuits aren’t just what anyone would wear—they’re what a star would wear, and it’s fitting that an artist as iconic as Elvis had such a distinctive stage wardrobe.  

It’s amazing to see Elvis’ effect on his fans. Elvis was surprisingly available to his fans during concerts. During his 1970 Las Vegas engagement, he would walk through the audience from one end to the other, bestowing kisses and handshakes as he went. As the 1970’s went on, it became an Elvis trademark to throw scarves to his fans during his concerts. It might sound like hyperbole to say that Elvis’ fans were having a religious experience seeing him in person, but it’s hard to think of another word or term that fits. Viewers of Elvis Presley in Concert can see for themselves the devotion that Elvis inspired in his fans. Seeing photos and videos of Elvis with his fans, and reading their stories of meeting him, I’m struck by Elvis’ kindness towards his fans, and I think that speaks highly of the man he was.  

Luhrmann shows us an excerpt of Elvis at his 1972 press conference in New York City, just before he played Madison Square Garden, where he’s asked a question about Vietnam war protestors. Elvis responds, “I’d just as soon keep my own personal views about that to myself; I’m just an entertainer.” Then Luhrmann shows us Elvis in 1970 reciting a stanza from a song written by Hank Williams, “Men with Broken Hearts.” It ends with the couplet: “For the God that made you made them too/these men with broken hearts.” Elvis adds, "I'd like to sing a song along the same lines,” and then launches into a spirited rendition of Joe South’s song “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” a plea for empathy and understanding. Luhrmann was thinking the same thing I was—it doesn’t matter that Elvis didn’t say anything about Vietnam war protestors, the real message that Elvis was giving us was in his music. Songs like “If I Can Dream,” “In the Ghetto,” and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” show Presley’s social concerns, even if he didn’t get on a soapbox and lecture his audience.  

Two of the highlights of the movie are “Polk Salad Annie” and “Suspicious Minds,” which both become high energy extended workouts, and examples of Elvis’ powerful charisma and sex appeal.  

Watching Elvis Presley in Concert, we see Elvis getting immersed in the music, and that’s my favorite Elvis to see. Total commitment was the trademark of all of his great performances, from “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” on his TV debut in 1956, to his beautiful and moving rendition of “Unchained Melody,” taped at his final concerts just two months before his untimely passing on August 16, 1977.  

It’s a thrill to see Elvis Presley and his music back in the mainstream of pop culture, 70 years after his national breakthrough and almost 50 years after his death. If you’re an Elvis fan, go see Elvis Presley in Concert, you’ll be reminded all over again why he was so wonderful. 

Movie Review: Elvis, Directed by Baz Luhrmann (2022)

Poster for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, 2022.

The real Elvis Presley, 1968.

 Baz Luhrmann’s fever dream of an Elvis biopic, titled simply and rather prosaically Elvis, is a mishmash of ideas thrown at the screen. I like Luhrmann’s films—I think Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby were fantastic—but Elvis just doesn’t quite work.  

First off, can biopics please junk the “cradle-to-grave" format? Inevitably, characters are streamlined, events are fictionalized, and timelines go to pieces under the burden of presenting someone’s entire life in two hours. (Or in the case of Elvis, 2 hours and 39 minutes.) I’d much rather see a biopic that focuses on a discrete time in that person’s life. For Elvis, you could choose from many periods, but the 1968 Comeback Special and his return to live performances in 1969 would be fascinating.  

I think Luhrmann made a fundamental error in having Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker be the narrator of the story. Why should Presley’s story be Parker’s to tell? Having Parker be the narrator inevitably focuses more attention on him, which feels unfair to Elvis. Because Luhrmann chooses to characterize Parker as an evil, amoral carnival salesman, a stock villain instead of a three-dimensional character, Parker quickly wears thin. Parker wasn’t actually a Colonel—he was born in the Netherlands and was an illegal immigrant to the United States. Many Elvis historians have theorized that Presley’s seeming disinterest in performing internationally was due to the Colonel’s fear that his secret would be discovered, and he would be deported from the United States. I agree with this theory, as does Luhrmann. What’s missing from Luhrmann’s film is any sense of the Colonel’s fears of being deported—this is a man who is acting out of his own personal fear, and that doesn’t come across in the movie.  

Then there’s the woeful miscasting of Tom Hanks as Colonel Parker. Now, I don’t know what Colonel Parker sounded like—the only clip I’ve heard of him speaking is from a 1987 Nightline interview, where he betrays no hint of a Dutch accent. If Parker really spoke as Hanks does in the movie, no one would have believed that he was from West Virginia, as Parker claimed. Tom Hanks is a brilliant actor, of course, but sometimes instead of doing three hours of makeup to make Tom Hanks look like Colonel Parker, can’t you just hire an actor who looks like Colonel Parker?  

Austin Butler does a good job with the difficult task of playing Elvis Presley, one of the most handsome and charismatic entertainers who has ever existed. For me, Butler was more believable as the young, pre-Army Elvis than as the jumpsuited 1970’s Elvis. Part of that is Butler’s looks—he looks about a decade younger than 31, his actual age.  

By focusing more on Elvis’ relationship with the Colonel, short shrift is paid to Elvis’ music, unfortunately. For a more thorough look at Elvis as a singer and musician, check out the excellent 2018 documentary The Searcher. Elvis recorded 28 takes of “Don’t Be Cruel” and 31 takes of “Hound Dog” before he was satisfied with the final product. I want to see a movie about that guy—you could position him more as a Brian Wilson-type of eccentric genius trying to perfectly replicate the sounds inside of his head rather than a simple country boy.  

And don’t get me started on the historical inaccuracies in Elvis. It wasn’t a choice between “going into the Army or going to jail,” as the Colonel ominously intones in the movie. Elvis makes it seem as though Elvis was drafted immediately after his July 4, 1956 performance. In reality, Elvis was drafted in late 1957, obtained a deferment to film King Creole, perhaps his finest movie, and was inducted into the Army in March of 1958. The peacetime draft was commonplace in the period between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And Elvis comfortably skates over any queasiness 2022 audiences might feel as 24-year-old Elvis meets 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu in Germany in 1959 by not mentioning her age and having 24-year-old Olivia DeJonge play Priscilla through the whole film. The movie also doesn’t really mention how Elvis then stashed Priscilla away at Graceland until they married in 1967. (Her parents were apparently okay with this.)  

I can’t imagine experiencing the kind of adulation that Elvis Presley was showered with every time he appeared on stage. It must have been intoxicating to have people treat you like something approaching a deity. But at the same time, I wonder if that wouldn’t wear off fairly quickly when you realize that people will treat you as a deity no matter how good or bad your own performance is. The effects of that kind of adulation on Presley’s personality would be fascinating to know.  

Elvis offers a flashy feast for the eyes that the real Elvis Presley would no doubt approve of. But too often, instead of a revolutionary way of examining the life and career of a truly revolutionary entertainer and artist, Elvis settles for the typical storylines of a generic biopic.