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Elvis
R1 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (6th March 2010). |
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The Film
 2010 is a special year for fans of Elvis Presley. It marks the 75th anniversary of the late, beloved singer/actor/karate-king’s birth and that’s good news for the followers of the man, especially for those who love his movies (or movies about him). Warner Brothers is apparently planning a commemorative box-set containing Blu-ray versions of key Elvis titles later this year. More important to this review is the news that Shout! Factory has finally acquired the rights and is releasing John Carpenter’s “Elvis” on DVD this March, a film thought by many to be one of the better depictions of the artist’s life. Personally, and I’ve said this before, I think that Elvis is pretty overrated. The God-like status thrust upon him by his many fans is puzzling in my eyes, especially considering that he was a mediocre singer (who sang some catchy songs, sure) and plainly pedestrian as an actor. Presley was a solid performer in his heyday, but not someone who had a whole lot of true, raw prowess in either field. Even then, I realize that he is a cultural icon and, at the very least, was an interesting person with an absorbing story. As such, I view Elvis not as a man who was particularly gifted, but as an intriguing person in history. Likewise, I don’t find John Carpenter’s “Elvis” to be a particularly spectacular biopic, but I do find a smattering of agreeable, admirable attributes in it. Like Elvis, his songs and his films, I see Carpenter’s “Elvis” as a cinematically relevant and historically interesting picture, but not as something overly exceptional. To discuss the plot of “Elvis” would be to discuss the life of the man. It is, like most biopics, the story of the characters life, from beginning to some fixed point. In the case here, the film opens in 1969 and looks back at little Elvis Aaron Presley (Kurt Russell) living in backwoods Mississippi, with his mother, Gladys (Shelley Winters), his father Vernon (Bing Russell; real life father of Kurt), who spent his days playing down by the river, talking to his dead brother Jesse’s grave. The story picks up from there and moves forward to Elvis’ life as a outcast in high school, an up and coming musician, his eventual record deal with Sam Philips (Charles Cyphers) at Sun Records, his rising star, meeting Col. Tom Parker (Pat Hingle) and eventually signing with RCA, and so on. We see him buying Graceland, going on Ed Sullivan, making his feature film debut (“Love Me Tender” (1956)), the polarized effect he had on “moral values” of the time, his enlisting in the army, meeting Priscilla (Season Hubley), the declining health of his mother… basically all the major points in his life until 1969. Unfortunately, the film neglects some of the most interesting and sensational aspects of his life by cutting out before the 1970's, and for that I must fault it somewhat. But, then again as “Elvis” is a film that wants us to remember Presley in a positive light, maybe it is better that it ends before he started spiraling into a sad caricature of himself who thrived on a diet of grease, pills and thousand-calorie bacon, banana and peanut butter sandwiches everyday, eventually dying while taking a dump…. Yeah, perhaps it’s better that “Elvis” exists the way it does. Carpenter’s “Elvis”, based on a script by Anthony Lawrence, was produced by Dick Clark’s production company for ABC Television and debuted on February 11, 1979. The highlight of the whole film is easily Russell’s portrayal of the title character, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He’s great in the role, and even though he didn’t pull a Joaquin Phoenix and actually sing any of the songs in the film (the singing was done by Ronnie McDowell), he was still able to capture the right stage presence and inflection in his speaking voice to play the character convincingly. Also exemplary is Carpenter’s direction along with the original photography by Donald M. Morgan. Together they capture the energy and emotion of any particular scene perfectly, which holds true in large part because (and this isn’t really all that surprising given Carpenter’s style) the camerawork is free flowing, with lots of tracking, steadicam and long, uninterrupted hand-held shots throughout. Unlike so many modern directors who feel the need to cut every 3 to 5 seconds, Carpenter, especially in the late 70's and early-to-mid 80's, would hold shots for, sometimes, minutes (how novel!). But, the film does have problems. Partly because it was a made-for-TV movie, partly because it was made in the 70's, “Elvis” lacks scope and a certain realism. Although it’s hardly a whitewashed family show, “Elvis” still feels sanitized and less gritty compared to a more modern, theatrical biopic. Also, because of its TV origins the narrative is sometimes interrupted by a fade to black, which would have been followed by a commercial break. Occasionally this works – the picture fades out and then fades in and, over what would have been the commercial, a large passage of time has occurred. Other times it doesn’t. An example of the fade to black scenario that doesn’t seem right would be when Gladys faints; the film fades out then fades in to Elvis loading his mother into the car. It’s a place to cut, sure, but not too fade out and fade in. It just seems jarring and odd – this transition of short time would have been done with a simple cut, not a fade, in a theatrical production. It’s the little things like that which make “Elvis” slightly less impressive. The production values are decent, but walk a fine line between cheap in a TV kind of way and cheap 70's. Some of the acting from the supporting cast is substandard and the narrative and dialogue is a little cringe worthy in spaces. Frankly, it just isn’t a masterpiece, but that’s okay, because the film is important for other reasons. “Elvis” is a film of firsts. It was Carpenter’s first big TV project (he’d already directed and written the much smaller “Someone’s Watching Me” (1978) and would later go on to produce, write and direct “Body Bags” (1993) with Tobe Hooper and directed two episodes for the “Masters of Horror” (2005-Present) series) and his first production outside the independent scene, previously helming the quirky student project “Dark Star” (1974) and two of his better known films, “Assault on Precinct 13” (1976) and, of course, “Halloween” (1978). Carpenter met one of his early chief cinematographers, Donald M. Morgan, while shooting “Elvis.” Although Morgan wouldn’t lens as many Carpenter films as his colleague Dean Cundey (who shot “The Fog” (1980), “Escape from New York” (1981), “The Thing” (1982), and “Big Trouble in Little China” (1986), along with of course, the granddaddy of them all, “Halloween” (1978)), the former did serve as the DP on both “Christine” (1983) and “Starman” (1984). “Elvis” was also the first time Carpenter worked with actor Kurt Russell, and if for nothing else that’s why “Elvis” is important – it connected the director with one of his greatest actor-collaborators. It was Russell’s first “grown up” film, in which he showed people that he was more than the Disney teen, child actor that he’d previously been known as (primarily for his role in “The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes” (1969)). “Elvis” was also a movie of strange coincidence. Russell worked alongside the real life Presley via an uncredited role in “It Happened at the Worlds Fair” (1963). This appearance was one of his first on screen; weirdly Russell reemerged to the public in his first adult role, playing Elvis. And in what has to be one of the most unlikely twists of fate Presley’s last feature film, “Change of Habit” had him playing a doctor named… John Carpenter.
Video
Shout! Factory graces “Elvis” with a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Although IMDB lists the film as having an original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is the shape of a standard square television screen, I don’t think the widescreen transfer is outright incorrect, or that any egregious cropping is in effect. The 1.33:1 framing listed on IMDB is most likely just the entire 35mm negative fully exposed. In actuality, the widescreen framing is probably perfectly within Carpenter’s original photography. Like many TV productions of the era, "Elvis" was projected theatrically in Europe and thus was composed with the intention of being seen on the big screen at some point. Also, Carpenter is a notorious Cinemascope fan-boy and loves widescreen in general; I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t have protected for, at the very least, 1.66:1 the narrowest widescreen ratio of the time (and, coincidently, a favorite of European cinema of the day). That means, at the very worst, the DVD is slightly cropped from the original 1.66 framing, but still well within general tolerance levels for the flat ratios, as in many cases the overscan on ones display is more harmful than a crop from 1.66:1 to 1.78:1. The resulting image is pretty average looking if I’m honest. The print is speckled with frequent dirt and a healthy level of grain. On the plus side, having been “restored” from the original 35mm film elements (how restored it actually was, I don’t know – looking at it, I’d say there was little money and time invested, but…) the transfer exhibits no signs of artificial manipulations – no edge enhancement or harsh over-sharpening; no DNR. Detail is adequate for standard definition, but nothing special, looking soft frequently, which is about in line for a film of this vintage. Colors are natural and clean. Still, this is a merely average looking disc, with plenty of inconsistency issues – optical fade outs, which would have led into commercials in broadcast, are met with a drop in sharpness and heavier damage. Although noticeable in only a few scenes, gate-weave crops up from time to time (usually around an optical transition). Contrast is average – sometimes flat and dark, but other times bright, full of life and strong. The films longish runtime (170 minutes) is pushing the boundaries of the DVD formats tolerances for compression, showing mild signs of artifacts and noise. Perhaps a 2-disc set would have yielded a slightly sharper, less compressed outcome. In all, this isn’t the best looking standard def rendering I’ve even seen, but it’s far from the worst too. Yeah, “Elvis” has some problems in transition to DVD, but I’d rather have the film, looking the way it does, than not have it at all. And, I’d say for a good half of the film, the picture looks pretty good; it’s just, the other half is flawed by age.
Audio
Fans get a no frills English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono mix. Let me say that this is a pretty quiet mix to start out with; it’s a good 4 or 5 notches lower in volume than your average disc. However, once I turned the sound up, everything leveled out fine. As for the actual soundtrack, well, it’s got some respectable dynamics, and is fairy lively across the front speakers, with decent stereo separation. This is especially true of the musical performances, which are easily the highlight. As the product of a 2-channel source though, the disc is lacking in certain departments, but expectantly so. For instance, the film has little sense of immersion, mostly because the soundtrack lacks any sort of rear or surround action. Likewise, bass response is limited, mostly confined to the lower registers within the left and right speakers, because the film lacks a dedicated LFE channel. I’ve certainly heard worse soundtracks and I’m sure the DVD is fairly faithful to the original source so I can’t fault it too much. No subtitles or secondary language options are included.
Extras
A solid, if generally unexceptional helping of supplements awaits for those interested. Unfortunately we don’t get a commentary with Carpenter and Russell, which is such a missed opportunity I had to mention its absence. The two have such good chemistry in their other collaborations, like the commentary tracks on “Big Trouble in Little China” and “The Thing”, that it would have been absolutely a wonderful addition to this release. Alas, no such luck. What is included however is decent, but not great. Carpenter and Russell do make an appearance, but only in an archival featurette from 1979. A commentary is included, but with the “Voice of Elvis” Ronnie McDowell and author Edie Hand instead of the director and star. Vintage excerpts from "American Bandstand", a photo gallery and a few bonus trailers round out the disc. First up is the audio commentary with Ronnie McDowell and author Edie Hand. Both participants are well versed and somewhat interesting to listen to, but woefully lacking in ability of offering production information on the film. McDowell talks about his performances as “the voice of Elvis” in the film, but not much else, and Ms. Hand talks about the life of Elvis, as an author and cousin of the late superstar, but again isn’t so much concerned with the actual film. For this reason alone, I believe it was a huge oversight to not include a second commentary with Carpenter and Russell. The included track is decent, but the director and star always offer up both informative and fun remarks on their other DVD's ("Big Trouble in Little China" specifically is epic in both regards). It’s too bad that Shout! Factory couldn’t have brought the two collaborators together once more for what would have likely been a great discussion. "Bringing a Legend to Life" [ca. 1979] (4x3, 10:13) featurette. This ancient making of is pretty weak. Not only does it look like crap, and sound worse, but also it’s literally just a crummy press piece from the 70's about the film, awful narrator and all. It’s not completely worthless if only because there are some behind-the-scenes clips and a few comments on the film from a "Halloween" era Carpenter – in huge glasses with an awesome ‘stash. "Rare slips from ‘American Bandstand’" vintage excerpts [Elvis Day – July 4, 1964] (4x3, 4:51) Dick Clark hosts an episode of "American Bandstand" (1952-1989) that’s all about the “Big E”, which sprang out of a neck-and-neck poll on weather Bandstand should do a Beatles or Elvis centric episode. The results were a draw, and on July 4th the show ran this episode on the American-born star. 3-weeks later the Beatles episode would air. Included here is not the whole episode, but just excerpts. Photo gallery (30 images). A collection of thirty on-set and promotional images is included here. Nothing really all that special or rare, this is plainly just a chintzy extra to pad the back of the case and make the DVD look more loaded than it actually is. Although this isn’t advertised on the outer case and isn’t exactly an extra, I thought I’d mention that Shout! Factory has included a second scene selection menu titled “Elvis Songs” that houses direct links to the portions of the film that contain musical performances. Pretty nifty actually, and always good on a musical-biopic such as this. However, these are simply just scenes selections that will jump to that portion of the film and continue on as normal once that song is finished. If you want to skip to the next song, you’ll have to push the disc menu button on your remote and move on to the next chapter featured on the song selections page. Song selections include: - "Old Shep" - "My Happiness" - "That’s All Right" - "Blue Moon of Kentucky" - "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" - "Long Tall Sally" - "Heartbreak Hotel" - "Rip It Up" - "Tutti-Frutti" - "How Great Thou Art" - "(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such as I" - "Crying in the Chapel" - "Bosom of Abraham" - "Suspicious Minds" - "Blue Suede Shoes" - "The Wonder of You" - "An American Trilogy" Start-up bonus trailers: - "The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons" on DVD. 1 minute 17 seconds. - "I Got the Feelin’ – James Brown in the 60s" on DVD. 1 minute 12 seconds.
Packaging
"Elvis" arrives on DVD from Shout! Factory housed in a clear keepcase with an 8-page booklet included inside the case, detailing cast and crew credits, production information and bios. According to the runtime listed on the rear of the box this DVD features the longer 170-minute cut of the film, far removed from the truncated 105-minute cut seen in other markets.
Overall
Fans have been clamoring for a DVD release of Carpenter’s “Elvis” for years and thanks to distributor and cult-darling Shout! Factory their cries have finally been answered. The film is good, but not great and unfortunately neglects Elvis’ last few years before his death. Russell is perfect in the titular role and without a doubt this films greatest asset. Also, without “Elvis” one of the greatest creative partnerships of the 1980's might not have happened, and I do not want to live in a world without “Big Trouble in Little China” or Snake Plissken. The DVD package is acceptable, containing the film’s longer 170-minute cut, a decent widescreen video transfer and a faithful mono track. Recommended.
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