Baz Luhrmann’s documentary film “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” is often excessive but undeniably electrifying in its vivid and impressive presentation of Elvis Presley as an entertainer. I must tell you that I am not a very big fan of Presley, but the documentary reminds me again of why he has been regarded as one of the biggest figures in the 20th American pop music history, and the documentary frequently pulls all the stops for emphasizing it to us with sheer energy and gusto.

It goes without saying that Luhrmann not only admires but also adores the main human subject of his documentary. After all, he already gave us Oscar-nominated film “Elvis” (2022), and the documentary was actually conceived from when he looked for the unseen footage of Presley for including it in that movie. While sixty-eight boxes of footage were eventually discovered, it was unfortunately without audio, and Luhrmann and his crew had to work extensively on restoring it with existing audio sources over the next two years.  

Their result may not be entirely perfect, but I must tell you that it is still magnificent to watch on big screen. Sure, many of those old footage clips in the documentary look old and grainy at times, but their visual qualities are quite good even on IMAX screen, and so are their audio qualities. To be frank with you, my eyes were often impressed by every crisp visual detail on the screen, and my ears were frequently overwhelmed whenever Presley galvanized his enthusiastic audiences on the screen.

Curiously, the documentary does not delve much into the life and career of Presley, probably because Luhrmann already explored that a lot in “Elvis”. Although that movie is quite flawed in my humble opinion due to a number of reasons including Tom Hanks’s heavy-handed supporting performance, it also has several good elements including Austin Butler’s Oscar-nominated lead performance, and it can be a fairly nice companion piece to the documentary. 

After briefly looking over the early years of Presley’s career at the beginning, the documentary goes straight to the later years of his career in Las Vegas during the 1970s. Although his career at that point was relatively less prominent compared to when he was the biggest American pop star during the 1950-60s, he still had enough charisma and talent to show off in front of many audiences, and you will be amazed to learn later on how tirelessly he worked day by day for what would be the last highlight in his career, though the documentary did not mention at all his serious health and addiction problem which probably led to his untimely death on August 16th, 1977 (He was only 42 years old at that time, by the way).

Anyway, the documentary shows a lot of what a committed professional entertainer Presley was. We see him closely and casually working with a number of singers and musicians for their rehearsal. We see him performing several famous songs such as “Love Me” on the stage with considerable energy and passion to mesmerize his audiences. As he frankly admits at one point, his singing style is influenced a lot by gospel and R&B, but he adds his own style and personality upon what he absorbed, and that was certainly what made him a huge pop music star during the 1950s.    

Thanks to the excellent restoration work by Luhrmann and his crew, we can observe every fine detail in the footage clips of Presley doing one concert after another. For example, I could not help but notice how sweaty often he looks on the screen, and this somehow took me back to how David Byrne also looks quite sweaty in Jonathan Demme’s great concert film “Stop Making Sense” (1984). Despite a lot of sweat and exhaustion, both Presley and Byrne are brimming with a lot of passion and excitement, and that is quite infectious to their respective audiences. 

In contrast to its superlative concert scenes, the documentary only ends up scratching the surface when it occasionally attempts to give us some glimpse into Presley as a human being. While it overlooks his problematic relationship with his fire wife Priscilla Presley (Please check out Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film “Priscilla” if you want to know more about her story), the documentary is also rather vague about Presley’s opinions on several social/political issues such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War during the 1960s.

This weak aspect of the documentary makes it feel a bit superficial at times, but, like many of Luhrmann’s previous works, the documentary seldom bores us. The editing by Jonathan Redmond is a bit too scattershot at times, but it is mostly tight and effective during the concert scenes at least, and it is certainly worthwhile to wait for what will be shown during the end credits, which incidentally looks as flamboyant as you can expect from Luhrmann.  

Overall, “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert”, which was released in selected theaters in South Korea a few days, is an engaging documentary which will definitely grab your attention right from the beginning along with its very charismatic human subject, and I am glad that I could enjoy its many big and vivid moments in the IMAX screening room of a local movie theater in my hometown. Yes, he still rules as before, and the documentary is certainly recommendable especially if you are more knowledgeable or enthusiastic about Presley than me.