Synopsis
The King lives on!
This biopic traces Elvis Presley’s life from his impoverished childhood to his meteoric rise to stardom to his triumphant conquering of Las Vegas.
Elvis
1979 Directed by John Carpenter
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Alternative Titles
Elvis não morreu, Elvis the Movie, Elvis - The King, Le roman d'Elvis
Popular reviews
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Finally watched it after decades of wondering if I should. Well, I should have a long time ago. Even though there is a TV aesthetic that we know has more to do with the network than Carpenter's ability, it's an absorbing TV movie that has an incredible performance by Russell. Honestly, I can't think of a better Elvis performance. Up to now, I've always felt like I was watching caricatures when an actor takes on Elvis but in this case, I 100% forgot I was watching Russell. This performance should be remembered.
Watched the Shout Selects Blu-ray. Wish there were modern interviews with Carpenter and Russell but still good extras.
- "Bringing A Legend To Life" Featurette With Archival Interviews Of Kurt Russell And John Carpenter (1979)
- Commentary By "The Voice Of Elvis" Ronnie McDowell And Author Edie Hand
- Rare Clips From American Bandstand
- Photo Gallery -
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I'll say this for it: Kurt Russell obviously knew that if he could nail this, it was going to have a significant and immediate positive impact on his career, and he's working his ass off. The only reason this exists at all, really, is to provide the viewer with a lived-in, lovable, non-campy Elvis impersonation for three extremely long hours, and Russell finds the sweet spot of mimicking Elvis's unmistakable vocal patterns and physical carriage without forgetting to put normal-scale human emotions behind them. It's not a hall-of-fame biopic performance - you can see the work that went into it - but it's an admirable attempt to prove that Russell could make the jump from "Disney stock company" to "real…
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Time to prepare for Elvis next month with a handful of previous Elvis biopics, first up is this venture from 1979, directed by John Carpenter. Not bad, a bit long overall, felt more like a miniseries than a movie, but still a good watch that covers pretty much everything. Kurt Russell was surprisingly really good, I thought he was an odd choice at first but in the end he did very well in the role. I also loved Shelley Winters, in a much more demure role from this era of her career when she was mostly playing in campy horror flicks. It’s a product of the time, extremely aged and dated but that’s kinda what’s good about it.
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This was great. Wow, Kurt Russell gives a stellar performance as Elvis. He’s also such a young stud here. I see this earned him a nomination for a Golden Globe and Emmy. Well deserved. The movie was good if a little dated. It did feel long but that is due to it being a television movie which I’m assuming in those days were longer. However, it kept me entertained throughout with plenty of songs.
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Made for tv biopic running at almost three hours of one of the most iconic musicians to ever grace the field, with Carpenter in charge of the direction and Kurt Russell brilliantly portraying Elvis.
Aside from some clunky lip-sync and the omission of his tragic descent due to the proximity in date with the release of the film and tv film limitations, the film is pretty solid throughout, and the almost 3 hours keep things engaging and insightful.
There's a crazy Elvisception parallel revolving around Kurt and Elvis. In this film, a 27 yo Russell plays Elvis. In "It Happened at the World's Fair", a young debutant Russell runs on screen and kicks a 27 yo Elvis in the shin, and in "3000 Miles to Graceland", Russell plays an Elvis impersonator, and a young boy runs on screen and kicks him in the shin. Pretty damn wild if you ask me.
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Elvis is a biographical film directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley in their first film collaboration. An interesting insight into the life of one the most iconic musicians, with a story that reads true and is really entertaining. Kurt Russell is absolutely fantastic and pulls off a great Elvis and Shelly Winters was brilliant playing Elvis' mother. The direction was strong from Carpenter, and although I didn't necessarily have any issues with the pacing of the film, the editing could have been much tighter in places. Overall Elvis is a film I loved, and the music was fantastic.
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"Listen to them. Man, they love him. He's gonna go on forever".
Time for a quiz! Am I giving Elvis the benefit of the doubt because:
a) The current landscape of bio-pics has been horrendously dry, formulaic, and frankly disrespectful to the legends they’re tackling. So this was a breath of fresh air.
b) This is by the far the best made-for-television film I’ve ever seen, and could *almost* pass as a film deserving of a theatrical run; with the ridiculously small budget it’s so impressive.
c) My perpetual love for John Carpenter — especially his collaborations with Kurt Russel — is clouding the nerves in my brain that typically process films.
d) All of the above.
Answer Key: with…
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When presented with the age old question: “are you a Beatles guy or an Elvis guy?” I usually go with the former, but John Carpenter’s Elvis biopic at least swayed me in the other direction. This definitely felt very tame in comparison to some of the other popular music biopics that delve into the artist’s heavy drug use, but I understand why it wouldn’t go down that route. Enjoyable overall, but coulda used a little trim.
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After the remarkable success of Halloween, John Carpenter returned to the small screen to try his hand at a new genre, this time a biopic. Bringing the life of the King of Rock & Roll in splendid detail, Elvis is Carpenter’s second & final TV film, and is also notable for marking his first collaboration with actor Kurt Russell.
Elvis chronicles the life & career of one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, Elvis Presley. The film explores his early childhood, his close bonding with his mother, swift rise to fame & fortune, military service, marriage, decline in popularity, and ultimately concludes with his return to stage in 1970.
Directed by John Carpenter, the film marks his first stint with…
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This was way better than I thought it would be, I'll say that right off the bat. I love John Carpenter, but he's not perfect, and the thought of him directing a 3 hour TV movie about Elvis immediately following his death was... not something I was looking forward to watching. And while it may not be a great movie, this definitely has its moments.
It also has the best performance of Kurt Russell's career, and it makes the movie. Yeah, there are some rough edges, like some lip-syncing that doesn't quite match up, but either I got used to this or the performances got better as the movie went on. Either way, by the end of the movie I…
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