The Kings Third Act New TTWII Review: The Wall Street Journals Jazz columnist, Will Friedwald has published a glowing article on the new TTWII release. He notes, Elvis Presley in Amazingly Dynamic Form and At the Height of His Formidable Powers ...... Within the span of a few months in 1970, the short-lived film genre known as the concert/documentary movie reached its apogee with three releases that each marked a turning point in artistic evolution. Let It Be was the final major appearance of the Beatles; Woodstock, the first big blockbuster concert movie... but Elvis: Thats the Way It Is was something else entirely: It captured the King of Rock n Roll at the very moment he was reclaiming his throne and beginning a new phase in his electrifying career, a remarkable third act that would eclipse everything he had previously done. This new incarnation would find Elvis returning to his roots as a live performer, encompassing a wider range of material as he appeared before ever-larger audiences. This renaissance was unfortunately brief; by the mid-1970s, Presleys substance abuse and self-destructive tendencies would catch up with him. He would be a bloated mess in the final months of his short life, but in 1970, he was in peak physical condition and artistically at the top of his game. Copious evidence of this is now offered in a new package from Sony Legacy, which features two DVDs in addition to eight compact discs as well as a splendidly illustrated 80-page booklet. The DVDs contain two very different versions of the 1970 feature: the original theatrical edit and the 2001 restoration. Its his performance that drives Elvis: Thats the Way It Is. At the start of his career, Presley was widely perceived as a divisive figure in American culture. No entertainer did more, even inadvertently, to create the generation gap. Yet in the final and, in many ways, the most rewarding phase of Presleys career, the singer entered into what seems, in retrospective, like a musical crusade to bring people together. In this, his major asset was his versatility as a performer and Presley sang any song in any genre that suited him. Presley hops from genre to genre, imbuing it all with his majestic voice and dynamic personality. From basic 12-bar Delta-style blues, he moves to the Gospel-infused soul music of Ray Charless I Got a Woman. Before the evening is through, he also sings the contemporary country classic I Cant Stop Loving You and Simon & Garfunkels folk-rock spiritual Bridge Over Troubled Water, You Dont Have to Say You Love Me all in addition to the many Elvis signatures that he reprises, both old (Hound Dog, Heartbreak Hotel) and new (Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto). A few years later he would attempt to bring all of America together with his American Trilogy, which juxtaposed a song from the North, the South and an African-American spiritual. The 1970 concert is essentially one climax after another, not only because the editors assembled the footage from six different shows, but because Presley himself - in what has become his trademark white jumpsuit - is in amazingly dynamic form and at the height of his formidable powers. And yet, as searingly dramatic as Presley is, he doesnt lose his sense of humor; when he gets to the line Baby, Id get down on my knees for you, he shouts the aside if this suit wasnt too tight! Even the 10-disc box doesnt amount to the whole story: Warner Bros. released a two-disc Blu-ray set of the film, again with the 1970 and 2001 edits, but with a different selection of outtakes and extra footage. (Even more footage from the individual concerts was issued on a 3-DVD bootleg a few years ago.) Theatrical concert movies were pretty much wiped out by MTV in the mid-1980s as kids were getting pop-music videos at home 24 hours a day. Yet special spectacles are now edging their way back into cinemas, and this week the restored Elvis: Thats the Way It Is will be shown nationally in US movie theaters. Elvis may be singing about having lost something, but this remarkable film, like the singer himself, has only gained in stature over the past four decades.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:16:14 +0000
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