Taking care of business

By Siobhan Clarke

As the title suggests, Baz Luhrmann’s passion project, EPiC, is nothing short of it. The film radiates an ambience of nostalgia for a past era that comes alive through the screen, providing the exact feeling of a concert adrenaline rush.

Richard Glover’s column in the Sydney Morning Herald from April shares a similar sentiment with the film about growing up as a fan of rock ‘n’ roll royalty.

“This film is a great celebration, and the Elvis is right at the centre of it,” said Glover. “One of the beautiful things about the film is that he basically narrates his own story… a very complicated thing to achieve, yet they achieved it spectacularly.”

The film itself features Elvis at his peak during his early 1970s residency at the International (now Westgate) in Las Vegas, using behind-the-scenes moments, interviews and personal videos, spliced together with concert footage, to create a piece of classic Luhrmann.

“You know, it’s a beautiful story about the archive underground,” said Glover.

The creation of the film, in some ways, is accidental. For the 2022 film Elvis, 68 boxes of 35mm and 8mm footage were discovered in the Warner Bros film archives in salt mines in Kansas. Unfortunately, without sound.

For the next two years there was a rigorous restoration and syncing process by Luhrmann’s team to revive the footage, combining it with a 45-minute audio recording of Presley talking about his life story.

“The best [part] is the version of Polk Salad Annie,” Glover said. “You go from rehearsal to the live performance, back to rehearsal, back to the live performance, all beautifully done. It’s a great Tony Joe White song, and he does it perfectly.”

Throughout the film there are several moments where the audience reaction is featured, gaining a sense of worship from the fans, something Glover highlighted about media in today’s society.

“The tone is these are young idiots, and you think, and they’re not young idiots; they’re people who are embracing life. And you’d rather be those people.”

For every generation since the 1950s, there has been someone who embodies the “teen idol” persona, and for many, this person provides a sense of comfort and community to fans.

There is often a disregard of the importance of fandoms for teenagers, questioning why so many would make a significant emotional investment in physical media as well as the person themselves.

Glover illustrated this in his column and reiterated that “the idea that a fandom is essentially not really about that person. The power of all these people [e.g. Elvis], in a way, is about yourself”.

Across his career, Elvis made 31 films, with some of the earlier films such as Jailhouse Rock (1957) and King Creole (1958) having major success. However, after his return from military service his films fell into a repetitive musical formula orchestrated by his manager Colonel Tom Parker.

“I think Viva Las Vegas is a pretty good film, but I sort of like the mid-century optimism of them all,” said Glover. “One of the things that makes them pleasurable is that this is sort of confidence about the world which we’ve lost, probably for very good reason, but a faith in that the world was getting better and that’s reflected in the movies.”

During the 1950s, Elvis also cemented himself as a monetizable asset, with him being one of the first artists with a merchandise collection; selling everything from buttons, to shoes, necklaces, and even a partnership with a pet food company with the slogan “Even a ‘Hound Dog’ deserves Jet dog food”.

In Glover’s column there is a picture of him at 12 years old proudly displaying his collection. I was pleased to find out that he “still [had his] scrapbook, and I’ve still got a school project that I did about Elvis … and I’ve got quite a few of the records still and I’ve still got Elvis Presley monthlies.”

Luhrmann’s film breathes life into rock star, giving deeper insights into Elvis’s life and who he was as a performer.

“You really see the admiration that the musicians have for him,” said Glover. “All those musicians see him as a musician, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch their delight in him.”

Decades after his sold-out Las Vegas shows, Elvis continues to draw in crowds, this time globally, something he was unable to do in his lifetime.

The EPiC film has revived audiences’s love for Elvis, with many sharing the same sentiment Glover has.

“He was important to me, and he sort of saved my life at a particular moment, I’m grateful for that, and I still think he’s great.”

Featured image: EPiC at the Ritz Cinema. Photo: Siobhan Clarke