But to the credit of the film, the movie comes to quite a sweeping end at that point, does it not? I think I'd be applauding if I saw it in a theater with equally engaged viewers, believe it or not.
We all know why some of you (quite rightly at times) remind us what a travesty it was that he was on stage in June of '77, let alone videotaping a special for TV. But as the material was strategically used in "This Is Elvis" (particularly "My Way") , it was quite effective in showing a sort of personal "the show must go on" spirit and his attempt to soldier on despite the crashing down of his personal and public worlds , particularly on "My Way." It is perhaps the only setting to view such material as sitting down to watch all of
EIC should remain a bit of a non-starter to all but the novice fan who wants to endure this upsetting final stand, finding a nugget here or there but mostly leaving saddened and relieved (along with the performer) when it ends.
drjohncarpenter wrote:The worst transgression, which I have cited before: all performances are truncated.
Even on the "expanded" edition.
For the DVD market this is inexcusable.
I had forgotten that "THIS IS ELVIS" is full of truncated performances. That's a good point, come to think of it. Many music DVDs I have will often have the full performances set aside separately for folks who want to enjoy the full songs outside of the documentary.
I also recall a thread or two here with some scanned photos and maybe an article or two about "This Is Elvis." This stuff should have somehow found it's way as an extra on the DVD. It was interesting to see the actors who played Elvis at different times in their lives all together off-stage ---and the sad material about the death of the boy who played Elvis, as I recall.
As for the title of this thread, I must disagree a bit the more I see it. Technical concerns aside (and I agree that in 2009 we deserve more), it's still a wonder to me to be able to pop this flick in (and any other) at any moment. I'm not so sure it was even a bad thing to have to wait for such movies to come on TV. That was part of the excitement. So to be able to reach into a drawer and watch this at will today (with snow on the ground much like some of the times I recall watching HBO's rebroadcast of it two decades ago), well, that's not so bad to me. But your point is taken. It's almost as if because Elvis was such a massive success, that even today they can trot out the equivalent of effort as it took to assemble quite a few of the scraps put on the worst Camdens and they can be assured it will "get over" in the market of rabid Elvis-ites.