Baz Luhrmann: ‘There’s the image of Elvis and then there’s the man’

Lead

Director Baz Luhrmann’s new film, Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert, builds around a newly released 40‑minute 1972 candid audio tape and restored concert footage to reframe Elvis Presley’s late‑career artistry. The material — uncovered alongside 59 hours of unseen film negatives in Warner Bros.’ vaults — lets Presley narrate parts of his own story while showcasing revitalized performance work from 1970–72. Luhrmann and a team including archival specialists and a technical restoration process prepared the material for large‑format presentation; the film is now in cinemas. The result aims to balance iconic spectacle with a more intimate portrait of the man behind the myth.

Key takeaways

• Luhrmann’s film uses a roughly 40‑minute off‑camera 1972 audio interview in which Elvis speaks candidly; that tape was central to the project’s concept.
• Researchers located 59 hours of previously unseen film negatives in Warner Bros.’ vaults stored in salt mines in Kansas; Super 8 clips from the Graceland Archives and private collections supplemented the haul.
• Restoration and sound work took about two years and included consultation with archival experts, with Peter Jackson cited as an important reference point for approach and technique.
• Footage focuses on performances from 1970 through the 1972 tour, highlighting fast rock numbers, gospel moments and improvised stage direction that underscore Elvis’s musical control.
• The film explicitly denies use of generative AI for visuals; Luhrmann says the only visual effect is the star’s impact on audiences.
• Longstanding managerial control by Colonel Tom Parker — including alleged blocking of overseas tours and a failed A Star Is Born pairing — is presented as central to Elvis’s limited post‑1968 career choices.
• Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert is released theatrically now, marketed as an immersive, archival restoration and reinterpretation.

Background

Elvis Presley’s career underwent a public rehabilitation with his 1968 television special, which restored the immediacy and edge of his early work after a decade of formulaic Hollywood films. That televised return led to a new phase of live performance, particularly the 1970s Las Vegas residencies and concert tours that are central to Luhrmann’s new film. The early‑70s concert films Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour documented parts of that period but left substantial unreleased material in studio and private archives.

Colonel Tom Parker managed Elvis through the 1950s to the star’s death in 1977; his tight control of bookings, media and contractual terms shaped the performer’s public itinerary. Many observers argue Parker’s emphasis on steady, lucrative engagements — notably extended Las Vegas runs — limited opportunities for creative diversification, such as overseas touring or higher‑profile film roles. By the mid‑1970s Presley’s public image had become a subject of cultural debate, with some treating the Vegas era as a diminution of his early radicalism and others seeing it as a continuation of his showmanship.

Main event

The project began while Luhrmann was making his 2022 Elvis biopic, when researchers following leads in studio vaults found large caches of unseen negatives and related material. In Warner Bros.’ underground storage in Kansas they uncovered 59 hours of film; additional Super 8 home and archive footage from Graceland and private collectors supplemented the reels. The team then set about a meticulous restoration process: cleaning and scanning negatives, matching and repairing sound, and integrating disparate formats to create a coherent cinematic sequence suitable for IMAX presentation.

Crucially, the production rediscovered an off‑camera tape from spring 1972 in which Elvis speaks for about 40 minutes in an unexpectedly candid manner. Because the tape captured him away from the camera, Luhrmann says Presley sounded unguarded and open; quotes from that conversation were threaded through the film to let Elvis “tell his story” in his own voice. Those interview moments became the thematic backbone linking a collage of concert images, rehearsal clips and archival material into what Luhrmann describes as a ‘‘dreamscape poem of Elvis.’’

On screen, the restored concert sequences emphasize Elvis’s active musical leadership: rapid tempos on rock numbers like Polk Salad Annie and Burning Love, gospel intensity in How Great Thou Art and Oh Happy Day, and adaptive interplay with backup singers and musicians. Rehearsal footage in particular highlights Elvis as a hands‑on producer, reshaping arrangements in real time and directing call‑and‑response passages that reveal his role within the ensemble rather than above it. The film also re‑introduces viewers to long‑time collaborators such as guitarist James Burton, whose contributions are shown as central to the band’s sound.

Analysis & implications

Artistically, the film reframes late‑career Presley away from reductive caricature by foregrounding moments of spontaneity and technical command. The restored audio and images present a counterpoint to the widely circulated narrative of decline that took hold after the early 1970s; Luhrmann argues audiences will see how much energy and craft remained in those performances. This reassessment may recalibrate critical and popular appreciation, prompting renewed interest in Presley’s role as a live arranger and collaborator rather than only as an onstage spectacle.

Commercially, the project demonstrates the market value of high‑quality archival restoration: with IMAX and theatrical rollout, studios can monetize previously unused material while offering a premium exhibition experience. That raises industry questions about rights, revenue sharing and ethical stewardship of artist legacies — who decides what is released, how it is edited, and how much interpretive framing is inserted by directors and producers. Luhrmann’s stylistic choices — fast edits and surreal collage — intentionally blur documentary conventions, inviting debate about where restoration ends and creative re‑composition begins.

There are also geopolitical and managerial implications: the film reiterates claims that Colonel Parker’s immigration status and managerial style constrained Elvis’s ability to tour internationally. If audiences accept that framing, it may shift public understanding of the structural limits on Presley’s career path. More broadly, the project underscores how archival releases can alter historical narratives long after an artist’s death, for better or worse, and how new technology and curatorial choices shape those revisions.

Comparison & data

The table summarizes the principal archival elements that enabled Luhrmann’s new construction. Converting heterogeneous film stocks into a single visual register required frame‑by‑frame scanning, color grading and audio remediation; those technical steps help explain why the project took roughly two years. Comparisons with other high‑profile restorations (for example, Peter Jackson’s Beatles work) show a growing industry practice of marrying intensive archival research with cinematic re‑editing to craft commercially viable historical narratives.

Reactions & quotes

Key participants and observers reacted to the film and the material it reveals. Luhrmann framed the tape as decisive for the film’s approach, while Jerry Schilling, a long‑time Presley confidant, emphasized Elvis’s underestimated role as a musical director.

“Because Elvis was off camera when it was taped, I think he was really unguarded and really open hearted.”

Baz Luhrmann (director)

Luhrmann made this point when describing why the 1972 tape functioned as more than an archival curiosity — it provided narrative voice and emotional candor that he says allowed the film to move beyond standard concert documentary form.

“He’s fixing the musicians, fixing the backup singers, and fixing the music overall.”

Jerry Schilling (confidant, former employee)

Schilling’s observation accompanies rehearsal footage in the film that allegedly shows Presley actively shaping arrangements and guiding performers — evidence the production uses to argue for Presley’s role as a creative leader rather than merely a frontman.

“Hollywood’s image of me was wrong and I knew it.”

Elvis Presley (1972 tape)

The film inserts short lines from the off‑camera interview to underline Presley’s long‑expressed frustration with his cinematic image; those excerpts are intercut with performance material to create contrast between public persona and private sentiment.

Unconfirmed

• The claim that Colonel Tom Parker never disclosed his Dutch citizenship or lack of a U.S. passport to associates is asserted by Jerry Schilling but is not independently verified in the film materials presented.
• Accounts that Parker deliberately sabotaged the Barbara Streisand A Star Is Born pairing by imposing impossible terms come from close associates and lack corroborating contractual documents in the public record.
• Anecdotes about recovering footage from private collectors involving meetings with criminal figures are reported by the production team but remain partially anecdotal and lack independent documentation.

Bottom line

Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert is both a technical restoration and a curated reinterpretation: it brings seldom‑seen live performances into high‑fidelity view while shaping a narrative that privileges Presley’s own off‑camera words. For viewers, the film offers a chance to reassess long‑held ideas about Elvis’s late work — its vitality, his musical authority, and the managerial constraints that shaped his final decade.

At the same time, the project raises wider questions about posthumous curation: how directors and studios choose which archival fragments to elevate, and how those editorial choices remake reputations. Audiences and scholars should treat the film as a persuasive but constructed narrative that advances one informed reading of Elvis’s life and art rather than an unmediated historical record.

Sources

• The Guardian (newspaper report and interview)
• Graceland Archives (official archive)
• Warner Bros. (studio archives / vaults)
• Get Back (Peter Jackson) (documentary / editorial reference)