Elvis

I first saw "Elvis" with my sister Melody when it first premiered in February 1979. I was 23 at the time. Well, I'm 68 now and got it on DVD and I appreciate even more. A nearly 3 hour made for T.V. movie first broadcast on a Sunday night on the ABC television network and produced by the late, great Dick Clark. This was the first time Elvis Presley's life story was told. It begins when Elvis was in high school in Memphis in the early '50's and ends when he makes his comeback on stage in Las Vegas in 1969. A then 27 year old Kurt Russell gives a great performance as a teenage Elvis to Elvis in his early thirties. He was nominated for the "Emmy" award for it. I think he should have won.The fine cast includes Shelley Winters as Elvis's mother Gladys. Bing Russell, (Kurt's father,) as Elvis' father Vernon. Pat Hingle as Colonel Tom Parker. And, Season Hubley as his wife Priscilla. Kurt Russell and Season Hubley got married in March 1979 and later divorced in 1983. They had one child together. The movie was directed by a then relatively unknown John Carpenter, who a few months earlier had made the now classic thriller "Halloween" with a then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis released in the fall of 1978. My sister Melody and me saw "Halloween" in the theater when it was first released.Singer Ronnie McDowell sung all the songs on the soundtrack. He had a hit record back in 1977 soon after Elvis's death called "The King is Gone." Coincidentally John Carpenter was a name Elvis used when he registered in a hotel and wanted to remain anonymous. Kurt Russell and John Carpenter went on to make a few other movies together in the '80's. And, Russell had an uncredited role as a boy who kicks pilot Elvis in the shin in "It Happened at the World's Fair" from 1963. I read in article in T.V. Guide magazine the week the movie premiered that Russell watched the movie "Loving You" 27 times to get Elvis' voice down. He did a really great job with that. I thought "Loving You" from 1957, Elvis' second movie he had made, ("Love Me Tender" from 1956 was his first,) was my favorite Elvis flick. "Elvis" made the Top Ten in the Nielsen ratings that week in February 1979. The tagline for the movie read.... "THE KING LIVES ON ! "

Kurt Russell does a fantastic job playing Elvis, brings him back to life. And the music is outstanding all Elvis songs are done by Ronnie McDowell one of the best singers that covers Elvis. And this great movie is directed by none other than John Carpenter a legend in his own right.

Absolutley a great movie

WOW. Is all that I can say about this movie. I saw it on ABC in 1979, when I was blown away by how Kurt Russell nailed this part, 2 years after Elvis died. It was Dick Clark Productions who decided to chronicle Elvis's life, shortly after his death, and enlisted John Carpenter to direct it. This television movie, which garnered 3 Emmy nominations, including best Lead Actor for Kurt, along with an all star supporting cast, has stuck indelibly in my mind since the night I saw it, and I was absolutely thrilled to see it finally released on DVD, from the original master recording. At the time of release, the movie was the highest rated television movie ever aired. Kurt was only 27 years old when he performed this role. And it was a role which he hoped would lift him above his typical Disney movie roles. As he hoped, it ended up proving that he was capable of much more mature portrayals, than the light-hearted and squeaky clean characters in all of the Disney films, for which he was known. Ironically, Kurt's first appearance in film, as a child, happened in Elvis's movie, "It Happened At The World's Fair", where he was instructed to kick Presley in the shin. And following his brilliant portrayal of Elvis, John Carpenter decided to cast him again 2 years later in Kurt's second attempt to establish himself as a serious adult actor, in the action/sci-fi movie, "Escape From New York", and then again 2 years later in the dark comedy "Used Cars". So, Elvis was the spring board which thrust Kurt into the actor that we all know and love.The story line in this movie ends in 1969, before Elvis's personal and professional decline, followed by his triumphant rebound and eventual death.Other actors in the film included Elvis's actual confidant, Charlie Hodge, who appeared as himself in the film. And Kurt's real dad, Bing Russell, played the part of Elvis's supportive father, Vernon Presley. The role of Priscilla Presley was played by Season Hubley, whom Kurt actually married in 1979, a month after the airing of the movie in February of 79 (and having a son together, prior to their divorce several years later).The entire time I was watching, I could not believe my eyes or ears. Elvis was a alive and well, in Kurt's body :-) Kurt has Elvis's voice and inflections down pat. Close your eyes and you would swear Elvis himself is speaking and singing. This movie was extremely well acted, sung and produced. You will be mesmerized from start to finish and I found myself wishing it would go on and on (in awe of Kurt's portrayal), even though I am not a rabid Elvis fan. I absolutely loved Elvis in his much more edgy rock and roll days. I never cared much for the Las Vegas orchestral turn in his career, with the exception of some of his songs from that era. And I loved it when Elvis showed his true "old" self in the NBC television production "Elvis: 68 Comeback", during the segments in which he appeared in signature black leather, with his band members, in acoustic renditions of his earlier and greater hits. Elvis had not appeared on stage in front of a live audience since 1961, prior to this NBC Special, which is a "must have" DVD for any Elvis fans.The timing of this movie's production and release, was bittersweet, in that we all felt disappointed in, and sorry for the visible decline we saw in this huge icon in music. He had grown to be overweight and a mere shadow of himself, as a victim of his own success and excess. So it was healing and refreshing at the time to see Kurt take the stage and embody the character that many of us grew up to know, and wished that Elvis could have retained into much later years of his life.A couple of other sidelines to this is that Kurt was the voice of Elvis in Forrest Gump. And in 2001, he played the role of an ex-con, Elvis impersonator, planning a Las Vegas heist, in the Kevin Costner vehicle "3,000 Miles to Graceland".