Other Titles • Elvis: Thats the Way It Is - Special Edition (1970) • That's the Way It Is
Synopses for Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)
1.
When Elvis stopped making movies in Hollywood and returned to making music following his triumphant 1968 comeback, he gathered together a group of hot Nashville cats to back him up. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS follows Elvis as he prepares to return to the stage and follows him up to his opening nights. This is a compelling, fascinating, and highly amusing musical documentary where Elvis' overall talent and musicality come through while watching him rehearse, jam and arrange his list of songs. Simultaneously celebrating and poking good-natured fun at the Las Vegas era of Elvis's career, director Denis Sanders often just sits back and lets the performances speak for themselves. The film includes the King preparing offstage for his 1970 tour and culminates in his opening night performance in Las Vegas. The film includes more than 30 of the King's fabulous songs.
2.
Restored, remixed, revitalized: a new look at prime Presley.
Elvis Presley, wearing a flashy new jumpsuit, has pre-show jitters. "If the songs don't go over," he quips, "we can do a medley of costumes." The songs go over big - thanks to a remastered picture and remixed Dolby Digital from restored elements - in this Special Edition of the legendary Las Vegas concert movie shot in summer 1970. Film archivist/restorer Rick Schmidlin (Greed, Touch of Evil) has recovered more incomparable music - over thirty minutes of rare performances - from studio vaults in this dazzling rejuvenation. Added footage includes a get-down rehearsal of Get Back. Plus Suspicious Minds, One Night and more from the Original Release now appear in different versions.
3.
A concert documentary from 1970, Elvis: That's the Way it Is captures Elvis Presley midway through a fateful transition, seeking to reclaim his musical primacy after a decade of self-imposed exile from concert stages. Sidelined by his big-screen career, eclipsed by rock's mid-60s transformations, the King had begun his return two years earlier with the relatively lean attack of his fabled network television appearance, 68 Comeback Specia. Now the Memphis legend was poised to reposition his performing profile by pursuing the top rungs of headliner status in Las Vegas, a career choice that seems even more ephemeral in hindsight than it already did at the time. That's the Way it Is follows the show's genesis from rehearsal to stage, with the performance footage that provides its inevitable climax shot over six nights. The rehearsal footage, expanded for this special edition, offers further proof that Presley's band was simply superb: stripped of the orchestrations and lush choral arrangements that would be grafted onto the stage show, the sextet sounds both tough and nimble. In performance, we're treated to a mostly riveting glimpse of Presley in top vocal form, poised at the brink of bombast. This is Elvis before the onset of portentous Richard Strauss overtures, karate kicks and tossed scarves, kicking off the show with the classic "That's All Right". If he risks undercutting the punch of his early songs with self-deprecating clowning, he attacks two Ray Charles classics with gusto. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
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