User reviews

Kurt Russell, whose career started when he kicked the REAL Elvis in It Happened At the World's Fair, will probably never top his performance as the King in this biopic helmed by slash and shock meister Carpenter. There are times you feel that you're watching Elvis until something snaps you back to reality...perhaps memories of a hapless Don Johnson in Elvis and the Beauty Queen? All the performances here are excellent: Season Hubley as Priscilla, Pat Hingle as the Colonel, even Shelley Winters brings the right level of nerves and hysteria to her rendering of Momma Presley.

Kurt's dad Bing is here playing Elvis' father Vernon, and there's a fine understated performance from Robert Gray as Elvis' buddy and bodyguard Red West.

A must see for rock n roll fans.

This movie is one of those "WOW!" movies. Not because it's the greatest movie of all time, but because it surprised me. Not only was it a T.V. movie, but it was on Elvis. I can safely say as many impersonators as there are there was only one Elvis, but I can also safely say that Kurt Russel came extremely close to being the real thing. It was one of the greatest impersonations that I have ever seen. He had me believing that it was really him. I learned a lot about Elvis' life from watching this movie. And don't led the television part of it let you stray-it's actually a really fantastic film! And Kurt Russel could've been Elvis' twin :)

This landmark made for television biography came at a time when the death of the beloved entertainer and pop culture icon was still fresh in peoples' minds. It's written & produced by Anthony Lawrence, who'd written or co-written such Presley film vehicles as "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" and "Easy Come, Easy Go", executive produced by Dick Clark, and directed by John Carpenter, who'd recently established himself as a hot property with his hit horror film "Halloween". It's all done with the utmost respect for Elvis, and touches upon various key moments in his life, starting with his childhood when he found his own way to deal with the death of his twin brother. We learn what makes Elvis tick, and what motivates him. He wanted nothing more than to entertain people, and hopefully provide a better quality of life for the parents, Gladys and Vernon (played by Shelley Winters and Bing Russell, star Kurt Russell's own dad) who were always loving and supportive. Framed by the depiction of Elvis's big comeback performance at the International Hotel, it shows him meeting all of the important players in his life - Sam Phillips (Charles Cyphers), Colonel Tom Parker (Pat Hingle), and Priscilla Beaulieu (Season Hubley, to whom Russell was subsequently and briefly married). Russell is just tremendous as Elvis, completely immersing himself in the role and managing to make us forget that we're watching a performance. Of course, it's worth noting that Russell, as a child, had acted with The King in "It Happened at the World's Fair" and would return to the role - sort of - in 2001's "3000 Miles to Graceland". One of the highest rated television movies in history, it earned three Emmy nominations, including best television movie and best actor for Russell. This is a true warts and all affair, showing the darker aspects to Elvis's personality, and as such is riveting. It's a long but engrossing story, and was also historic for first teaming Carpenter and Russell; they would work four more times together over the years, on "Escape from New York", "The Thing", "Big Trouble in Little China", and "Escape from L.A." It also firmly established Russell as a mature actor of note after his time spent as a youthful star of formulaic Disney comedies. Everything is buoyed by genuine poignancy and, of course, a generous serving of classic Elvis songs. Well worth watching overall. Eight out of 10.

This is a well done biography of Elvis Presley. Director John Carpenter put an enigmatic puzzle of a life together for a brilliant presentation. Kurt Russell did the best job of his career in recreating the essence of Elvis. Uncanny resemblance and mannerisms made this film so interesting to watch. Elvis fan or not, this movie is a piece of pop art. We get a glimpse of what made Elvis mean so many different things to so many different people.

Russell's father, Bing, plays Vernon Presley. Shelley Winters plays Elvis' mom. Season Hubley portrays Priscilla Presley and Pat Hingle is cast as Col. Tom Parker.

Ronnie McDowell provides the singing voice of "The King".

Off of his musical compositions in Halloween, John Carpenter was offered the job to direct the television biopic of Elvis Presley's life from his childhood to the start of his 1970 Las Vegas tour that revitalized his career. Beset by several of the largest cliches of biopics in general, the film manages to rise above its fairly generic construction to a certain degree on two things. The first and foremost is Kurt Russell's turn as Elvis, the second is that the first half of the film actually feels like a film and not a series of random events in the life of a man.

If you've seen Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, you know the conventions of musical biopics that were torn apart in that Jake Kasdan and company performed with glee, and the first and foremost of those is the flashback structure. A musical legend arrives at the location for his comeback concert and takes a moment to reflect back on his life. Aside from the fact that in the ensuing forty years of film this has become a hoary cliché, I'm not sure what this structure is supposed to accomplish overall from a strict storytelling perspective. Why can't we just start at the beginning instead of having a flashforward to the end?

Anyway, the story of Elvis' childhood as presented here is a typical one. He grew up poor, watching his parents deal with the ravages of life without money, all while pining for Elvis' stillborn twin brother, Jessie. Elvis occasionally talks to Jessie throughout the film, not literally but to his gravestone or Elvis' own shadow, and I feel like this aspect is really just underdeveloped. Is Jessie supposed to be the idealized form of Elvis that he looks up to somehow? It's unclear and probably should have simply been cut. However, where the movie does shine is in Elvis' relationship to his mother. Gladys Presley is played by Shelley Winters, and she's good in the role, but it's the time dedicated to their relationship where this movie is best.

Elvis is a good son. He loves his parents, and they love him. Even though his father wants him to get a solid career as an electrician where the work comes looking for him, they allow him to pursue his early dreams of musical stardom, and the stardom comes quickly. He goes from paying for his own album as a present to his mother to trying out at the Grand Old Opry (where he's rejected) and then playing for sold out crowds all over the place before, all of a sudden, his manager is signing away his contract to a large label. With this sudden influx of money, he spends gobs of money on his parents, buying them houses and cars, dedicating everything to his mother in particular and the hard times she had working in a hospital to help support the family. This is solidly good stuff, made all the better by Russell's quality performance.

Taking on a role of a well-known personality with well-known mannerisms and patterns of speech is a difficult task for an actor. Lean too far into imitation, and you don't come out of it. Lean too far away from imitation, and you lose the audience because you don't resemble the well-known figure. Russell feels dynamic on stage as Elvis, and he feels like a human off stage. He never loses the distinctive voice, but Russell feels like a real person as he acts alongside Shelly Winters and his own father, striving to make them happy through his own success.

The movie loses something, though, after Gladys dies. She passes at about the halfway point of the film, after Elvis has entered the army, and things begin to speed up. What had felt like a solidly told story of a young man becoming a pop star becomes an increasingly quick series of staccato moments as the movie begins skipping through the years. Priscilla is introduced, and I never feel like the movie gets a sense of her as an individual. This may be because the script had to go through Priscilla in real life for approval, and that process may have stripped her character of anything interesting, making her little more than an object in Elvis' life. There's also a quick moment where Elvis turns on all of his friends, firing them, and then rehiring him, implying some kind of destabilization in his life, but it never gets explored in any way. I imagine it's supposed to be tied to Elvis' loss of his mother, feeling lost in the world without her presence, but the lack of clarity around the actual telling of the story, almost like the movie has changed perspectives from Elvis to an outside observer.

The second half drags the rest of the film down. The strong sense of storytelling of the first half, using the relationship between mother and son as an anchor, is gone, and what we're left with is the kind of moment chasing so prevalent in biopics trying to capture as much of a life as possible. The whole affair is helped by the nearly three-hour runtime, giving us much more time to see Elvis' life in detail than a two-hour runtime would have. The second half doesn't sink the entire film, but it does lessen it. What had been solidly good becomes more rote and less engaging, ending with Russell's finale as Elvis on stage in Las Vegas, strutting around as The King did.

It ends up as a mixed bag, more so than I had expected. Filmed quickly over 30 days, this is probably the best we could expect from a television movie about a celebrity who had died just a few years before. There's a great performance at its core, but the actual script needed work.

Kurt Russell's chameleon-like performance, coupled with John Carpenter's flawless filmmaking, makes this one, without a doubt, one of the finest boob-tube bios ever aired. It holds up, too: the emotional foundation is strong enough that it'll never age; Carpenter has preserved for posterity the power and ultimate poignancy of the life of the one and only King of Rock and Roll. (I'd been a borderline Elvis fan most of my life, but it wasn't until I saw this mind-blowingly moving movie that I looked BEYOND the image at the man himself. It was quite a revelation.) ELVIS remains one of the top ten made-for-tv movies of all time.

I remember watching this film a while ago and after seeing 3000 miles to Graceland, it all came flooding back. Why this hasn't had a Video or DVD release yet? It's sacrilegious that this majesty of movie making has never been released while other rubbish has been. In fact this is the one John Carpenter film that hasn't been released. In fact i haven't seen it on the TV either since the day i watched it. Kurt Russell was the perfect choice for the role of Elvis. This is definitely a role he was born to play. John carpenter's break from horror brought this gem that i'd love the TV to play again. It is well acted and well performed as far as the singing goes. Belting out most of Elvis's greatest hits with gusto. I think this also was the film that formed the partnership with Russell and Carpenter which made them go on to make a number of great movies (Escape from New York, The Thing, Big trouble in little china, and Escape from L.A. Someone has got to release this before someone does a remake or their own version of his life, which i feel would not only tarnish the king but also ruin the magic that this one has. If this doesn't get released then we are gonna be in Heartbreak Hotel.

Only a humble tv movie but the best portrait of Elvis by far. Kurt Russell simply IS Elvis. His looks, his movements, his full performance should deserved an oscar. Shelley Winters is great too, delivering a perfect portrait of Elvis' mother.

Although not Elvis' voice Ronnie McDowwell singing is superb. His sound and singing style really resembles Elvis' in this movie.

You can see Russell enjoys what he is doing - in fact he declared he was an avid Elvis fan - and Carpenter really cares about the film, telling the story of Elvis -the man and the singer - in a respectful way. Not a explotation film although several facts have been altered or inacurately shown. Bit slow-paced and clearly low-budget, the movie is however, a complete and honest report on Elvis life and music.

John Carpenter has done a good job telling the story of Elvis and they could not have picked an actor as great as Kurt Russell to play Elvis he really looks like Elvis and even sounds like him and hats off to the whole movie if fans want to see the best biography about Elvis look no further then this movie the only bad thing is that Kurt Russell should have won an Emmy.

It feels like they've made a million different Elvis Presley biopics, but really there've only been thirty film portrayals of The King. I haven't seen most of them, but I did sit through 1979's tv-movie Elvis, starring Kurt Russell. If you're going to pick one, you might want to pick this one. Oftentimes the first stab at something is like a trial-run, full of errors and leaving room for improvement by later versions. This was the first Elvis biopic, but it's stood the test of time remarkably well, and it's revered by his greatest fans.

This movie doesn't go into Elvis's later years, but when you watch the movie, it doesn't feel like anything's missing. Everything you'd want to see in an Elvis biography is included: his war years, his devotion to his mother, played by Shelley Winters, his romance with Priscilla, played by Season Hubley, and plenty of vocal performances. While Kurt doesn't do his own singing, he more than makes up for it with his movements and expressions. He clearly did his homework, knowing that, not only was it an honor to be the first to play Elvis, but also keeping in mind that he himself had a personal connection to the star. As a little boy, he played a small part in an Elvis Presley movie in the early 1960s!

Kurt Russell does an excellent job both impersonating Elvis's outward persona and revealing his private moments. If you're a fan and want to see him in a different type of role than he usually takes, rent this drama. It's extremely entertaining, informative, and engaging.

Even when the final product doesn't meet with total success (e.g. 'Memoirs of an invisible man'), I'll always be interested in anything John Carpenter does, including projects a bit outside his usual purview. I'm given to understand that this was an especially busy and challenging production for Carpenter, and one with which he was ultimately dissatisfied, but that doesn't inherently mean a picture can't be worthwhile. On the other hand, save perhaps for some of the names involved, I'm not sure that there's anything terribly special or unique about this TV movie. It's enjoyable and worthwhile on its own merits, yet whether by the nature of the medium for which it was produced, or maybe the conventions of storytelling in 1979, this 'Elvis' feels weirdly constrained, limited, and linear. It's more the simple connecting of dots than the telling of a singular story, which doesn't feel quite right for either the subject matter - the life of a cultural icon - or the film-making career of a master who reliably gave us one outstanding classic after another.

Understand: for the most part this is just fine, well made as it tells the man's tale. Given the lack of especial creative control one easily comprehends how Carpenter felt put out, but his direction here is perfectly suitable. The cast give capable displays of acting (though it's all too readily obvious that Kurt Russell was dubbed over for performance sequences). Donald M. Morgan's cinematography is swell, and crew behind the scenes turned in good work all around, including production design, costume design, and hair and makeup. I don't take any issue with the editing of Christopher Holmes and Ron Moler, unless one supposes that the cuts they made may have contributed to the shaping of the narrative as it presents, taking shortcuts to proceed from one beat to the next. And that's the real key here. Whether it was Holmes and Moler's doing alone, or the path dictated by producers, or specifically the screenplay whipped up by Anthony Lawrence, I think the life story of Elvis Presley as communicated in this feature is treated weakly, with focus that is inappropriate for his stature.

There's no particular introduction of characters; "Colonel" Tom Parker, for example, the singer's long-time manager, is just there one day, without any explanation. There's no delineation of the roles that figures play in Elvis' life, not manager Parker, friend and bodyguard Red West, father and business manager Vernon, nor others. There is no meaningful transition from one segment of Presley's life to another; the plot progresses from "making singles" to "big star with contract changing hands" to "now making movies" to "he's going to be in the army now," and so on and so on - very curt, brusque, and matter-of-fact. And there's even less attention, in some cases none at all, given to the Big Picture ideas of where Elvis fit into the social and cultural landscape. We get at most single lines devoted to how Elvis helped to introduce "black music" to white audiences, or to the uproar caused by his style of singing and especially dancing (we get passing reaction to a headline calling him "Elvis the Pelvis"); even the extreme success and popularity he enjoyed feels like it's understated, and frankly underrepresented. Instead the storytelling is peculiarly formulaic and conformist, and progressing along distinct pre-established guidelines: a longer sequence in which Elvis chases down a man who punches him; a scene of Elvis singing a romantic song to Priscilla when they first meet; more weighty, dramatic songs sung alone at a piano at a point in the plot where Elvis is feeling ruminative; Priscilla dancing alone in Graceland while Elvis is away; etc.

There's nothing wrong with examining the man instead of the legend, and that is indeed what it feels like the intent was here. It's just unfortunate that in the most fundamental of ways even that intended approach gets shortchanged. Even the biggest and most important ideas are presented very flatly and flimsily, like a facade with no underlying substance. Some scenes transpire with unnatural speed, or with so little significance, that there's nothing to take away from them, and they could have easily been cut outright. All too rarely does it seem like this is firing on all cylinders. The result is a tableau that too often feels tawdrily melodramatic, if not simply empty. I don't think 1979's 'Elvis' is altogether bad, but it's sadly ill-considered, common, and unremarkable, and only part of the movie it could have been. The cast, the crew, and Carpenter deserved a better film - and so did Elvis, and so do we viewers. It does have earnest value to claim, and if one is a huge fan of someone involved, that's probably the best reason to watch. Yet for as plainly evident as it becomes of how troubled this picture is, and for as very long as it is at nearly three hours, it's hard to give anything more than a very soft, cautious recommendation.

Elvis Presley was probably the most beloved entertainer of the twentieth century, and one of our most tragic figures. People have talked about Elvis as an ignorant hick who couldn't handle sucess. Lets face it, people who grow up barefoot poor and suddenly become the greatest entertainer in the world don't grow on trees. Someone with the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job couldn't deal with that kind of meteoric rise to fame! Elvis was a case of too much too soon. Kurt Russell had been in a film with Elvis when he was a child actor and this movie was probably the first one made of his life. It was released in February of 1979 a year and a half after Elvis's death. Its hard to believe that John Carpenter directed it, I always think of him for Halloween and Escape From New York, he did a great job I think. Kurt Russell looked enough like Elvis to pass muster with me, but he did more then that, he captured Elvis's soul and made him a flesh and blood character, not the one that you read about in The National Enquirer. I remember what I liked most about this film was its sensitive portrait of Elvis and his mother. It was said that there was never a more devoted son and Shelly Winters did a great job as Gladys and the scenes of Elvis at her deathbed and when she passed away are heartbreaking. People who knew him said that he was never the same afterwards. I have always wondered that if his mother had lived that he would have had a lot of the problems that he did that eventually led to his death at the age of 42.

Directed by John Carpenter and starring KURT RUSSELL, this 1979 TV Special ELVIS is a great slice of tv and cultural history. Despite its corniest and inaccurate moments, each scene is a template for years of biographical cinema to come. From a 40 year standpoint, this movie is enjoyable, cute, surrealistically funny, and a quick, comic book bootleg of the story of ELVIS. These days, some may include ELVIS in a TWIN PEAKS fest, as this viewer is somehow certain that David Lynch himself is a fan of this film.

All i can say about this portrayal of Elvis is that it is the best one ever made. kurt russell is amazing in the role. i first saw this in 1979 and i have never seen one come close to it yet.

i searched video store everywhere to find this movie, being the huge elvis fan that i am, and i found it to be a huge disappointment. kurt russel had most of the "elvis moves" down and the voice imitation was great, but the dubbed in singing voice of elvis just didnt work for me. the voice didnt always match up with russels mouth, and it was hard for me to get lost in the plot because it bothered me that it was noticeable. also, there were so many freaking discrepancies in the film, people who dont know much about elvis would probably think them to be facts. songs are sung by him earlier than he recorded them in real life, the time when he got his first guitar is wrong, im pretty sure his brother jesse garron was buried in an unmarked grave, not one with a huge headstone reading JESSE GARRON. i know it was just a tv movie, but they skipped over important events, like the come-back-special, and dragged some scenes out for way too long. if you want to see a good movie that shows elvis in his prime rent THATS THE WAY IT IS, or another elvis concert. hearing and seeing the real elvis preform is the only way to truly see his talent. (brilliant statement i know, but still...go out and rent a good elvis flic.)

This is a great movie, too bad it's not on VHS or DVD. Russell does the best impersonation of Elvis Presley I ever saw & I saw them all. :) This movie doesn't go into the last years of his life, but we don't really want to remember Elvis all bloated, we want to remember him like this movie portrayed him as.

Kurt Russell is awesome ! Very good story of the life of Elvis. Good for all ages. This movie makes you believe you are really watching Elvis. Highly recommend this movie to Elvis fan or not.

Kurt Russell IS Elvis, plain and simple. His dedication to this role resulted in what I think, is the best movie bio ever. If you're an Elvis fan, see it if you can.

The made-for-television film was made two years after Elvis' death.

One piece of advice, there are two versions - one at 180 minutes and one at 117 minutes. The only one to watch is the longer one. The shorter one has more than one hour of footage edited out. It just does not work because the scenes in it are often dependent on the scenes that were cut.

This masterpiece takes you from Elvis childhood through his emergence as entertainment's greatest star. Shelley Winters and Bing Russell (Kurt's real dad) are excellent as Elvis' parents. And Pat Hingle delivers a very competent Col. Tom Parker.

Long live the King!

There's two words that explain why this low budget TV movie of the week was so good. Kurt Russell. Like many, I didn't think that he'd be the best choice, after all, there were many actors who looked more like The King... but I was very wrong. Yes, there may have been actors that looked more like him (like a tepid Rhys Davies), but NO ONE encapsulated the true spirit of the man better than Kurt. The rest of the cast was superb as well, like an excellent Gladys Presley, played by the legendary Shelley Winters, or Bing Russell as his father (who I just now realized was Kurt's actual dad!). Kurt's mannerisms and voice was so good, that I used HIM to emulate my entire Elvis act (Google: "Yoshi Suzuki, the Asian Elvis")! It was quite ironic that Kurt began his screen career actually sitting on Elvis' lap on "It Happened at the World's Fair," as a child. I met the two makeup artists that did Kurt's makeup for the movie, and they didn't think he was the best possible choice, either. But after they did his hair and sideburns and he donned the jumpsuit, they stood back, took their first look at their handiwork, and exclaimed: "Jesus, IT'S ELVIS!!!" Jesus, they were right.

A decent film that starts out promising, with some interesting shots (panning around tapping feet in the recording booth was excellent) and a great sense of progress. Unfortunately a lot of the events shown feel perfunctory, with the exception of a few scenes (one with his mother was very touching). Kurt Russel brings a fantastic performance, but I felt there wasn't much evolution in the way he moved over the course of the film, and it was hard to buy that time had progressed.

Having said that, if I watched this without knowing it was a TV movie, I probably wouldn't have realised. I'm not sure how rare that is, but I feel it's worth complementing anyway.