Remembering Elvis - A Documentary
Video
ElvisNews review
First of all, there is no singing Elvis in this documentary, so if that’s a must for you, you can stop reading and forget the product. Those that are still reading are probably interested in what is in the documentary.
Design
The package is well designed, a good shot of Elvis from the '68 Comeback Special against a "flashy" background. The set-up for this documentary is a narrated story with some interviews. The visual part of this DVD are mainly photographs (moving around an some zoom-in / zoom-out movement) and some film-footage of Elvis. As said, no audio from Elvis. The European cover differs from the American release with also a shot from the 1968 Special, but a well known image from the sit-down sessions.
Content
It starts with some nice scenery shots of Tupelo, where to our surprise Elvis was born. A quick move to the scenery of Memphis (of the late 90’s) brings us to the career of Mr. Presley. The well know story how Sam Phillips discovered him, the recording of “That’s All Right” etc. etc. It gives nothing new, but also no real mistakes. The first more interesting part is an interview with Steve Allen, who tells about his experiences with Elvis. Steve Allen will win some sympathy from the fans, with this interview. Elvis’ sergeant has some nice stories, and here in the army part we have sound from Elvis himself: a (tiny) bit of the press conference before he left to Germany. Also some footage from Elvis in Germany appears.
Julie Parrish tells something about her movie experiences and then finally the documentary gets really interesting with an interview with Steve Binder. Steve also doesn’t tell much new facts, but it’s nice to hear hear the story from his own mouth. This is one of the best parts of this documentary.
Conclusion
The text on the cover tells the story of Elvis' life in short, reading that you expect to see some of that on this DVD, but it's nowhere to be found. The storyline is O.K., the interviews are nice, but there just is too little of the man himself on this release.
