Elvis on Tour (1972)

"Elvis on Tour" is a documentary that provides glimpses of the performer behind the scenes, his onstage persona, and his performances of several hit songs.At this stage of his career, he was besieged by bodily pains and turmoil surrounding the final stages of his marriage to Priscilla--something he would never recover from. He was coping with drugs and, in fact, he would die a few years later. But the film does not document these real dimensions of his life. It only deals with his public face and the dedication of his fans. As such, it feels like little more than a promotional film.We see Elvis backstage before going on, waiting nervously with his entourage. We see him dressed in his Evel Knievel-like caped jumpsuits, still possessing a voice, but not fully invested in providing a concise performance. We see the audiences, filled with adoring fans, screaming and crying, attesting to his popularity.Like Sinatra, whose popularity never waned, Elvis has become a caricature of himself at this point. And serious singing has given way to showmanship, punctuated with posings and karate kicks. But his audiences loved all of this.Elvis did make some good music. And some of his best songs were released late in his career, but in 1972 at this film's releasing, the major hits were behind him.The film does a good job capturing the phenomenon that is Elvis. But the amount of split screen editing feels excessive, like they are trying to make some scenes feel more exciting than they were.

Elvis on Tour (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Pretty good documentary that (once again) captures Elvis on stage and behind the scenes. Sadly I had to watch a P&S version of this film, which was amongst the worst I've ever seen since the film used multi-screens and the left and right were usually just cut off. The performance by Elvis here is rather hit and miss but overall it's a nice collection of songs from a 15-city tour. 'See See Rider' and 'Proud Mary' don't come off too hot but The King once again nails a cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'. Classics like 'Love Me Tender', 'Can't Help Falling in Love', 'Don't Be Cruel' and 'Suspicious Minds' comes off very good. The behind the scenes stuff isn't as interesting here as I had hoped but it was rather funny seeing the Gov. of North Carolina kiss Elvis' ass so much. The stuff with the fans reactions to be kissing by Elvis were also great. The flashback scenes to the younger Elvis weren't needed and the movie kisses sequence wasn't needed either. Martin Scorsese worked on the picture as an editor, which I didn't know until after the movie.

As indicated by the title, the film is a documentary – edited by Martin Scorsese! – showing highlights of Elvis Presley touring the USA (with much use of the then-trendy split-screen technique); interesting in itself, this also served as the iconic singer’s cinematic swan-song. Of course, his inflated appearance by this time – a far cry from his lean early years, seen intermittently throughout via stock footage – is rather sad to witness but, at least, he seemed to be in good spirits.We’re shown Elvis performing in front of several different hysterical audiences – at one point, even admitting to still getting stage fright before going on – but also get to see him relax with his backing musicians (generally by singing gospel songs). The musical numbers include very few of his hits (“Love Me Tender” and “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, while others like “That’s All Right”, “Mystery Train” and “Suspicious Minds” are only heard via original recordings) but there are two outstanding cover versions by The King of then-vintage rock classics – Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”! The great final line of the film – “Elvis has left the building” – spoken by the compere (and which I suppose was uttered during most of his shows from this era) clearly attests to Presley’s legendary status even when he was still alive; this is followed by an inspired last shot of Elvis in pensive but evidently happy mood. Incidentally, the film won the Golden Globe Award as the year’s Best Documentary Feature – but, then, didn’t even make the list of nominees at the Oscars!

Elvis explodes on screen. What was it like to tour with Elvis? This film will show you. A lot has been made about Elvis's appearance and weight in this movie. It does seem when Elvis is in the white jumpsuit he looks more trim, in face and body. Why more of the performances from the concert he wore this suit in were not used is a mystery. He seems puffy and the lighting is not good in a lot of the concert shots that were used(mainly Hampton Roads performances)Still pictures from this era show him much trimmer than this film shows. Vocally he gives varied performances from gospel, to rock, to country. His vocal range is shown to be vast when compared with many other pop and rock singers. His old hits are now done to give the fans what they want, but the songs that he pours his heart into are the gospel and the newer songs he has added. Burning Love was not even out when this documentary was being filmed and its a treat to see him do it fresh. Creedances Proud Mary is another he seems to love. The split screen was a new rage in this type of music film and it can be distracting. If you like Elvis this film is for you.