Elvis Documentary 'The Searcher' Coming From HBO

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by artfromtex, Nov 16, 2016.

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  1. I333I

    I333I Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura
    You should really do some research before making comments.
     
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  2. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Yes, mostly. That said, they could have used more Elvis music and less Mike McCready, which, while tasteful, occasionally veered a little close to generic "we can't use Elvis music in this so here's the next best thing that sounds like it was recorded in the '90s but it'll do" background music from every unauthorized Elvis doc ever.
     
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  3. I333I

    I333I Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura
    I enjoyed the doc (especially the Burning Love footage, holy crap!) even though most of the content is mostly common knowledge to those who follow Elvis. I hope that this will turn more people on to his music and lose the focus on the “bloated” years and whatever else National Enquirer fodder that has tainted the true talent of this man.
    This guy breathed music. He seemed like an encyclopedia of knowledge and used his influences masterfully.
    I appreciate that the documentary dropped hints (perhaps Elvis’ life would’ve changed for the better if another challenge, such as world tours, was presented) but didn’t entirely point fingers. Loved hearing the Colonel (though I slightly despise the man) and various comments from Elvis that I’ve never heard. I did feel it was a bit rushed, but I expect most people wouldn’t sit and watch a film about Elvis that goes beyond a 4 hour running time. I would’ve loved if it was a three-parter, but I’m happy that it was made and am excited about watching it again.
     
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  4. GillyT

    GillyT Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wellies, N.Z
    Not so much "skip over" as re-focus the attention of the audience upon the art, the one thing that has been conspicuously absent in the discussion about Elvis for 30 years, since the publication of Albert Goldman's book in 1981. The salacious details of Elvis' slide into drug addiction have been done to death. May I respectfully suggest you watch the film from the beginning, in its entirety. Although you may not have those questions answered directly, there will be enough context provided to understand, if you're open to that. ;)
     
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  5. I333I

    I333I Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura
    EXACTLY.
     
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  6. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Priscilla and Jerry Schilling talked about this at a Elvis Radio roundtable in Memphis the week before the premiere. They made it a point to be honest but not make an entire story about Tom Parker the evil promoter.

    I thought it was fair, juxtaposing Elvis' position on things with the Colonel.
     
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  7. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    I see what you mean but I for the most part found McCready's input to be very effective. It acted as a nice breather and those breaks allowed you to refocus on Elvis again when his voice came back on.
     
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  8. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    In the context of a 3.5 hour film, they gave enough time for the later years. Not sure what more they could have added. The message was received loud and clear on what Elvis' final days were like. Plus, who doesn't already know the details of that period?

    Meeting Nixon? Irrelevant.
     
  9. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Yeah, that's what the recent movie is for :D
     
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  10. GillyT

    GillyT Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wellies, N.Z
    I remember as a kid being taken to a double feature: Concert For Bangladesh and Elvis That's The Way It Is. One film bored me to tears. I remember quite clearly that it definitely wasn't Elvis! :laugh:

     
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  11. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    I do not think one has to come from a visual arts background to take a non-single narrowly defined view of an artist's work. Reappraisals and ongoing analysis is part of the process of evaluating an artist and his or her work, life and career. And yes, great artists capture and/or create more than they intended, no one has asserted otherwise. But, there is a fine line between that and initiating a pretentious narrative that becomes borderline fanciful, and from my point of view, I thought Springsteen took those liberties on a couple of issues in both Part One and Part Two of the documentary. And it is certainly his prerogative to do so, but I found those embellishments and interpretations unconvincing. Clearly, you disagree. We all are not going to see it the same way.
     
  12. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    The documentary did an effective job presenting Elvis' dilemma with his management's limitations and Parker's controversial dealings and mismanagement without doing a hit-job on Parker.
     
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  13. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I think a quote from Peter Guralnick's Careless Love book regarding how Elvis and Charlie Hodge put together the Las Vegas shows for his opening in 1969 after the Comeback Special would be salient to this point:

    "With Elvis's analytical mind and his natural flair for dramatics, Charlie felt that there was no way he could miss; the grandiosity of the his ambition only raised the stakes. Everything he had ever admired in music, he told Charlie, 'He now had on stage with him. Every type of music that he enjoyed was now in his show. The front men did country or rock 'n'roll, there was the gospel sound with the quartet and the soul sound with the Sweet Inspirations, and together you had a beautiful choir. Then a big band sound [from the showroom orchestra] with things that swung and dramatic things that had a symphonic sound.' To Charlie there was no limit on what Elvis was likely to accomplish."

    Now we all know that Elvis was not a politically motivated artist in any traditional sense, but I do think Bruce Springsteen as well as Tom Petty's comments are both on point and hint indirectly of the fact that Elvis saw himself as a figure who was above politics and very much as a uniter and not a divider so to speak, particularly with his choice later to record American Trilogy. I am not a huge Springsteen fan per se and in fact only have one of his albums in my collection, but I do think his comments were not hyperbole or far off the mark by any stretch.
     
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  14. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    The Guralnick passage reiterates that Elvis infused all of his musical interests into his show, creating a big, lush, diverse sound (and that was not the first time Elvis did such a thing; a number of his recordings from the 1950's and 1960's contained various influences). That said, I do not see it as an interpretation that Elvis was attempting to create a spectrum of Americana, making his show a "vessel for the entirety of the American experience," or that there was even such an indirect result. That is a grandiose interpretation and conclusion based on Springsteen's own social/political mindset, one that he is certainly entitled to. But again, I do not find it overly convincing.
     
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  15. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I really believe that Springsteen's comments about the nature of Elvis and his music being a "vessel" for the expression of various social and cultural experiences of all Americans is spot on. My goodness, look at the great and socially impactful songs he was recording in succession during a very turbelant time in American history. Both If I Can Dream and In The Ghetto were songs that Elvis knew to some degree had political messages behind their beautiful veneer. Elvis was in fact warned by several people to stay away from recording In The Ghetto as it could have been seen as quite polarizing politically at the time. The recording of American Trilogy might have been seen by Elvis as a way of healing some of those wounds that had been experienced by so many Americans and a way to bring his diverse fans together. A very noble idea and not too far a field of what Mr. Springsteen was trying to say in the documentary.
     
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  16. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    An original LPM-1254 with silver printed "RCA Victor" on the label, in as good a condition as you can find.
     
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  17. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    I'd been wondering how long before I got to see this. Gave up HBO a long time ago, and sure didn't want to pay $14.99 to stream HBO. Then, while on Facebook, I see a post from Priscilla, giving tips on how, and where to see this for free, and on the list was Comcast On Demand, where for this week, HBO On Demand can be watched for free ! Of course I dropped what I was doing, and settled in for the entire 3 1/2 hours.
    I liked it, and look forward to the usual high-quality Blu-ray from HBO, we know they're capable of.
    .
     
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  18. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    With many complaining about the quality of much of the footage, is it likely they would do a Blu Ray transfer. Apparently the 68 TV Special stuff is very grainy.
     
  19. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    More blurry than grainy.

    Grain isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it can often show that excessive digital noise reduction hasn’t been used at the cost of sharpness.
     
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  20. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    Oh well whatever the terminology that was used, they did not think the footage was particularly good with some like Iiking it to VHS quality.
     
  21. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    Elvis ultimately transcended genres. Not many singers could tackle rock, pop, country, gospel, soul and R&B and make them their own.
     
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  22. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
    I think the 3 dvd set looks a little better but there is only so much you can do with the quality of that footage.
     
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  23. JLGB

    JLGB Senior Member

    Location:
    D.R.
    The 68 special footage shown in documentary was supposedly not as good as the deluxe DVD release.
     
  24. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    There is, of course, a theory that it's presented that way in line with the footage beginning and ending from an old TV set.

    I wasn't drawn out of the experience. Elvis is captivating in any quality.
     
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  25. I333I

    I333I Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura
    I do believe that this was an artistic decision. The shots were made to be a sort of context as to how they were originally seen. That’s what I figured, at least.
     
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