1979 - ELVIS, made for TV film on the life of Elvis Presley is really long

Probably not a lot of people know that John Carpenter's followup to his slasher film Halloween was this made for television film on the life of Elvis Presley.  Carpenter might have seemed like an odd choice for a film like this but he was a musician and had grown up in the South.  This was also Carpenter's first collaboration with Kurt Russell who was transitioning out of those Disney kid movies and into more mature film roles.

The cast for this film is interesting. Shelly Winters in all her hammy glory has the role Elvis's mother Gladys.  Bing Russell a character actor mostly in westerns and the father of Kurt plays the father.  Season Hubley is Priscilla Presley.  Hubley and Russell must have clicked because in real life they got married, well for a while anyway.  Also another favorite character actor Pat Hingle shows up as the legendary Col. Tom Parker.

 

This version of Presley's life was one of the most popular films on network TV.  It beat out showings of Gone With The Wind and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on the other networks much to the surprise of everyone.  As a film this was a very respectful tribute to Elvis and left out the more troubling aspects of his life, i.e. his drug use.  The first half of the film is best with Carpenter doing a good job moving the story along.  However Carpenter seemed to lose interest in the second half of the movie.  He appears to be going through the motions to get to the end of the story Elvis's comeback in Las Vegas.  At the time Elvis was called the ultimate Vegas lounge act by the critics.  Even for John Carpenter who worked with tight budgets early in his career, this film must have been an intense production.  He had 30 days to shot what was essentially a three hour film a major challenge for any filmmaker

 

This was an important film for Kurt Russell it gave cred as a film star.  He moved into more adult roles and working with Carpenter again in films like Escape From New York and The Thing toughened him up in the eyes of movie going public.  Elvis isn't really a great film but it does have some decent scenes and Kurt Russell certainly doesn't embarrass himself in the title role.

The film was written by the producer Anthony Lawrence, the running time is a mind bending 168 minutes.