Stars: Elvis Presley

Summary: An engaging documentary containing over thirty songs and featuring Elvis offstage and preparing for his 1970 tour, culminating in his opening night performance in Las Vegas. Special features include the original theatrical trailer and Suspicious Minds music video.

Focusing on the overweight, older Elvis that many people would rather forget, THAT'S THE WAY IT IS is nonetheless a compelling, fascinating, and highly amusing musical documentary. Simultaneously celebrating and poking good-natured fun at the Las Vegas era of Elvis's career, director Denis Sanders often just sits back and lets the performances speak for themselves. The film includes the King preparing offstage for his 1970 tour and culminates in his opening night performance in Vegas. The film includes more than 30 of the King's fabulous songs.

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A concert documentary from 1970, Elvis: That's the Way it Iscaptures Elvis Presley midway through a fateful transition, seeking to reclaim his musical primacy after a decade of self-imposed exile from concert stages. Sidelined by his big-screen career, eclipsed by rock's mid-60s transformations, the King had begun his return two years earlier with the relatively lean attack of his fabled network television appearance, 68 Comeback Specia. Now the Memphis legend was poised to reposition his performing profile by pursuing the top rungs of headliner status in Las Vegas, a career choice that seems even more ephemeral in hindsight than it already did at the time. That's the Way it Isfollows the show's genesis from rehearsal to stage, with the performance footage that provides its inevitable climax shot over six nights. The rehearsal footage, expanded for this special edition, offers further proof that Presley's band was simply superb: stripped of the orchestrations and lush choral arrangements that would be grafted onto the stage show, the sextet sounds both tough and nimble. In performance, we're treated to a mostly riveting glimpse of Presley in top vocal form, poised at the brink of bombast. This is Elvis before the onset of portentous Richard Strauss overtures, karate kicks and tossed scarves, kicking off the show with the classic "That's All Right". If he risks undercutting the punch of his early songs with self-deprecating clowning, he attacks two Ray Charles classics with gusto. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Behind The Scenes Documentary Patch It Up, The Restoration Of Thats The Way It Is, Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Menus, Scene Access
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1970
Release Date:	August 13, 2001
Runtime:	92 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 065058
Keywords:	Music, Way, Rock, Elvis, Pop, Wide, Screen, Presley, Performing, Arts, Popular, That's
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts