Let’s Go to the Movies: September 20, 2018: Elvis Presley – The Searcher, Part 1 & 2

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  3. Just watched both parts today. I’ve seen a few Elvis documentaries, and I guess this one distinguishes itself on focusing on the music, and this “searching” aspect of his restless quest to find moving songs to sing. To this end, they use the 1968 comeback special as a kind of touchstone to keep drawing upon through both parts, since it contains representative parts of his entire career; spontaneous rock and roll, blues, gospel, as well as fully rehearsed dramatic vignettes to represent his movie career.

    I liked the second part a little more, simply because most of the material in the first part has been covered pretty well by other documentaries; the only really new thing they added was the extra focus on the music, and voice-over narration from various music artists, ex-wife Priscilla, and friends of his.

    I would recommend Elaine Dundy’s well-researched “Elvis and Gladys” (1985) if you want to go deeper into Elvis’ humble beginnings.

  4. Just watched both parts today. I’ve seen a few Elvis documentaries, and I guess this one distinguishes itself on focusing on the music, and this “searching” aspect of his restless quest to find moving songs to sing. To this end, they use the 1968 comeback special as a kind of touchstone to keep drawing upon through both parts, since it contains representative parts of his entire career; spontaneous rock and roll, blues, gospel, as well as fully rehearsed dramatic vignettes to represent his movie career.

    I liked the second part a little more, simply because most of the material in the first part has been covered pretty well by other documentaries; the only really new thing they added was the extra focus on the music, and voice-over narration from various music artists, ex-wife Priscilla, and friends of his.

    I would recommend Elaine Dundy’s well-researched “Elvis and Gladys” (1985) if you want to go deeper into Elvis’ humble beginnings.

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