After You’ve Seen ‘Elvis,’ You Need to Check Out ‘Elvis: That’s the Way It Is’

What distinguished Elvis Presley among the early white rock ’n’ rollers was his enormous emotional appetite. The Beatles were adorable, the Rolling Stones were dangerous, but the King was unbridled, pouring his soul into his music, delivering impassioned performances that transformed his romantic longings into the stuff of epic drama. He wanted you to know he meant every word — he wanted us to see him sweat.

Dead now for 45 years, Presley is having a huge 2022 thanks to Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s hit biopic powered by a star-making turn from Austin Butler, which is now available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, as well as other VOD providers (but no HBO Max, at least not yet!). It’s a typically overblown spectacle from the director of Moulin Rouge!, spending two-and-a-half hours chronicling the King’s entire life, parachuting down into several of his career highlights — although rarely long enough to do them justice. Thankfully, there are whole films dedicated to those eras, providing the specificity that Elvis glosses over. Even one of that movie’s highlight sequences — Presley’s fabled Las Vegas run in the early 1970s — barely scratches the surface. Which is why the fascinating concert film Elvis: That’s the Way It Is is absolutely worth your time.

In Luhrmann’s movie, Las Vegas is where Presley, bolstered by his triumphant 1968 NBC comeback special, returns to the stage after years of chasing film stardom. Immaculately recreating the look of those 1970 International Hotel gigs, Elvis hints at Presley’s renewed commitment to being a musical dynamo. But That’s the Way It Is, streaming on HBO Max and available for rental/purchase through most services, tells a more nuanced — and, ultimately, more moving — story. It’s one in which the King regains his crown, desperate to prove to fans that Hollywood hasn’t changed him. No surprise that he cemented his comeback by leaning on the unguarded, crowd-pleasing intensity that first made him a superstar.

That’s the Way It Is was directed by Denis Sanders, a two-time Oscar-winner, who wasn’t that familiar with Elvis before taking the assignment. “The film that I’m doing is about Presley as an entertainer … In a way, it’s a film by one professional about another professional in another field,” Sanders later said. “So I have no interest, really, in his personal life, I really don’t. My interest is solely in Elvis as a performer.” As such, That’s the Way It Is doesn’t pretend to know the “real” Elvis, the film focusing instead on the artist’s preparations as he and his band rehearse in Los Angeles, then jumping ahead to the Vegas shows. And yet, where Elvis struggled to crack its subject’s inner world, That’s the Way It Is immortalizes a pivotal moment, presenting us with a freewheeling, lighthearted 35-year-old who nonetheless can’t laugh off the jitters he feels as it gets closer to showtime.

The behind-the-scenes sequences are endearingly playful, with Presley joking around while running through rough-hewn renditions of “That’s All Right” and “Little Sister.” At one point, his microphone falls out of its stand, the King just grinning and rolling with it. For anyone who thrilled to the unvarnished access that last year’s The Beatles: Get Back provided of the Fab Four, the early stretches of That’s the Way It Is offer similar voyeuristic pleasures. Magnetic but also just one of the guys, Presley is a lot of fun to be around.

Over the years, different versions of That’s the Way It Is have existed. HBO Max is currently showing the “Special Edition,” which is 95 minutes long, 13 minutes shorter than the original cut. What’s been excised are pointless testimonials from Elvis fans, as well as Vegas backstage scenes, with a greater emphasis on songs. Seek that edition out, because it gives you the full Presley, especially as he takes the stage at the International. Beaming from ear to ear, soaking in the audience’s adoration — an audience that includes the likes of Cary Grant and Sammy Davis Jr. — he belts out hit after hit, becoming a living jukebox of ardent pop, rock and gospel sure shots. “In the Ghetto.” “Blue Suede Shoes.” “All Shook Up.” None of these renditions are definitive, but each has the well-worn charm of a comfy old couch.

You could say the same of the man singing them. The feverish movements Presley brings to his performance, whether doing a little air guitar or swinging his arms like they’re about to take flight, are the gyrations of someone grateful to reconnect with a living, breathing crowd. And his fans are equally grateful — in particular during “Love Me Tender,” where he goes into the crowd, kissing every woman on the lips who’s interested. (Spoiler Alert: Many of them are.) If those scenes now feel a little cringey — the aging heartthrob satiating the desires of his female fans who aren’t kids anymore, either — it’s also oddly touching, a shared act between singer and audience to relive the sexual excitement that ensnared them both in their younger years.

There’s an undeniable Vegas-ian shtick to Presley’s stage show, with the King telling dorky jokes between songs and sometimes goofing on the lyrics. He was enjoying his comeback, but that didn’t mean he’d come back all the way. And yet, that fervent earnestness was still there, that unquenchable need to be a magnificent showman. And even when it seems like he’s sometimes phoning it in, the man could surprise you.

One of the signature scenes in Luhrmann’s film is Butler’s rendition of “Suspicious Minds,” which is modeled after Presley’s in That’s the Way It Is. Butler is excellent at summoning Presley’s unstoppable charisma, but on “Suspicious Minds,” the King seems to be digging into something deeper, rawer, which goes beyond simple sex appeal. Lifting the song to dizzying heights, then bringing everything down to a hush, only to lead his band to a euphoric new peak, Presley stuns, an artist in full command of his talent. Butler is great in that sequence, but the real Elvis was transcendent, and because the song happens near the end of That’s the Way It Is, we appreciate how the whole film has built to that performance. Past his prime but far from over, Elvis Presley finds himself in “Suspicious Minds,” the tune’s heartbreak written all over his sweaty, ecstatic face. Elvis recreates it — That’s the Way It Is explains why it mattered in the first place.

Tim Grierson (@timgrierson) is the senior U.S. critic for Screen International. A frequent contributor to Vulture, Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, he is the author of seven books, including his most recent, This Is How You Make a Movie.