It’s Elvis week and Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of the legendary singer is being released this Friday. It will be divisive, but I really liked it. It’s a maddening work of art and probably Luhrmann’s best film since “Moulin Rouge.”
The theatrical version clocks in at 159 minutes, but Luhrmann recently confided that there is a 4-hour cut of the film, including a scene where Elvis meets Richard Nixon.
Speaking to Radio Times, Luhrmann says:
“I mean, I have a four-hour version, actually. I do. But you have to bring it down to 2 hours 30… I would have liked to lean into some of the other things more – there’s so much more. I mean, there’s lots of stuff that I shot like the relationship with the band, I had to pare [that] down – and it’s so interesting how the Colonel [Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks] gets rid of them.”
Luhrmann added that other than the Nixon scene, other cut scenes involve Elvis’ addiction to barbiturates and his relationship with first girlfriend Dixie. The film does span four decades of The King’s life, so it’s obvious things were going to be snipped out, but consider me disappointed that the theatrical cut couldn’t even hit 3-hours.
Luhrmann’s film doesn’t feel 159 minutes, it just zips by, crossing from one iconic moment of Elvis’ career to the next. But you do get the sense that the entire story isn’t being told. Elvis had a whirlwind of a life and I’d love to catch this 4-hour version via a director’s cut release of some sort.