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The Press - Elvis: Adrenaline '70 - DVD
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DVD
- Review, taken from the "Graceland"
Magazine
Nr. 164 (July / August 2005)
German Elvis Presley Society
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Adrenaline'
70 Review by Peter Beines (Bonn, Germany)
While the previous DVDs of Praytome Publishing from
the "Behind The Image" series always aimed
at documenting Elvis altogether or at least in several
parts of his legislating, this new series seems
to be different..
One
of the specialities of the company, the presentation
of barely known or totally unknown Super 8 footage
in never before seen quality was always only a stylistic
device, which was complemented by interviews with
important contemporary witnesses. Therefore the
Super 8 material was only in extracts integrated
in the documentary although they were available
entirely as bonus features on the DVDs. In contrast
the concept of the DVD "Adrenaline '70",
which was released at the end of 2004, is different.
The footage takes center stage, constituting a fundamental
part of the main movie, while the pure documenting
takes a back seat without going under totally. "Adrenaline
shall only be fun" say the producers Greg Retkowski
and André Mester. "We just want to show
this great material. It's more about the footage
itself than about a documentary."
The footage is the recording of an Elvis concert
in the international Hotel in Las Vegas/Nevada in
August 1970 on Super 8 film. The French fan Jean-Marc
Gargiulo managed to record a full 40 minutes of
the show from a slightly elevated center position,
whereas the perspective shows Elvis always full
screen as well as important parts of the stage and
the musicians. Although this footage has exsisted
on VHS for years in the collections of some fans,
the transfer was crude and the finished product
was copied and re-copied so many times, Elvis appeared
as a colorless ghost.
But what the Praytome Publishing people did with
the film they had available as original is just
amazing and comes up to the quality of similar material
in their previous DVDs. To get everything out of
the 35 years old 8mm film, it was first complexly
cleaned. Following it was digitally transferred
with a special laser scanning method and with further
modern technology the colors and the brightness
were beind corrected. The result is sensational:
the colors are vigorous, the picture is as clear
as can be in an amateur film and shows in the background
even the musicians and the stage decoration in an
astonishing way. The only but unavoidable disadvantage
of the pleasure is the fact that the original sound
and Elvis's voice are missing. Due to technological
and legal reasons. Technically you have to understand
that nearly all 8mm films were recorded without
sound, at least until the beginning of the 70s.
Adding the sound later to the recordings might have
been possible technologically, but not legally.
The production of a bootleg like the mentioned VHS
videos of the show, was not considered by Praytome
Publishing.
That brings us to the date of the show. The producers
remain silent about the date, and Jean-Marc Gargiulo
says he doesn't remember it. But if you consult
those old VHS videos you come to the result that
it might be the midnight show of August 19th 1970,
of which the audio was released on the import double
CD "Double Dynamite" from Rock Legends.
CD 2 of the set contains those show as very good
audience recording, which was used to add the sound
so well to the VHS video that you are convinced
that it is the same show. But Praytome Publishing
has again, similar to the "Behind The Image"
DVDs, made the best out of it by adding self produced
instrumental music, which is mixed with instrumental
passages and applause segments from Elvis concerts,
to the actually silent movie. And so the viewer
experiences for 40 minutes an Elvis in top form,
dressed in the White Chain Suit (with White Macrame
Belt) in one of the best shows of the summer festival
1970, as the audio recording from the Rock Legends
CD already showed, in the best picture quality.
The first 30 minutes of "Adrenaline" are
dedicated to the documentation and to light up the
historic context of the concert movie in professional
competence. A lot of very rare photos are being
shown, as well as further very rare footage from
1968/69 which lightens up the triumphal comeback
of Elvis at the end of the 60s together with the
voice of the narrator Bud Glass. Outstanding are
the also technologically perfectly processed Super
8 concert recordings of Elvis in Vegas in August
1969, a with fitting pictures highlighted self portrait
monologue of Elvis as well as a short Super 8 clip
of Barbara Streisand's engagement in the International
Hotel in July 1969 straight before Elvis's comeback
concert series.
Also worth mentioning from this part of the DVD
is the actually known film of the signing of the
contract between Elvis and the International management
on the building lot of the hotel: longer than known
and in a better quality. Praytome also had this
original film and was able to edit it. One and a
half small factual mistakes strike: the famous "International
Gold Belt" was already in 1969 given to Elvis
as a trophy by the International Hotel for his attendance
record and not in 1970. The other thing is that
they say the LP "Elvis - That's The Way It
Is" was sold 750.000 times. But that's only
the sales at that time in the USA and not the worldwide
sales, which was already at that time more than
1 million.
"Adrenaline '70" has a running time of
70 minutes plus 18 minutes bonus material. The image
format is 4:3 (NTSC Region Free), the sound is Dolby
Digital AC 3. There is an interactive menu with
chapter selection and bonus section which contains
a lovely Making Of and trailers for all previous
products of Praytome Publishing. Unfortunately the
DVD doesn't have any language selection or subtitles
just like the other Praytome documentaries so that
the comment of Bud Glass in the first 30 minutes
is only available in English. However,
this drawback doesn't carry authority due to the
historic footage being the main fun of the product.
The cover is accordingly designed and shows at the
front a fitting concert photo of Elvis in August
1970.
Conclusion:
With "Adrenaline '70" Praytome Publishing
has focused on the pure fun factor of Elvis on stage.
That the documentary of the historic context was
not forgotten, proves once again the general intention
of the producers to show the real Elvis behind his
(public) image. The technological effort that was
put into it is immense and makes the DVD a product
everybody should have.
© 2005 by Elvis Presley Gesellschaft
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