Rating: 
Summary: Elvis at his Best!!
Review: This is definetely "The" ultimate Elvis concert. If 68 was the comback, 73 was the finale. Never has there been anyone who could cross lines like Elvis. Rock, Country, Gospel, Easy Listening, Blues, he could do it all... and like no one else. Today the "big band orchestration" is booming. Like Cherry Poppin' Daddy's, Elvis did that sound 25 years ago. Just listen to the instrumentation of his concerts. And he's got the vocals to go along with it. I have never heard anyone who could even come close to his vocal range. This King is the King. He was too good for his own good, unfortunately. But you can't take away from his talent. He was the greatest!
Rating:
Summary: This show is why they called him "The King"!!!
Review: The energy and excitement can still be felt when you watch this concert...even 26 years later. Truly the King was at his best that night.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is Elvis at his best and in his element performing live in front of his fans...this is a must for all Elvis fans
Rating:
Summary: awesome,but i'd like to see the cbs tv special.
Review: i've always loved elvis and it's been a long time since i've seen the concert and i can't wait to see it again. love "in the early morning rain"
Rating:
Summary: Elvis at his best.
Review: This was the concert of concerts, his best live performance
Rating:
Summary: The best ELVIS concert of ALL TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This is the best ELVIS video of a concert on the market.i've bought 2 videos of this show,and wore them BOTH out.So i recommend this video !!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Presley at his best
Review: I got the chance to preview this dvd at Graceland Pravillion during Elvis's birthday week celebration in Memphis 2004. To see this on the big screen was phenonmenal!!!!!!! You see everything!! Every move, every snarl, every breath every shake of the king himself at his utmost best since the 1968 NBC Comeback special. I feel in all of his outstanding career this is Elvis's best performance!!! He was fit, trim and gorgeous in white!!! When he sings You Gave Me A Mountain you can feel the vibes jump through whateve screen you are watching him through. His prescence is like none other performer in the world!!!! This dvd celebration is a must for any true Elvis Presley fan or collector of and a great price through Amazon.com . This is much much more in Memphis!!!
Rating:
Summary: Finally the definitive Aloha from Hawaii
Review: 2004 will go down into history as one of the years that Elvis fans were spoilt by a stream of remarkable releases. One of the highlights (along with the '68 Comeback DVDs) is definitely the "Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii" Deluxe Edition double DVD-set which assembles about everything connected to Elvis' historical television special in January 1973, at the time beamed throughout the world by satellite.In fact, this new set brings 3 full length concerts: the rehearsal concert filmed on January 12, the actual concert from two days later, and that same concert as it was edited for the US television broadcast in April 1973. All are finally presented in their complete form and unlike previous home video issues none of the songs are missing. Soundwise the set is a marvel. The remix is absolutely thrilling, with enhanced clarity and detail, and there is choice between Dolby stereo and Dolby 5.1 - why no DTS? Even though it surpasses all previous video efforts, the image quality is slightly less satisfying, especially in the rehearsal concert where the horizontal bands gliding over the screen bottom to top, are at times still quite visible. The completely re-edited January 14th concert fares a whole lot better, though, with superior lighting and more vibrant color. In matters of picture sharpness we have never seen better either. As a bonus we get 17 minutes of the raw, uncut "Elvis arrives" sequence, part of which opened the TV broadcast, as well as the five post-concert insert songs, often in different takes. I wonder though if we needed to have disc 1 started with the "Elvis arrives" sequence, as this is material for die hard fans only. (There is an error in my disc as the image jumps after a few minutes to the beginning of the concert). All in all, a fantastic set, nicely packaged in a three-fold digi-pack and including an informative booklet, which no Elvis aficionado can (or should) live without. Bound to give more than a few hours of listening and watching pleasure. Thanks BMG!
Rating: 
Summary: For Elvis diehards, fascinating scraps and a so-so concert
Review: BMG continues to sweep out the Elvis vaults for any unused tidbits from The King's glorious career, some of the packagings more exploitive and demeaning than others. This DVD collection is one of the better efforts, though it's definitely for diehards and Elvis completeists only. The 1973 Aloha concert is certainly well-known, having been rebroadcast many times and long available on home video (along with the rehearsal show two days earlier). Here the two shows have been recut and remastered, discarding the outdated 1970s edits and block montages. This is the jumpsuited, gilded, self-parodying Elvis most imitated by the legion of Elvis impersonators. It's an Elvis a long way from The World's First Atomic-Powered Singer of the 1950s who was so coarse and unwieldy that he couldn't be kept in the TV frame. Here Elvis seems to be auditioning for The Lawrence Welk Show. He's more Liberace, Perry Como and Don Ho than The King Of Rock N Roll. It's Elvis the Commericial Artist, running through his standard Vegas lounge act without too much enthusiasm, the drug abuse beginning to take its toll.
Most fascinating in the DVD collection, I believe, is Chapter 1 of the first DVD, titled "Elvis Arrives and Greets Fans." It's over seventeen minutes of raw footage sloppily shot, without reflectors, by a single camera in the harsh midday Hawaiian sun. Bits of this footage would eventually be cobbled together for broadcast with travelogue shots of the islands and a soundtracked Elvis singing "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." The broadcast version creates an excitement--the screams were definitely overdubbed--totally absent from the clumsy raw footage.
A rather small, almost entirely Caucasian crowd was apparently goaded away from their beach blankets to witness The King's arrival by helicopter. It's a pop-music version of Der Fuhrer descending through the clouds to 1934 Nuremburg in "Triumph Of The Will." Only this was hardly a wild, out-of-control crowd panting to meet its demigod. This would be a far cry from The Beatles in New York or even Elvis' own frenzied past receptions. This was a stone-faced, bemused, disinterested bunch of people who seemed embarrassed to be standing there. The director has to exhort the crowd "You can do better than that" to get any kind of response. The camera pans about desperately seeking any usable footage. A few tourists liven up a bit when the camera dollies right in their faces; in fact, some these shots were falsely inserted AFTER Elvis arrives in the broadcast segment.
The helicopter finally sets down and the cabin door opens. Elvis gets out and gives a gyrating hula girl greeting him a cruel, mocking glance and briskly walks away. (This was edited out of the broadcast.) Elvis begins working the crowd, sticking out his hand, searching for the few excited middle-aged women who drape leis around his neck. In fact, the crowd looks about as excited as if the vice-chair of the Honolulu Beautification Committee had arrived to lecture on trash disposal. There's a lot of confusion with the video crew as well, who bark about commands and trip over wires.
While this hastily assembled photo op seems more a debacle than anything else, it does highlight something very fascinating. Elvis was a star, and became a legend, not only because of his glorious, one-of-a-kind voice. Elvis stuck out in a crowd, really stuck out, even outside of carefully controlled studio conditions. Director John Waters once remarked that a true star was a person you'd never run into in everyday life. Thus Elvis. Better-looking, more graceful, more original, more identifiable than the rest of the crowd on the beach combined. A man apart. Don't you wish he were still around??
Rating:
Summary: Elvis' spectacular Aloha from Hawaii concert!
Review: The picture quality and sound are excellent; second only to his performance. All available footage is presented from the original broadcast version through the complete rehearsal concert and a newly re edited version. It also offers the complete arrival footage. However, I do think that it would have been more entertaining to edit the arrival footage before each of the concerts and then offer the full 17 minute arrival sequence separately if one wishes to view the entire arrival.I also feel that the "delux" booklet ought to have contained far better Quality photos then what is offered. A few of the photos look worse than the typical bootleg versions. Japan offered high quality pictures with song lyrics with their LP releases 20 years ago! It is a shame BMG/RCA has chosen to skimp on the budget; their is absolutely no reason for bad quality photos. The sound and DVD picture quality is excellent and the Aloha delux set makes for a wonderful gift.
|
