“Finding still images and footage of Elvis that had not been used was the exciting part of the storytelling,” said Zimny in an HBO Q&A. There’s rather too much reliance on the latter interviewees one wishes for more first hand accounts (and more from Elvis), instead of the constant explanations given by the experts. Other commentators are drafted in to set the narrative direction, including Jorgensen, Landau, Alan Light ( The Searcher’s screenwriter), and Warren Zanes (who wrote the liner notes for the The Searcher’s soundtrack), among others. There are also comments drawn comments from Elvis’ own interviews. Fontana), but also folks who aren’t as high profile (Cissy Houston, Ronnie Tutt and Norbert Putnam, all of whom worked with Presley during his the final decade of his life). There’s also interview material from people who knew and worked with Elvis, including not just the usual suspects (Presley’s first producer, Sam Phillips, and his 1950s musicians, Scotty Moore and D.J. Petty is among the more well-known interviewees featured in the film, along with Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson. “We should dwell on what he did that was so beautiful and everlasting, which was that great, great music.” “We shouldn’t make the mistake of writing off a great artist because of all the clatter that came later,” Tom Petty says during The Searcher’s opening sequence. Thus, the film’s focus is kept on Presley’s artistic accomplishments, a prioritizing that’s laid out at the beginning. In the movie, Landau and others make great comments in relation to this.” Definitely about 20 major hits (during the ‘60s), two unique gospel albums and a repertoire covering country, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, pop and even a Bob Dylan song. “I think through our dialogue I persuaded Thom that at every stage of Elvis’ career - maybe except 1965 - Elvis created something spectacular,” he continues, “and that most of the ‘60s were forgotten, including about 120 generally brilliant Nashville recordings, with Elvis at his most beautiful voice ever, a unique band of session musicians and mostly great songwriting. But he hadn’t hired me to agree with him, but to be his sparring partner. I’m sure he must have been sick of me at times. When production started, my role changed to that of fact checker, and suggesting deletions and additions. This happened about two years before production started, and during those 24 months I bombarded Thom with hundreds of hours of music, dozens of stories, facts and interview suggestions. “Would I help him? Jon Landau had promised Thom that this was a serious project and it was to be about Elvis as a recording artist and performer. “It started with a 90 minute transatlantic phone call from Thom,” Jorgensen recalls. Jorgensen, who’s overseen and produced Elvis reissues since the Essential Elvis series back in the ‘80s, and is the author of the sessionography Elvis Presley: A Life in Music, was a natural choice, given his extensive knowledge of the Presley catalog. Zimny also reached out to Jorgensen for assistance. Many other films and books focused on other details and made the music secondary, which is what we really wanted to focus on.” Zimny credits Priscilla, Jerry Schilling (one of Elvis’ friends, and an executive producer of The Searcher), and Jon Landau (Bruce Springsteen’s manager, and also a producer of The Searcher) with serving as “helpful guides to understanding how the story of Elvis was lost through the years, how a generation missed out on this beautiful music, and more importantly, the artist. HBO then tapped Thom Zimny, director of a number of documentaries on Bruce Springstreen, to direct. Work on the film began when Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ former wife, who has overseen some of his business affairs after his death, approached HBO about doing a documentary (Priscilla is one of The Searcher’s executive producers). And I definitely insist that as a stage performer he was never better than in the early ‘70s.” In short, it’s a re-evaluation of Elvis’ career that’s not unlike the work Jorgensen did in rehabilitating Presley’s image through the release of box sets like The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Complete 50s Masters. That’s an injustice! He did make those movies - but he actually made 11 albums worth of generally great music, including an endless string of hits, during the ‘60s. Elvis in the ‘50s is cool, in the ‘60s Elvis made a lot of lame movies, and then in the ‘70s he took drugs, got fat and died. “As time goes by, the story gets shorter, and, in the process, not possible to understand. “ The Searcher aims to portray Elvis as a serious artist, as opposed to a phenomenon, which the world media seems to prefer,” explains Ernst Jorgensen, a co-producer of both the film and soundtrack (Thom Zimny and Jon Landau are the soundtrack’s other co-producers).
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