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