The documentary-style film on his life is easily a must have for those young fans that want to know more about the man called "the King Of Rock N Roll". Elvis tried out acting, but as an actor he was hard to look at other then being Elvis on screen, rather then the person he was portraying. It also doesn’t help that he was type cast a lot, also he made some bad choice of films, but sometimes he’ll get it right and make great films.

Contained in the film are some very interesting and obviously very personal clips. We're able to join in on one of Elvis' birthday parties while he was in the service during the war and we see him hanging out and having a good time with close friends and family including some touching bits where his parents arrive at Graceland. There are also some fantastic live performances in here, including some familiar television appearances such as his famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Steve Allen Show. Later era performances show the man looking very much worn out and messing up a key song, but his voice is still there even during these low points. We also see a lot of clips of Elvis at his worst. As everyone knows, he was a bit of a mess before he died, hooked on pills and grossly overweight to the point where he really was a shadow of his younger self. Much of that very real drama is captured here, accented by some clips of obviously stoned Elvis zoned out in the back of his car.

I learned a lot from this DVD on Elvis that I didn’t know before, I knew who he was from the music he had done but looking at his older days was just sad. This is truly a must have for Elvis Fans and music lovers.

The Look:
The theatrical version on the first disc is presented in its original 1.85.1 aspect ratio in a nice anamorphic transfer whereas the expanded version, which was originally released on home video, is presented in 1.33.1 fullframe format. While there is some grain present and the odd speck or two appears on the picture from time to time, for the most part both films look quite good. The archival material can be a bit rough in spots but the newer footage and reenactment footage all looks nice and colorful. Black levels are fine and while there is some softness present in places it's only minor and never overly distracting.

The Sound:
This Is Elvis is given a nice English language 2.0 Stereo track for the theatrical cut whereas the extended cut is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. The stereo track has a little more kick to it than the Mono track does, but both versions of the movie sound good. Dialogue and narration is clean, clear and free of any hiss or distortion and the levels always sound properly balanced.