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Elvis, The Colonel And Me

December 09, 2001 | Video
This release by Elvis Unlimited is a nice introduction to both Ed Bonja and what went on behind the scenes of the Elvis Presley show.

Design

The DVD is a "personal" release from Ed Bonja, the cover has his favourite photo on it (and we get the background on how it was taken). On the back a great shot of Elvis in the spotlight which matches the content which is not about Ed Bonja but about Elvis.

Content

It starts with the introduction of Ed Bonja, get to know hho that guy is. From there on several themes come by. We get the background on how the Colonel did business (Elvis actually bought his scarves from the Colonel) and what went on behind the scenes of the Elvis show.

The content is presented by Ed Bonja who shares his memories and in between his stories we get some home movies on the Colonel and some great concert footage form the collection of Sherif Hanna and the Aloha From Hawaii press conference. We see Elvis in a two piece suit in 1971. The only minor is it contains no Elvis audio but a backing track which gets a bit annoying after hearing it for too long.

Looking at this DVD some good memories come back of sitting down with Ed at a bar in either Memphis or Denmark and hearing some of the stories again. The man on the screen is the man we met. So you see no acting, but a real person sharing his memories.

A good idea from the producers was to collect all the footage and present it as a track on the DVD so you don't have to listen to Ed over and over again to see Elvis. As a bonus over the video version the DVD has a picture slide show.

The producers included 15 minutes of rare live footage and some very rare footage of the Colonel on a visit to the Bonja home. All the footage has voice over or, as for the bonus footage, instrumental music. Playing time of the documentary is 50 minutes, the footage of Elvis on stage 15 minutes and the slide show runs for 5 minutes.

Conclusion

This release is a nice "personal documentary" to watch to get the inside stories. You probably won't watch the stories that often (sorry Ed), so it's good to have the live footage as a single track. "Elvis, ... and Me" is a good setup for a series of "personal appearances" documenting a legend. If we're well informed we can expect more releases in this format. If done in this style, with the focus on Elvis, and not the person who tell the stories, we look forward to it.