This Is Elvis

This Is Elvis is a 1981 biographical documentary about Elvis Presley, tracing his life and career through a mix of real performance footage, interviews and dramatized scenes. Actors portray Presley at different ages, including at ten, eighteen and thirty-five, while the bulk of the film draws on archival material of the singer himself. The recollections of people close to him, among them his former girlfriend Linda Thompson and his friend Joe Esposito, who both serve as narrators, provide much of the story. The film also examines the wider impact of rock and roll on American culture in the 1950s and 1960s, a musical shift in which Presley was the central figure.

Andrew Solt and Malcolm Leo directed, wrote and produced the film together, working with Warner Bros. Pictures and David L. Wolper Productions on a budget of five million dollars. It was released on 3 April 1981 and runs 102 minutes.

The box office return of two million dollars against that budget indicates the film did not recover its costs in cinemas. Its reputation has since rested more on home viewing and television airings, where its blend of archival performance material and recreated scenes has found a steady audience. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from around 1,800 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from 36 votes; the far larger sample on IMDb suggests a durable following, while the smaller TMDB figure reflects limited voting activity.