The Beatles: Eight Days A Week. (12A.)
Directed by Ron Howard.
Featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo. 120 mins. Out on Blu-ray, DVD and Two disc Special Edition, from Studiocanal. Pre-order at http://scnl.co/EightDaysAWeek
Despite all the hype, and the Leicester Square premier, and the big name Hollywood director, this is just another film about The Beatles, of which there are plenty already. So what makes this one special? Well, it's a film about The Beatles; that's what makes it special. You may have heard it all many times before, but you can't hear it too many times in my book: theirs is perhaps the greatest story of the 20th century. One of the oddest too; the phenomenon of the world's youth suddenly, and with only minimal prompting, deciding to acclaim four cheeky and tuneful Liverpudlians as the greatest musical and cultural force on the planet – and for the four of them to then go on to become exactly that.
.
And what a precarious story, a whole string of fortuitous meeting. First Paul had to meet George. Then Paul and George had to meet John. Then Paul, George and John had to meet to Ringo. (Yes, they had to Ringo. One of the most memorable moments is Paul almost welling up when remembering the first time they played with Ringo and thinking Yes, this is it.) Then Paul, George, John and Ringo had to be taken on by Brian. Then the whole lot of them had to meet old George. And finally half the world's teenage girls had to start screaming at them.
Howard's film has an angle, which is to restrict itself to the touring years, which is almost exactly half of their career, from 62-66, after which they quit the road and concentrated on working in the studio. The advantage of this is that it gets to explore the whole Beatlemania period, the hysteria of thousands of teenage girls screaming and grasping after four moderately attractive males in pretty suits. The disadvantage is that you miss out on most of the really, really great music and just get those “disposable” pop songs that more than half a century we can't quite bring ourselves to discard. (The period takes in Rubber Soul and Revolver and Paperback Writer so there's plenty to make up for the occasional duffer.)
The film is made up of archive footage and newly filmed interviews with Paul and Ringo and various celebrities. Nothing revolutionary there but Howard does a thorough job and there's precious little slack. TV has taught us to be wary of celebrities offering their “insights” into a topic but Howard keeps their input down to a bare minimum and keeps only the bits that actually help to illustrate the story. Instead of the standard celebrity gush of praise the clips here are first hand witness testimony of the Beatles importance – Elvis Costello admitting that as an 11 year old Beatles fanatic his first reaction to the new direction of Rubber Soul was disappointment, even betrayal; Whoopi Goldberg remembering seeing them on Ed Sullivan and being surprised by her mother with tickets for the Shea Stadium concert. What you get is how precious these memories still are to them – there is something remarkable about hearing Sigourney Weaver confessing to leaping around and screaming at the Beatles.
What you also get is how amateurish these concerts must have been. (Maybe that's why we don't get Goldberg's reminiscences of being at the Shea Stadium concert.) They only had two roadies and their amps were nowhere near big enough to overcome the wall of screaming directed at them. The performances seem quite loose and simple, just showing up and banging out a few songs. On one occasion we see someone having to run on at the start and hastily turn Ringo's drum kit to the right direction before they could begin.
You also see why so many of their early songs are about men working hard; those four years seem to have been an absolutely relentless cycle of playing, travelling, rehearsing, writing and talking.
My one frustration with the film is that doesn't explore the moment they went from being an aspiring pop band to a monster success. We know that it happened very quickly, soon after the second single, but all we get is Paul saying that everybody thinks they were an overnight success before going back over the days in Hamburg, and then there is a little section on the importance of Brian Epstein's management and his decision to put them in suits. Still, the film doesn't come close to answering the essential question – why did they scream? Of course they still scream, the teenage girls, usually at figures whose sexuality has been neutered in some way, but they never got it right again. What was behind this mysterious self fulfilling prophesy? Whatever the reason, I thing we all owe them a debt of gratitude.
Even though it was only for one night I really wanted to cover the cinema release of this back in September, and was very frustrated when I couldn’t go to the press screening because it clashed with one for a more important film. (Can't remember which film, but it wasn't very good.) In these strange uncertain times there is something more than nostalgia to the appeal of The Beatles; those songs and the fearful speed of their creative development offer up a beacon of hope. So yes this is just another film about the Beatles, and what the hell is wrong with that? You all heard the story before, and within another four to five years there will be another film to tell you it all over again, and another four to five years after that, and so on.
Extras.
The two disc version (The Deluxe Collector's Edition to give it its full title) contains over 100 minutes of material and a 64 page booklet.
Howard clearly had a heap of excess material left over when he had finished editing the main feature, so as well as the deleted scenes there was enough to make four addition short features.
Words & Music (24 mins) is about the songwriting and its influences; Early Clues to a New Direction (18 mins) about the band as movement, Liverpool (11 mins) about the early days and The Beatles in Concert (12 mins) containing five songs performed live. All of these are made to the standard of the main feature
Directed by Ron Howard.
Featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo. 120 mins. Out on Blu-ray, DVD and Two disc Special Edition, from Studiocanal. Pre-order at http://scnl.co/EightDaysAWeek
Despite all the hype, and the Leicester Square premier, and the big name Hollywood director, this is just another film about The Beatles, of which there are plenty already. So what makes this one special? Well, it's a film about The Beatles; that's what makes it special. You may have heard it all many times before, but you can't hear it too many times in my book: theirs is perhaps the greatest story of the 20th century. One of the oddest too; the phenomenon of the world's youth suddenly, and with only minimal prompting, deciding to acclaim four cheeky and tuneful Liverpudlians as the greatest musical and cultural force on the planet – and for the four of them to then go on to become exactly that.
.
And what a precarious story, a whole string of fortuitous meeting. First Paul had to meet George. Then Paul and George had to meet John. Then Paul, George and John had to meet to Ringo. (Yes, they had to Ringo. One of the most memorable moments is Paul almost welling up when remembering the first time they played with Ringo and thinking Yes, this is it.) Then Paul, George, John and Ringo had to be taken on by Brian. Then the whole lot of them had to meet old George. And finally half the world's teenage girls had to start screaming at them.
Howard's film has an angle, which is to restrict itself to the touring years, which is almost exactly half of their career, from 62-66, after which they quit the road and concentrated on working in the studio. The advantage of this is that it gets to explore the whole Beatlemania period, the hysteria of thousands of teenage girls screaming and grasping after four moderately attractive males in pretty suits. The disadvantage is that you miss out on most of the really, really great music and just get those “disposable” pop songs that more than half a century we can't quite bring ourselves to discard. (The period takes in Rubber Soul and Revolver and Paperback Writer so there's plenty to make up for the occasional duffer.)
The film is made up of archive footage and newly filmed interviews with Paul and Ringo and various celebrities. Nothing revolutionary there but Howard does a thorough job and there's precious little slack. TV has taught us to be wary of celebrities offering their “insights” into a topic but Howard keeps their input down to a bare minimum and keeps only the bits that actually help to illustrate the story. Instead of the standard celebrity gush of praise the clips here are first hand witness testimony of the Beatles importance – Elvis Costello admitting that as an 11 year old Beatles fanatic his first reaction to the new direction of Rubber Soul was disappointment, even betrayal; Whoopi Goldberg remembering seeing them on Ed Sullivan and being surprised by her mother with tickets for the Shea Stadium concert. What you get is how precious these memories still are to them – there is something remarkable about hearing Sigourney Weaver confessing to leaping around and screaming at the Beatles.
What you also get is how amateurish these concerts must have been. (Maybe that's why we don't get Goldberg's reminiscences of being at the Shea Stadium concert.) They only had two roadies and their amps were nowhere near big enough to overcome the wall of screaming directed at them. The performances seem quite loose and simple, just showing up and banging out a few songs. On one occasion we see someone having to run on at the start and hastily turn Ringo's drum kit to the right direction before they could begin.
You also see why so many of their early songs are about men working hard; those four years seem to have been an absolutely relentless cycle of playing, travelling, rehearsing, writing and talking.
My one frustration with the film is that doesn't explore the moment they went from being an aspiring pop band to a monster success. We know that it happened very quickly, soon after the second single, but all we get is Paul saying that everybody thinks they were an overnight success before going back over the days in Hamburg, and then there is a little section on the importance of Brian Epstein's management and his decision to put them in suits. Still, the film doesn't come close to answering the essential question – why did they scream? Of course they still scream, the teenage girls, usually at figures whose sexuality has been neutered in some way, but they never got it right again. What was behind this mysterious self fulfilling prophesy? Whatever the reason, I thing we all owe them a debt of gratitude.
Even though it was only for one night I really wanted to cover the cinema release of this back in September, and was very frustrated when I couldn’t go to the press screening because it clashed with one for a more important film. (Can't remember which film, but it wasn't very good.) In these strange uncertain times there is something more than nostalgia to the appeal of The Beatles; those songs and the fearful speed of their creative development offer up a beacon of hope. So yes this is just another film about the Beatles, and what the hell is wrong with that? You all heard the story before, and within another four to five years there will be another film to tell you it all over again, and another four to five years after that, and so on.
Extras.
The two disc version (The Deluxe Collector's Edition to give it its full title) contains over 100 minutes of material and a 64 page booklet.
Howard clearly had a heap of excess material left over when he had finished editing the main feature, so as well as the deleted scenes there was enough to make four addition short features.
Words & Music (24 mins) is about the songwriting and its influences; Early Clues to a New Direction (18 mins) about the band as movement, Liverpool (11 mins) about the early days and The Beatles in Concert (12 mins) containing five songs performed live. All of these are made to the standard of the main feature
