In 1964, the Beatles had just recently exploded onto the American scene with their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The group’s first feature, the Academy Award-nominated “A Hard Day’s Night,” offered fans their first peek into a day in the life of the Beatles and served to establish the Fab Four on the silver screen, as well as to inspire the music video format. Songs: I’ll Cry Instead, A Hard Day’s Night, I Should’ve Known Better, Can’t Buy Me Love, If I Fell, And I Love Her, I’m Happy Just to Dance with You, Ringo’s Theme (This Boy), Tell Me Why, Don’t Bother Me, I Wanna Be Your Man, All My Lovin’, She Loves You.The Fab Four from Liverpool–John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr–in their first movie. Nobody expected A Hard Day’s Night to be much more than a quick exploitation of a passing musical fad, but when the film opened it immediately seduced the world–even the stuffiest critics fell over themselves in praise (highbrow Dwight Macdonald called it “not only a gay, spontaneous, inventive comedy but it is also as good cinema as I have seen for a long time”). Wisely, screenwriter Alun Owen based his script on the Beatles’ actual celebrity at the time, catching them in the delirious early rush of Beatlemania: eluding rampaging fans, killing time on trains and in hotels, appearing on a TV broadcast. American director Richard Lester, influenced by the freestyle French New Wave and British Goon Show humor, whips up a delightfully upbeat circus of perpetual motion. From the opening scene of the mop tops rushing through a train station mobbed by fans, the movie rarely stops for air. Some of the songs are straightforwardly presented, but others (“Can’t Buy Me Love,” set to the foursome gamboling around an empty field) soar with ingenuity. Above all, the Beatles express their irresistible personalities: droll, deadpan, infectiously cheeky. Better examples of pure cinematic joy are few and far between. –Robert Horton
Buy “A Hard Day’s Night” For Only $7.34
February 24, 2006
#1
there is no clear story in this film. The act of the musicians were confused! The songs they played are okay! but to be honest the Beatles were a good band but not in the wide screen. That is the same childish story like their second one HELP…..if you re a die hard fans,..is ok.
February 24, 2006
#2
I don’t see why anyone would want to listen or watch the Beatles. Let’s go over the reasons why they they will never be considered a great pop act.
1) Their songs aren’t on top 40 radio stations! How can you possibly trust anything that isn’t on top 40 radio stations or trumpted by rick dees or Jacor?
2) P-Diddy didn’t do any remixes of their songs. Everyone knows if your music is preconceived before 1990 and if Bad Boy records didn’t incorporate it into some type of remix, it’s irrelevant. I mean… come on people!
3) They played their own instruments. ok, N’sync, the end all and be all of pop music don’t play instruments. All of todays top acts needn’t concern themselves with lesser things.
4) They wrote their own music. this is laughable. again, why not capitalize on the great talent of “professional” song writers to do the lesser things? i don’t get this.
5) They weren’t a pre-constructed like today’s great bands. everyone knows that this is a long outdated process. how can you trust a process if it doesn’t involve Simon Cowell or Lou Pearlman, whom as far as I’m concerned, define what the last word on what talent is!
6) Finally, how can your music possibly be relevent, if your videos weren’t “MTV Buzz” videos or made my McG? How would you know if the music’s any good?
February 24, 2006
#3
If you really like the Beatles, then you may enjoy this movie. After seeing this movie, however, you will see why the Beatles made so much more money from music than they did from movies.
Ringo Starr simply cannot act. As you watch this movie, you may begin to wonder if Mr. Starr has some kind of learning disability.
Other than the acting, the music is great.
February 24, 2006
#4
Remove the amazing music from this movie, and you have very little, and I suppose that’s the point, fun for fun’s sake, like the Marx Brothers, but the Fab Four are feeble comics, kind of smarmy and drippy and constantly selling themselves (they love making lame-brain puns based on their own songs, for example). I know this is an unpopular point of view, but I thought Hard Day’s Night was a little cynical in that shameless commercial sort of way. The old codger, Paul’s relation, was irritating throughout the movie. The only scene that was sweet and real was Ringo’s encounter with the kids playing by the river. In fact, Ringo had the subtlest and sweetest touch of the four!
February 24, 2006
#5
But this film left me cold. What was cutting edge in the 60s seems so naive now. I can see the joy and wonder experienced by the Beatles, but the film is unsatisfying as I simply failed to become engaged in the plot or the [real life] characters. I’m sure anything less than a 5 star review will be voted down by other reviewers (am I off the island), but I just don’t get this. And I do like the Beatles.