|
Back in 1995, I bought this set on VHS. It was 8 VHS tapes and cost roughly about $80, a fortune for a 13 year old, but it was the Beatles, so I had to have it. I got it and when it came out on DVD I didn’t rush to get it since, well I already had it! I eventually got it and boy am I ever glad I did.
The Main Characters
--John Lennon – guitar/vocals
--Paul McCartney – bass/vocals
--George Harrison – lead guitar/vocals
--Ringo Starr – Drums
--George Martin – Beatles Producer
The Setting
This is a compilation of Beatles footage and recent interviews spanning their entire career from their humble beginnings in Liverpool to their worldwide success and break up in 1970.
The Movie
This is a 5-disc set chronicling the Beatles meteoric rise to fame and how they lived throughout Beatlemania. It’s full of archived footage, archived interviews, the recent interviews done by the surviving Beatles and all the important people associated with them at the time as well as archival John Lennon interviews that he recorded all the way up to his untimely death. Each “episode” runs about an hour-twenty giving you a little more than 10 hours of footage. The original anthology that ran on television was I think 5 hours long and looking back, I don’t know how they managed to make it 5 hours from the 10 hours given here.
Disc 1 deals with what were tapes 1 and 2 of the Anthology and start from the beginning (Ringo’s birth in July of 1940) up to February 1964, right before they went to America. This was a true time of growth for the Beatles as they would modify the band and its members many times before settling on the final lineup and include their trips to Hamburg to hone their playing and their historic shows in Britain in front of the Queen. It’s really in depth and talks about almost everything. There is tons of classic footage from their many TV appearances and covers the albums they recorded during this time: Please Please Me, and With The Beatles. It also talks about their singles and stories from the early years. The end of episode sees the Beatles, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” reach number in the US and the Beatles are going to America.
Disc 2 has the next two episodes of the Anthology. The first was February to July 1964. Yes, it’s only 6 months, but its an historic 6 months. The Beatles land in America and in a few short months, conquer it. This episode is chock full of rare footage of the boys making their first trip to America, playing the Ed Sullivan show, going to Washington DC and their vacation in Miami. Up next for the boys is the movie, A Hard Days Night. The second episode deals with the time from August 1964 to August of 1965. This deals with the mania of America, the Beatles for Sale Album, The Help! album, their MBE and right before playing Shea Stadium.
Disc 3 will show the biggest growth of the Beatles as musicians. The first episode covers August 1965 to July 1966 and the second episode covers July 1966 to June 1967. So much stuff going on here. On episode one: More mania ensues, Shea Stadium, meeting Elvis, Rubber Soul, Revolver and drugs of course. The second episode includes: the Philippine experience, John says the Beatles are bigger than Jesus, the end of touring, Sgt. Pepper and the press learns of the Beatles drug use and they even think about buying an island.
Disc 4 deals with the last two episodes of the Anthology. The first one ranges from June 1967 to July 1968. Topics include: The Summer of Love, the death of Brian Epstein, their first meeting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Magical Mystery album and movie, Apple, Yellow Submarine and Yoko Ono. Episode 2 deals with everything else up to the end. The White album, Hey Jude, the decline, Let It Be and Abbey Road. Of course, they end with the Free As A Bird video.
Movie Review
That is one 10-hour program I can watch again and again. I’ve seen this over 5 times already and I never get tired of it. The Beatles are my most favorite band ever and this is perhaps the greatest video collection of rare interviews, performances and perhaps the most in depth story on the Beatles that will ever be made. Truly the greatest band ever and this anthology takes you along on their magical mystery tour they called their career with the people who were there. Excellent, excellent program. Highest recommendation ever.
DVD Features
A) Extras
Disc 5 is dedicated specifically for the extras and there’s tons of stuff on it.
1) Recollections: June 1994
This is a 16-minute featurette on the 3 Beatles spending a day together reminiscing about the Beatle years. They even play a few songs together (Baby What You Want Me To Do, Raunchy, Thinking of Linking, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Ain’t She Sweet).
2) Compiling the Anthology Albums
This is a 10-minute featurette on how Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin picked the tracks for the three anthology albums. It also has the first take of A Day In The Life. Cool Stuff.
3) Back at Abbey Road: May 1995
This is a 15-minute featurette where the three Beatles and George Martin meet at Studio 2 in Abbey Road to reflect on the recordings of Golden Slumbers, I’m Only Sleeping and Tomorrow Never Knows. They play early takes of the songs.
4) Recording “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”
This is an 11-minute featurette on how the three Beatles and Jeff Lynne created two new Beatles tracks using John Lennon’s original demos. They shows footage of them in the studio too.
5) Production Team
This is a 13-minute feature about the making of the Anthology. It all started in 1971 when Neil Aspinall collected all the Beatles footage he could find from around the world.
6) Making the “Free As A Bird” Video
This is an 11-minute feature on the making of the video.
7) “Real Love” Video
It’s the video for the song, remixed in DTS 5.1. You know, the only thing that pissed me off about the old VHS version was that the Real Love video wasn't on there.
B) Audio/Visual
The audio and visual are simply amazing compared to the old VHS tapes. Of course, the older archive footage will be grainier and not sound as well as the stuff recorded at Abbey Road but it is a huge step up from the VHS. The newly remixed and remastered songs are something else to behold. It really gives a new lease on life to a lot of these songs and they sound just impeccable. You can choose the audio from either DTS 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or LPCM Stereo.
C) Liner Notes
Discs 1-4 contain 4 page liner notes that have the cover on the front, the chapter listings on the back and the Derek Taylor penned summaries of each episode on the inside. Disc 5 has the full montage cover (discs 1-4 only had parts of it) and another montage of photos on the inside two pages. The last page has the extras.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
You don’t need my recommendation to get this. Any Beatles fan MUST see this DVD. It’s the perfect look back on their careers from the people who were there. The Beatle in their own words. The music has never sounded better either. You have to hear how beautiful the songs sound on here. It’s like I’m hearing them for the first time, that’s how good they are. This is an absolute must buy for any Beatles fan, or for anyone who wants to know what all the fuss is about.
Overall Rating
10.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
|
