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The Main Characters
--The Beatles are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are musicians who changed the world.
The Setting
New York City on February 7th, 1964 and the rest of the US.
The Film (1:21:16)
The Beatles landed in America on February 7th, 1964 and the world was never the same. The Beatles whirlwind started to blow as soon as the plane set down and this video captures some of the madness the Beatles went through. There were press conferences, long rides in cars and hotel stays. They would perform on the Ed Sullivan Show (on February 9th) and they actually showed the following performances: All My Loving, Till There Was You and She Loves You. From there it was off to Washington DC’s The Peppermint Lounge with another set of performances: I Saw Her Standing There, I Wanna Be Your Man and She Loves You. Then it was back on the train to head to Miami for the filming of another Ed Sullivan show. More performances follow: From Me To You, This Boy and All My Loving. From there it’s one final appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show from New York with more performances: Twist and Shout, Please Please Me and I Want To Hold Your Hand. The Beatles then headed back home to the UK, the US and the world forever changed due to Beatlemania, and that was only the beginning.
Movie Review
This was a rather short documentary clocking in at under 80 minutes but it is well worth it. Some of the footage has been shown elsewhere (like the Anthology series) but the magic of this feature is that it deals only with those hectic few weeks the Beatles were first in the US. They basically went from a train to a car to a train to another car to their hotel rooms. You can see the hysteria surrounding the Beatles and the four of them basically coping with it together. They were really close then and you can see some nice moments of just the four of them relaxing. One of the best attractions here are the complete performances by the Beatles. Nothing was trimmed down and you get 12 complete numbers. The lack of a narrator was jarring at first but this really was a documentary of just the Beatles and what they went through in the formative years of Beatlemania. This is a perfect addendum to the Beatles Anthology, filling out perfectly what was touched on in that collection. Recommended for any Beatles fan and anyone wanting to see what all the fuss was about in February 1964.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) The Making of the First U.S. Visit (51:09)
Albert talks about some of the footage and we start with some clips of young girls talking about the Beatles. He says that while they were editing this they would rather focus on the Beatles in their hotel room than the fans. This is basically another 50 minutes of great archival footage, with some parts narrated by Albert. Awesome.
2) Audio Commentary
This commentary is done by Albert Maysles, the cameraman who was with the Beatles in 1964 and shot most of this footage. He recalls the BBC calling him to ask about making a film about the Beatles, who he never heard of. He recalls being with the Beatles and recounts his experiences filming them. He doesn’t talk during the songs, which takes up quite a bit of time after the first 20 minutes so there are long bouts of silence, but that’s cool. You gotta respect the music and not talk over it! I enjoyed the commentary as its someone not really associated with Beatles but he was there from the beginning and it’s nice to hear his perspective on the mania.
B) Audio/Video
This is fullscreen (4:3) format and is heard in mono. The video is from a handheld camera and recorded in 1964 and for all intents and purposes was pretty good. It’s not like what you’d see today, of course, but is basically clean and holds up well after 40-plus years. The mono is expected since, as stated before, this was from a 1964 hand-held camera. It stands up well, though.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
There is a nice 16-page booklet with a short one-page essay. The rest of the booklet features quotes from the boys as well as pictures of their first US visit. The quotes were from the Anthology I think and the one-page essay written by Albert Maysles was pretty good.
D) Easter Eggs
None.
Overall Review
It’s only a little over 200 minutes of content (the feature, the commentary and the making of) but it’s all solid gold. I can’t get enough of the Beatles so this is a winner for me. More casual fans should go to the Anthology first or even Hard Days Night for early Beatles but this film really gave Lester the framework of how to record the Beatles first movie and for a snapshot at those crazy first days of US Beatlemania, this is the DVD you’d want. Highly recommended for true Beatles fans, but more casual fans should check out the Anthology and Hard Days Night before seeing this.
Overall Rating
9.0
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
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