Beginner’s Guide to Beatles Films | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Welcome, @Jane_Lane.

I have to disagree with Holey as I find Help ! the least satisfying of their four cinema outings, with the group spending much of their time filming stoned out of their gourds and later commenting that they felt like extras in their own film.

A Hard Day’s Night  follows the adventures of the group as they journey from Liverpool to appear on a television show in London, allowing songs to be fitted in in a more naturalistic way (rehearsing for the TV show, the concert) rather than just breaking into song in the most odd situations (which, myself, I think of as “shoe-horning” the songs into the film). There was a reason it was referred to as the “Citizen Kane of jukebox movies” and it set a new benchmark for what a film starring a “pop” act could be. Easily the best of their films, in my opinion, and the most culturally influential, it offers a glimpse of Beatlemania from the inside in an almost Cinéma vérité-style.

Help ! is, basically, a chase movie as Ringo is sent a ring by a fan who’s also a member of an Eastern religious cult which marks those to be sacrificed with the ring. This makes Ringo a target for the cult, and leads to a chase around the world as they try to avoid Ringo becoming the sacrifice. While hugely entertaining, in my opinion, it is one of the few occasions where they follow the industry standard instead of pushing the boundaries, as they did with AHDN , making it a shallower movie.

Yellow Submarine  was something they agreed to reluctantly, fearing it would be like the US The Beatles TV cartoon series they hated as some of the same people were involved, but believing it would fulfil their three-film contract with United Artists. Unknown to them until later, it didn’t, but they got more behind the film as they saw it would be very different to the US TV series, even agreeing to a live cameo at the end of the film. One of the most important and influential animation films of 1960’s, it broke the Disney mould that dominated, and was a great film to boot.

Let It Be  started out as a TV project – them rehearsing for their first live show in years to be shown alongside the concert. The concert, as originally envisioned, never happened, with them only making it as far as the roof, and the project switched from TV to cinema in order to fulfil their UA three-film contract. Long unavailable, it is a far better film than most expect based on its reputation. Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies) is currently in the process of making a new film from the footage which is expected in time for the 50th anniversary of the original film’s release next year, with the original film also being re-released in some way.

Magical Mystery Tour , their 1967 Christmas TV special, was a bit of a car crash, though still innovative, influential and pushing boundaries, its lack of proper storyline and structure can make it an infuriating and confusing watch, but still worthwhile.

If interested, I’ll go on to comment on some of the post-Beatles official film projects alongside the more interesting and important unofficial films based in the Beatles world.