The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016)
The Beatles stormed through Europe's music scene in 1963, and, in 1964, they conquered America. Their groundbreaking world tours changed global youth culture forever and, arguably, invented mass entertainment as we know it today. All the while, the group were composing and recording a series of extraordinarily successful singles and albums. However the relentless pressure of such unprecedented fame, that in 1966 became uncontrollable turmoil, led to the decision to stop touring. In the ensuing years The Beatles were then free to focus on a series of albums that changed the face of recorded music.
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The Beatles went from garage band (before garage bands existed) to the world's biggest act, and invented stadium concerts while doing so. But were they any good as a live act?Ron Howard's documentary cobbles together excerpts from most of the surviving sources of live Beatles performances and, accordingly, doesn't contain many surprises for anyone who has followed their story in any great detail. But for younger viewers, who may well be familiar with the music but not necessarily with the hysteria which surrounded it, this film is likely to be something of an eye-opener.In the early stages, as it becomes clear that The Beatles are gaining a following beyond their local fans in Liverpool, they are delighted. When they go to America to be greeted with screaming hysteria on a vast scale, they are pleased, but shell-shocked. And when, less than 4 years later, they finally stop performing to live audiences, they clearly hate the whole thing. This film shows that transition happening.But even now, and even to someone who knows the story inside out, there is something jaw-dropping about the spectacle of seeing the four of them step on stage in front of 56,000 young girls who are delivering sound beyond the volume of a jet engine.The cinema was full. This was personal history for much of the audience, fascinating documentary material for the younger members. The sound and images have been remastered, though much of it still reflects the limitations of 405-line TV and standard 8 home movies etc.The music still works, though, yeah. Yeah yeah.
This is director Ron Howard's ode to the celebrated band The Beatles in formative years centering on the group's touring years circa 1963-1966. Newly restored footage and sound collected from over 200 concerts and locations to become pieces of musical/Beatles history. Plenty of interview snippets bringing some context to their place in time.Most of the songs imaginable are there in locations like Liverpool, Hamburg, the Netherlands, the Phillipines , Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Hollywood Bowl, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hullabaloo TV show, Ready, Set, Go TV Show, Shea Stadium and Candlestick Park.Interviews, some by archive footage, help paint a picture of the Fab Four. We hear from the group itself, plus the individuals and other notables like Ed Sullivan, George Martin, Brian Epstein, Muhammed Ali, Neil Aspinall, Sigourney Weaver, Larry King, Richard Lester, Whoopi Goldberg, Harold James and Eddie Izzard.Even the non-Beatles fan can find this documentary amazing!
This does have some interesting elements to it but in the main I didn't really see or hear anything new.Of course it is always great seeing the Beatles perform in their hey day but even the clips chosen were not necessarily the best they could have used. I would have preferred to have seen better and longer clips of them playing instead of concentrating on the screaming stadium concerts which I am sure even the Beatles would admit were not their best.Some of the 'guest stars' chosen were bizarre. I couldn't care less what a second rate comedian such as Eddie Izzard thinks.I like Ron Howard and think he is usually a good director but this is not his finest moment.
...and in some ways, they still are.This is a group that played their last live (paying) show over 50 years ago, and they get still get a documentary movie made about their formative years which is released in theaters in 2016 and does respectable business.I was all of seven years old when they quit touring, and don't remember it happening in real time. So even though I've seen a bunch of these clips "snippeted" in the last half-century of my life, many of the behind the scenes day-to-day nuggets were all new, and well worth a viewing.To see the fan-love of the tours (U.S. and around the world) is still pretty unbelievable to look at. It was a different era, so instead of online mass adoration, EVERYBODY (REALLY, EVERYBODY!) JUST WENT OUT & SHOWED UP TO CATCH ANY KIND OF GLIMPSE THEY COULD GET OF THEM!This phenomenon probably wouldn't still be looked at with this much reverence today if the music doesn't stand the test of time. BUT IT DOES.If you like the sixties, or love the Beatles, you gotta' see this one.