Magical Mystery Tour (1976)

The most surreal gags from 'A Hard Day's Night' do not even compare to the least surreal gags from 'Magical Mystery Tour', one of The Beatles's "quodrilogy" of films (including 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Help!', this, and 'Yellow Submarine'), and certainly their least talked about or appreciated movie. It makes sense as to why this is the case, as this is so silly and borderline incoherent a movie that I doubt few would really be into it. The soundtrack is obviously fantastic and would probably appeal to a vast majority of mainstream moviegoers but it's still some of the strangest stuff The Beatles have performed ('I Am the Walrus' is an iconic classic for many reasons, two of the main reasons being its heavy surrealism and strange sense of humor), and when paired w/THIS kind of movie is definitely fitting, but totally disorienting to the average person. I personally cannot get enough of bizarre, nearly plotless experimental cinema as long as it keeps me entertained and, despite a tiny handful of scenes here and there that I felt were a tad bit too long, 'Magical Mystery Tour' most certainly had me very entertained for its short running time of not even a full hour. It's amusing and ridiculous and hilarious and has some of my favorite songs scattered throughout, it devolves into further chaos by the second and it feels simultaneously silly and brilliant. Also, the 'Blue Jay Way' sequence is legitimately one of the greatest music "videos" I have ever seen, perhaps it's even THE greatest (although it does have quite a bit of competition, considering the existence of Chris Cunningham). The psychedelic style of the film is at its peak in that sequence and the trippy, otherworldly visuals match the song w/such perfection it would be a disservice for me to attempt to put it into further words.

My experience of Magical Mystery Tour dates from the first black and white showing on BBC TV. Earlier in the year an experimental telecast was broadcast called "One World"on the Beeb. Countries from around the globe submitted a short feature. It was monumentally boring. I remember something about pine forests from one place! But the BBC item corrected all that. Their contribution was the Beatles giving "All you Need is Love" its first airing. It totally eclipsed all the other offerings on view. Maybe as a favour to the Beatles for giving them this "feather in their cap" the Beeb decided to commission MMT for a Christmas time showing. The commissioning officer has gone on record to say how pleased he was with the Beatles offering. It was family friendly, had great songs,no swearing, and the viewing figures were astronomical. I must admit that seeing it in black and white was perhaps not the best introduction to this movie. "Flying" should have been retitled "50 shades of grey" for grainy monochrome but, hey, it was whole slew of great new songs from my favourite pop band.I was a complete Sgt Pepper freak. Sure it was uneven but when it was good,it was very,very good. Forward some years later and I experienced a Liverpool Magical Mystery Tour of my own. It was during a festival of comedy and we took a boat from the Liverpool landing stage, Frank Sidebottom was "piloting"-he of the polystyrene head fame-(see new film "Frank" for further details)and various eccentric characters were wandering around on the upper deck. Once we arrived at our destination we were whisked off ion a similar coach to that seen in Magical Mystery and ended up in New Brighton Funfair situated on the far bank of the River Mersey. There amidst the sideshows and nets hung up with multicoloured baubles we discovered the "mystery". We were being treated to a set by Liverpool band "The Farm" who were riding high with their hit "All Together Now". Had this been filmed the resulting documentary would have been very similar to that of Magical Mystery Tour.At the time the format of the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was as weird as the film itself. (UK only) It was on two singles encased in a full coloured booklet outlining the story. The two discs played at 33 rpm instead of the usual 45 rpm. In this way, they managed to fit the entire song selection on two discs. To this day it remains a firm favourite. I must have played these discs a hundred times in all innocence until on one play the ending of the introductory song hammered home. It said "DYING TO TAKE YOU AWAY. TAKE YOU TODAY". To me it seemed so slyly inserted into the mix that I felt that I was onto something. The bus tour was actually a metaphor for the soul passing over and was somehow linked into George's Eastern mysticism on "Blue Jay Way".Thanks Steve Nyland for your review reminding me of this "revelation". Of course it is easy to put a false construct on Beatles output, but it does seem as if the passengers pass through circles of hell full of screaming army officers,baying vicars and sinister policemen not to mention that demonic waiter before they reach their destination. The Beatles descend a (heavenly?)staircase and Paul sings "Your Mother Should Know". An elderly relative of mine heard me playing this song and exclaimed "It sounds so sad". I explained Paul's mother had died. Much has been made of John's song "Julia" on the White album but here is Paul singing a jollier version of a Mother song on a previous album. Everyone seems to be happy and having a really good time, Is this where our souls are going to end up? The Beatles are well known for pioneering the music video. At the time people were used to and were expecting a linear story line and were not as "hip" to music video films. Today with our more sophisticated viewing of videos and MTV it just seems like a great long form music video that includes all the latest batch of new songs from the Fab Four way back then. Taken in this context, you will probably enjoy the film. Just a few thoughts to concur with your review,Steve.. Thanks Steve in New York. Greetings from Steve in Liverpool an Oldie Beatles Fan

Wasn't sure what to make of it at first. I was rather expecting a movie with a solid plot based on my viewing of "Help." What I got was a psychedelic, surreal hour of what, if you just sat back and relaxed, was a quite nice 'what the hell, let's just get drunk/high and have some f***ing fun!" movie. A bus full of people enjoying themselves immensely, going on silly excursions though the countryside, ranging from relay races to Nascar-like road chases to an evening band (Spoiler/warning: evening band contains stripper, not for kid viewing), and wrapping up with a formal "Your Mother Should Know." Once you peel back and stop letting yourself get confused with the bizarreness of the movie, you find yourself smiling and feel like you're having a good time along with the characters. The movie does include various Beatles songs ("Fool on the Hill," "I Am the Walrus", among others). So don't feel like you've been let down, just open your mind, prepare for silliness and fun, and this movie can be a good experience.

Look, I'll admit it. I hate Paul MaCartney, and even the Beatles stuff he did is now unlistenable to me because I hear his now florid narcissism in the whole of the Beatles catalogue in which he was involved. This is the man who wrote 'When I'm Sixty-Four' when he was fifteen. Rock'n'Roll! And Magical Mystery Tour is Paul's baby.While it's the nearest we'll get to seeing the late 60's Beatles performing live, and there are occasional glimpses of the sheer likability of John, George and Ringo which they all managed to share in 'Help' and 'Hard Day's Night', it's quite evident from MMT that Paul's self-regard was now becoming out of control.So if you're a MaCartney fan, you'll love MMT as much Paul loves himself: if you're a Beatles fan, it'll give you the frisson of seeing how the Fab Four fitted so well into the British media scene of the 60's, and how their money made possible a lot of artistic self-indulgence. If you've never really been that convinced that the Beatles were as good as EMI or MPL Communications' press offices might have you believe, you'll see MMT for what it was: a big budget being thrown at a few small ideas.