Ron Howard's Beatles Documentary Feature Film About The Band's Touring Years, "Eight Days a Week"*

It got tedious hearing about the tedium.

 

the bonus features were better than the movie if that's saying much...

 

not enough Pete Best...HAAH!

 

Early on in the film was a shot of 45s being played on a pair of Garrard 4HF turntables..... anyone know where that was?

 

I just rewatched Eight Days a Week and finally got around to watching Disc 2 of all the extras. A few thoughts:

1. I saw this in a theater when it was first released, which was quite a thrill. This is probably the 4th time I've watched it and I think it holds up well under rewatching. It does a great job of giving you a palpable sense of the bubble they lived in -- the initial euphoria of it, followed by the claustrophobia of it. And it plausibly explains how that bubble brought the four of them together as a tight unit and ultimately led them to make the musical leaps that led to Revolver and Pepper and the rest.
2. At the same time, much like their first movie, A Hard Days Night, this doc also does a great job of establishing their four distinct personalities, yet makes clear they were all far more complicated than their image. The "cute one" is outspoken about segregation, the "smart one" is goofy at times, the "quiet one" is not afraid to tap cigarette ashes on "the leader's" head, and Ringo isn't just "the drummer" but the glue that holds the band together.
3. I enjoyed Ronnie Spector's bit in the extras but her interview wasn't as powerful as Whoopi's or Kitty Oliver's in telling the touring story, so I can see why they left it out of the doc. Instead of the "I-took-them-to-a-Harlem-restaurant-to-get-away-from-fans" story, I wish Ronnie had been asked to talk about the Beatles' interest in -- and mimicking of -- girl groups. I would have liked to see that explored more in the doc as it must have been very unusual at the time for a male band to be covering so many girl groups and imitating girl-group harmonies. I kind of love that they were such fanboys of girl groups. I also really enjoyed the then-and-now interviews on Disc 2 with the 3 women who were at Beatles concerts. Seeing the photos of them at the shows, and then hearing them talk about the experience was terrific. Again, I felt like this could have been included in the doc as a way to talk more about how it was teenaged girls who got the rest of the world to sit up and take notice of the Beatles. There was a good interview in the extras with a guy who said the band's humor gave boys a way into appreciating the band, too. But I'd have preferred they interview female scholars and music critics about this, and not just men. Too many of the "experts" on the doc were men.
4. On the concert footage, when John was singing lead on Twist and Shout and other songs, I noticed how Paul often would be standing back from the mic singing the words, too. I thought it was just Paul but then, on the extras, I saw concert footage of them doing Can't Buy Me Love, and there was John, standing back from mic and singing along with Paul. Just interesting what a mirror they were for each other in ways large and small.
5. It was hilarious to see the subtitles added for Allan Williams' interview (and not for other interviews with Liverpudlians). What a great accent he had. But I definitely wouldn't have understand half of what he was saying without the subtitles.
6. I would have loved a third disc of special features, with more interviews and extended featurettes on central second-tier figures of the 62-66 years -- like Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Brian Epstein, George Martin, and the Beatles' wives/girlfriends in this early period.

 

The last episode of the film, just after Sgt Pepper, must have been the Our World TV Transmission. 500 million people watched the Beatles playing live.

 

Finally watched this film last night on Hulu. Didn't bother watching it for a long time because I'd heard such mixed reviews about it.

The good: It did a great job, perhaps better than any other Beatles documentary, giving you a palpable idea of just how claustrophobic and scary it must have been to be at the center of that storm. It also hit me that I'd never appreciated before just how much Beatlemania was a phenomenon that has never been repeated. Singularly enormous and overwhelming, and something that likely could never happen again in today's highly segmented media.

The bad: In many ways fairly cursory and superficial. Paul's interview is great, and he's more candid than usual, so kudos there. But overall the documentary feels incredibly lightweight as a documentary. And there's not even that much concert footage in the film itself to make up for the lightweight storytelling.

The ugly: I absolutely hate the colorized footage in this thing. It looks terrible. Were they phobic about the black and white concert footage for some reason? It looks obviously painted and silly. What a dumb choice.

 

The bonus DVD on the 2 disc set is really good. One of the better docs on the Beatles.

 

.........oh boy

 

Constructive comment here.

 

My review contains only my opinions. I don't see why it should be the cause of any foreboding! I for one won't be getting into any pointless arguments. Ha!

 

Well said!

 

I realize that. I was much harder on it than that. I hated the movie and consider it a major wasted opportunity.

 

Oh man......

 

Ha Ha

 

It isn't a movie to shine new light on dark corners for the diehards (like me) who own and have read shelves full of Beatles books (like I have). You can't do that in 90 minutes, and you're not going to have significant commercial success with something like that. It's more superficial than Anthology, and more superficial by orders of magnitude than something like Lewisohn's oeuvre. It doesn't always have to be about us. I think the movie was designed for the lower-level fans, and to pique the interest of new (or potential) fans. To that end, I think it does its job. I would have made a different movie, but they didn't ask me.

 

I totally agree on the colorized footage. I like the film on the terms that it gives a good, basic (okay, "comprehensive") overview on the touring years. Could it have been much more than it was? No question. I also didn't like the audio overdubs in some instances (including, I'm almost positive, the performance of All My Loving on Sullivan). But for what it is, it's well done.

 

I'm still p*ssed at the cd cover. I do like the remix/remaster. But when will we get both concerts in their entirety ? !

 

The film itself does nothing for a fan. I have a hard time believing it does anything for a non fan.

 

There is no depth to it. All rehashed crap from before.

 

Sure it does. It’s a decent (not mind blowing but more than adequate) primer of The Beatles thing for a non obsessive. It’s not so interesting to us fans cos we’ve already experienced the same story told more in-depth another 10/20/50 times. But if the story is largely new to you it does the job.

 

I disagree -- from the standpoint of someone (my son) who was born in 2008, for which this is all ancient history.

 

(repeating the point of my post immediately above) Rehashed for us older folks.

 

it was everything i hoped it would not be