by Flack » Wed Dec 04, 2024 10:27 pm
I grew up listening to the Beatles, thanks to my parents. I can't remember a single childhood road trip that we didn't listen to Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper at least once. At some point it became cool to to hate on them, but I never fell into that. While they're not in my list of "favorite" bands, they're definitely at the top of my "most respected" ones. I can't remember a single road trip as an adult that we didn't listen to Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper at least once, this time with my own children in the backseat.
The 2024 Disney+ documentary Beatles '64 focuses on the band's first trip to America, a two-week trip in which the band performed multiple times. The most well documented of these performances is their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show; and perhaps because that event has been so well covered, this documentary focuses on everything else that happened during those two weeks -- and specifically, those two weeks only. The documentary begins with the band headed to America in February of 1964, and ends with their return two weeks later. Anything that happened before or after that trip is out of scope.
There are multiple problems with this documentary, but the biggest one is that it's not Let It Be, the 2023 Disney+ documentary that featured AI-restored video and sound and captured the band's final recording sessions. Let It Be may be one of the greatest documentaries ever made; I got chills watching Paul McCartney noodle around on a guitar for a few minutes until "Get Back" finally popped out. The restored audio and video make it seem like the documentary could have been filmed yesterday. Beatles '64 is the opposite of that documentary in almost every way. All of the historical footage was shot on handheld cameras and is presented here in its original black and white, 4:3 format. Lots of times, when the band is killing time in a hotel room or riding on an airplane, it's difficult to make out what they are saying.
More disappointing than the quality of the footage is that there's no great moment. The film is split between young 20-year-olds from Liverpool goofing around, and people really, really peripherally involved with the Beatles giving their opinion on music. The most famous people to participate are Smokey Robinson and Ronnie Spector; more often it's "rando photographer" or "girl who was screaming in the front row." It all sounds more interesting than it is. One woman who is just described as a superfan describes how even to this day when she is in a supermarket and hears a Musak version of a Beatles song she has to stop in her tracks until it's over. No word on what happens if she happens to be driving and one of their songs comes on the radio.
I'm not mad I watched Beatles '64, but where Let It Be felt like we were watching history being made, Beatles '64 feels like discovered home movies.
I grew up listening to the Beatles, thanks to my parents. I can't remember a single childhood road trip that we didn't listen to [i]Abbey Road[/i] or [i]Sgt. Pepper[/i] at least once. At some point it became cool to to hate on them, but I never fell into that. While they're not in my list of "favorite" bands, they're definitely at the top of my "most respected" ones. I can't remember a single road trip as an adult that we didn't listen to [i]Abbey Road[/i] or [i]Sgt. Pepper[/i] at least once, this time with my own children in the backseat.
The 2024 Disney+ documentary [i]Beatles '64[/i] focuses on the band's first trip to America, a two-week trip in which the band performed multiple times. The most well documented of these performances is their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show; and perhaps because that event has been so well covered, this documentary focuses on everything else that happened during those two weeks -- and specifically, those two weeks only. The documentary begins with the band headed to America in February of 1964, and ends with their return two weeks later. Anything that happened before or after that trip is out of scope.
There are multiple problems with this documentary, but the biggest one is that it's not [i]Let It Be[/i], the 2023 Disney+ documentary that featured AI-restored video and sound and captured the band's final recording sessions. [i]Let It Be[/i] may be one of the greatest documentaries ever made; I got chills watching Paul McCartney noodle around on a guitar for a few minutes until "Get Back" finally popped out. The restored audio and video make it seem like the documentary could have been filmed yesterday. [i]Beatles '64[/i] is the opposite of that documentary in almost every way. All of the historical footage was shot on handheld cameras and is presented here in its original black and white, 4:3 format. Lots of times, when the band is killing time in a hotel room or riding on an airplane, it's difficult to make out what they are saying.
More disappointing than the quality of the footage is that there's no great moment. The film is split between young 20-year-olds from Liverpool goofing around, and people really, really peripherally involved with the Beatles giving their opinion on music. The most famous people to participate are Smokey Robinson and Ronnie Spector; more often it's "rando photographer" or "girl who was screaming in the front row." It all sounds more interesting than it is. One woman who is just described as a superfan describes how even to this day when she is in a supermarket and hears a Musak version of a Beatles song she has to stop in her tracks until it's over. No word on what happens if she happens to be driving and one of their songs comes on the radio.
I'm not mad I watched [i]Beatles '64[/i], but where [i]Let It Be[/i] felt like we were watching history being made, [i]Beatles '64[/i] feels like discovered home movies.