Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Leofwine_draca
Although I do like a lot of their songs, I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of The Beatles. I tend to like other contemporary artists better and in some cases I prefer the careers that McCartney and Lennon had after the group split. Therefore I wasn't particularly fussed about watching this drama-documentary-comedy-musical that follows the fab four around at the height of their fame. It's short in black and white with an on-street vibe by Musketeers director Richard Lester, but what comes across to me is just how unpleasant the group members are. They make constant wisecracks and jokes, but a lot of them seem to be sarcastic and mean-spirited, which I didn't find appealing at all. The songs are great and break up the rest of the tedium, and casting proper actors like Wilfrid Brambell in support was a great idea, but the rest is merely inconsequential - unless you're a fan who can't get enough of them.
charlesem
I am the same age as Ringo Starr and was born only a little over a week before John Lennon, so I watch A Hard Day's Night with more than ordinary nostalgia, the kind that might make me say with Wordsworth, "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!" except that I'd be lying. Still, if there was bliss to be had in that post-Kennedy-assassination, Goldwater- haunted, Cold War summer of '64, it was to be found in watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo larking about at the movies. It was a breath of optimism, a statement that youth could conquer the world. It didn't quite turn out that way, but it didn't for Wordsworth either: He was talking about the French Revolution, which proved not to be so heavenly. This is, of course, one of the great film musicals, packed with engaging songs. They may be more lightweight than the Beatles' later oeuvre, lifting the heart rather than stirring the imagination, but they're impossible to resist. It also slyly, cheekily makes its point about the generation the Beatles are trying to leave behind: the ineptly bullying managers (Norman Rossington and John Junkin), the fussy TV director (Victor Spinetti), the marketing executive (Kenneth Haigh) sure that he has a handle on What the Kids Want, the Blimpish man on the train (Richard Vernon) who tells Ringo, "I fought the war for your sort." Ringo's reply: "I bet you're sorry you won." Celebrity is closing in on them, epitomized by the wonderfully elliptical dialogue in John's encounter with a woman (Anna Quayle) who is sure that she recognizes him but then puts on her glasses and proclaims, "You don't look like him at all." John mutters, "She looks more like him than I do." Alun Owen's screenplay, written after hanging out with the Beatles, absorbing and borrowing their own jokes, was one of the two Oscar nominations the film received, along with George Martin's scoring. None of the songs, of course, were nominated. Neither were Richard Lester's direction, Gilbert Taylor's cinematography, or John Jympson's editing, all of which kept the film buoyant and fleet. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)
TxMike
I watched this on the HULU channel via my ROKU stick. Great fun to see the Beatles in their very early days.I was a teenager in 1963 to 1965, the years when the Beatles made their big splash here in the States. I remember their splash very well although I never became a big fan. Their music is pleasant with nice harmonies but nothing I ever got excited over. This was likely filmed in 1963, or maybe very early 1964, when Lennon was maybe 22, McCartney was maybe 21, Harrison was maybe 20, and Starr was maybe 23. When you see them in this movie they look quite young indeed and they act like kids. It is very refreshing to see them before they were as big as they ultimately became.They are all from Liverpool and, except for Lennon, from Merseyside. I recall back then hearing "Ferry Cross the Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers and I had no idea what it was about. Now I know it is about the River Mersey, the lifeblood of Liverpool. In a similar manner Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever", my personal favorite Beatles recording, was inspired by Lennon's memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home near where he grew up in Liverpool. Point being as a kid growing up in the States I heard the lyrics but had no idea what their connections were, later in life and with great use of Google searches I know a lot more!This little movie is a contrived, humorous story about their journey by train from Liverpool to London for a recording session and a performance. There are lots of hijinks but magically everyone arrives just in the nick of time. Nice little movie to understand how much fun these kids were able to have on the cusp of turning into an international sensation.The Beatles are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Hitchcoc
I was a male teenager in the 1960's. To me and my friends, the Beatles and the British invasion was so important. We were normal kids with all kinds of other things going on, but whenever a new album came out we were there. There was so little footage of the guys because other than the news when they came to a new city, it was non-existent. Videotape was minimal. There was some film of their concerts but the screaming drowned out most of the music. When "A Hard Day's Night" came along it was gift. We had the "Ed Sullivan Show" and that was it, so to see all those songs being performed and hearing them talk and act. Fantastic. I couldn't afford to go to the one concert at the old Metropolitan Stadium (home of the Twins in Bloomington, MN) because we were a very poor family, but my friends told me they were unable to hear anyway. Still, it would have been a great experience. The wonderful thing about this film is that it is funny and intelligent and works so well. It is about the Beatles as it should be, and yet there is a surreal element that is so precious. So much has been written about Richard Lester and what he did, but he deserves it. A film that changed the world when it came to taking pop music to another level.