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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What a beautiful movie!
Fantastic!
Blistering performances.
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
This is an interesting documentary, but it doesn't tell anything that the devoted doesn't already know. Somehow, the movie also seems to take for granted that the audience knows who The Beatles are and how big their impact was on popular music and society in general, as if this is something everyone already should know about.I would actually recommend "Living in the Material World" (the documentary about The Beatles' lead guitarist George Harrison) rather than "Eight Days a Week". "Living..." not only gives a much better background to who The Beatles are and where they came from, but it also digs deeper and gives the viewer a better understanding of their incredible impact in so many areas. It's also much longer, but the first half of it (which covers his time in The Beatles) is better than this whole film.The best thing about "Eight Days a Week" is not the film itself, but the fact that the live album "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" finally got remastered and re-released. The film is also decent, but there are better documentaries out there.
Reporter: "What place do you think this story of The Beatles is going to have in the history of Western culture?"Paul McCartney: "You must be kidding with that question it's not culture, it's a good laugh!"When you think of truly iconic musicians, who springs to mind? The likes of Mozart, Beethoven, Elvis and of course The Beatles. And now nearly 50 years after they stopped touring, actor and director Ron Howard has produced a documentary entitled The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years; which looks at the touring years of the band between 1962 – 1966.The Beatles are undoubtedly the most successful group in music history. These four lads from Liverpool – John, Paul, George and Ringo – are estimated to have sold around 600 million albums worldwide since their formation in 1960. They continued to dominate the charts in the UK and overseas, until they split in 1970.In the Music world, these four English lads from The Old Smoke are regarded as the pioneers of the so-called (in America) British- Invasion or the inevitable global industry domination.And Eight Days A Week brings us the story of The Beatles during their touring years of 1962 until 1966. Directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code), this documentary provides a mixture of interviews, footage, photos and recordings of The Beatles, as they worked their way from small venues in the north of England, to becoming four of the most recognisable faces of the 1960s. Along this journey, we see how their manager Brian Epstein created their image, the recording process of the Fab Four, and the changes in their musical style as we move through the 1960s.A milestone in the music industry came when The Beatles played to a crowd of almost 56,000 fans in August 1965, at the Shea Stadium in New York. No other artist had attempted to play to this capacity, and their music was spread around the stadium via the Tannoy system. Footage of this and other concerts can be seen in the documentary, including the overwhelming reaction of the band as they are faced with the screams of their audience. It is interesting to note that two future Beatle wives were in the audience at Shea Stadium; Linda Eastman (wife of Paul) and Barbara Bach (wife of Ringo).Interviews with the two remaining Beatles, Paul and Ringo, and former interviews with John and George are in short supply. Eight Days A Week is mostly images and footage, with voice-overs in place. Those hoping to learn about the childhoods, marriages or personal lives of the Fab Four will be disappointed. Additionally, there is no mention of the breakup of The Beatles in this documentary; its entire focus is almost all on the touring years. However, there is plenty of behind the scenes footage of the band and those around them during the early 60s, as we hear how being a Beatle came with both ups and downs. We also see the relationship the Fab Four had with each other during this period of great success.Any hardcore Beatle fans will not learn anything new from this documentary, but it is still a fascinating glimpse into the early years of a band who have certainly left their mark on Western culture.
If there weren't already more exhaustive and authoritative takes on the Beatles, I'd give this a higher score.Also, if you really dig the Beatles's story, this flick puts a bad taste in your mouth in the first five minutes. Howard thinks he can do his actuality voodoo to graft Ringo properly onto the Beatles in Hamburg. He made the calculation that fans would shrug that off as artistic license... but it does reek a bit. He didn't even have to mention Stu and Pete by name: All he really would have needed to do is mention that Ringo joined on pretty quickly when the new demands of studio recording, back in England, necessitated a more professional percussionist. That's a great part of the story, an homage to Ringo, not onerous to bear, and certainly a weird thing to jettison in the interests of squeezing the matter into the 100min runtime.Now, I'd direct you to the Beatles Anthology, which covers their career exhaustively, authoritatively, and in greater detail and is a trove of key audio and video.That said, I was a bit astonished at some of the really cool and unique bits Howard got his mitts on that I hadn't seen before. And I have to admit that, after the above-mentioned hamfisted edit, Howard makes some fine compositional choices for his finished product. He targeted a particular segment of the pageant which was the Beatles, and made a decent go of it. Gotta hand it to ol' Opie.
Kudos to Ron Howard, Giles Martin and the rest who brought this brilliant and fascinating documentary to life. Nothing earth changing here, just a wonderful look at the greatest band ever, who were world changing, during the days that they toured. As one watches this, look at the primitive state in which they performed, yet perform they did. Starting with Hamburg, they worked hard - were not overnight sensations - to become the band they were. I liken these four getting together to the signers of the Declaration of Independence or the signing of the Magna Carta. The Beatles were brilliant - an no one will ever challenge them. Ever. Just a great, enjoyable documentary that I hope will win a BAFTA and an Academy Award.