Hard Day's Night

Lately, I have been making my way through the Beatles' catalog with the help of the CD player in my brand new Subaru Outback. As I listen to these songs again (which never, ever grow old), I was reminded of this film, and it's place in my love of movies.

It might be that there would have been no "Monty Python" without this film. This movie has a sense of humor all its own, complete with the irony and surrealism that would eventually be front and center in the comedy of Monty Python. However, here there is very little iconoclasm. Instead, the spirit of the Beatles' early years is captured, almost as though it were a time capsule. We see the joy of the four of them in their early years. We see the distinct personalities of the Beatles (or at least, the images they wanted to portray). Also, for better or worse, we see in this film some very early music videos. The surrealism of "I Should Have Known Better" is a great example of an early music video. The four Beatles are playing cards in a train car, and voila, suddenly they are all playing instruments! Ringo's drums suddenly appear, the guitars pop out of thin air, and John sings the wonderfully vulnerable lyrics of this song.

The plot of the film is somewhat inconsequential. The four Beatles are suffering the slings and arrows of constant touring. Their unity is threatened by the presence of Paul's grandfather, who is a conniving "clean old man" who seeks to disrupt the unity of the group for no good reason.

All of the hijinks and separate paths the Beatles take culminate in the TV appearance at the end of the film. When I was young, I remember my dad instructing me to look at the girls in the TV audience and notice that all of them are calling out the name of their favorite Beatle. When one watches this film, one looks back beyond the brilliance and angst of the Beatles' later years and sees the freshness of the Beatles as they were first known.

As a movie, three things set this movie apart. First, the movie is filled with so much energy and creativity that the viewer simply cannot look away. This is really a tribute to the wonderful screenplay. The script gives the Beatles wonderful dialogue and situations in which to act. The film feels like a string of sketches which are brought together to form a story. Second, the acting is very good. True, the Beatles are playing themselves, but they are still able to deliver the dialogue and make the situations funny through timing and reactions. If one adds to this the great support they receive from the character actors in the movie, one has a show of greta acting in the film. Finally, the movie has great music. All of the songs are Beatles' songs, and they are all good. The Beatles truly were one of a kind, and this film brings that to the forefront. It is such a wonderful thing to have this period in the history of rock and roll captured on film forever.