Thursday, September 22, 2016

Eight Days a Week

Because of Homecoming and parent teacher conferences, I had to wait until last night to see Ron Howard's wonderful documentary about the Beatles, Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.  Those of you who know how much I love the Beatles will understand how hard that was for me!  I love the Beatles and I really loved this film.  It spans the years between 1962-1966 and showcases some of their earliest performances at the Cavern Club in Liverpool up to their final concert at Candlestick Park.  As I've mentioned, I am obsessed with the Beatles which means I've seen just about everything ever released about the fab four (I own The Beatles Anthology) and there were a lot of photos and footage included that I had never seen before.  I really enjoyed seeing early concerts in the UK and  concerts during their first world tour (especially in Australia) juxtaposed with the iconic Ed Sullivan Show performance and the epic concert in Shea Stadium.  The documentary does a great job chronicling the excitement  and mayhem of Beatlemania in the early years and then the growing discontent with touring when audiences seemed more interested in the spectacle rather than the music.  It includes contemporary interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as archival interviews with John Lennon and George Harrison and it also includes interviews with people (famous and not so famous) who were their earliest fans.  Both of my favorite quotes come from Elvis Costello.  He points out how in tune they sound during their performances, which he considers to be remarkable considering the fact that they couldn't hear themselves with all of the screaming.  He also talks about his reaction to the album Rubber Soul (my favorite album in which the Beatles begin experimenting with sounds which couldn't be replicated on stage).  He didn't know if he liked it when he heard it for the first time and then he couldn't imagine his life without it a few weeks later!  As ever, the best part of any film about the Beatles is the music and I really appreciate the fact that Howard shows most songs in their entirety instead of just snippets.  It is almost like being at a Beatles concert and I highly recommend this film to all Beatles fans!

Note:  As I walked out of the theater a woman standing near the exit took my arm and whispered, "Wasn't that fun?"  Yes.  Yes it was!

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