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The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night [1964]


RRP: £17.99
Our Price: £4.67 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

A Hard Day's Night may have been The Beatles' first big-screen experience but, as they had become the biggest band in the world by the time of its production, the Moptops were able to ensure it was a bit different from the band-movie norm. "We'd made it clear that we weren't interested in being stuck in one of those nobody-understands-our-music plots," John Lennon would later recall. "The kind of thing where we'd just pop up a couple of times between the action, all smiles and clean shirts, to sing our latest record. Never mind all your pals, how could we have faced each other if we had allowed ourselves to be involved in that kind of movie?"

Instead the quartet recruited a young director named Richard Lester--who had previously worked with the Fab Four's beloved Goons--to make a movie that followed them as they enjoyed and endured the phenomenon that was Beatlemania. "The film wrote itself right in front of our eyes," says Lester. "We just took the dirty bits and cut them out." The result is a frenetic hour and a half inside The Beatles' personal space as they engage in all manner of surreal hi-jinks--more often than not involving Paul's "grandfather" (played by Steptoe and Son's Wilfrid Brambell) while dodging the ever-present horde of screaming fans. Although the result now seems a little dated, there remains an almost heart-breakingly good-natured aura around the foursome's naïve performances while few could argue about the quality of a soundtrack that includes "Can't Buy Me Love", "And I Love Her" and "A Hard Day's Night" itself, to name but a few. Whether the film would have been quite so successful if Lester had followed McCartney's suggestion and called it "Oh, What A Lovely Wart!" will, sadly, never be known. --Clark Collis

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

A Hard Day's Night may have been the Beatles' first big-screen experience but, as they had become the biggest band in the world by the time of its production, the Moptops were able to ensure it was a bit different from the band-movie norm. "We'd made it clear that we weren't interested in being stuck in one of those nobody-understands-our-music plots," John Lennon would later recall, "The kind of thing where we'd just pop up a couple of times between the action, all smiles and clean shirts, to sing our latest record."

Instead the quartet recruited a young director named Richard Lester--who had previously worked with the Fab Four's beloved Goons--to make a movie that followed them as they enjoyed and endured the phenomenon that was Beatlemania. "The film wrote itself right in front of our eyes," says Lester. "We just took the dirty bits and cut them out." The result is a frenetic hour and a half inside the Beatles' personal space as they engage in all manner of surreal hijinks--more often than not involving Paul's "grandfather" (played by Steptoe and Son's Wilfrid Brambell) while dodging the ever-present horde of screaming fans. Although the result now seems a little dated, there remains an almost heartbreakingly good-natured aura around the foursome's naïve performances, while few could argue about the quality of a soundtrack that includes "Can't Buy Me Love", "And I Love Her" and "A Hard Day's Night" itself, to name but a few. Whether the film would have been quite so successful if Lester had followed McCartney's suggestion and called it "Oh, What a Lovely Wart!" will, sadly, never be known. --Clark Collis


Nostalgic and great fun
Review date: 2008-09-28 Rating: 8 out of 10

The reviewer who claims that this film was originally made in 4:3 format is quite wrong. Perhaps he means the original video, which was certainly cut to fit a standard TV. But this good DVD is correctly formatted, and nothing has been cut off from the top or bottom.

That having been said, this is a very comprehensive set. The 36' documentary with reminiscences of the film's crew is fun and enlightening. One comes away with the feeling, as if we couldn't guess from the film itself, that spirits were high (pardon the expression) and everyone felt this would be something special.

The remastering here is quite good, tho perhaps not quite Criterion quality. The sound seems just a bit flat, and is much fuller in the restored WS Help!

But, these tiny quibbles aside, the boys are beautiful, energetic, fun, imaginative, and Richard Lester's revolutionary vision is just as fresh and youthful over four decades later.

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Reviews


Strange movie...
Review date: 2007-09-09 Rating: 4 out of 10


A weird and nonsensical movie about the 'fab' four who shot to fame in the 60s.

Not having ever been a fan of The Beatles (but old enough to remember them) I was interested in seeing this film for curiosity reasons, to find out what all the fuss was about - needless to say, I was no more impressed for the benefit...

The main reason The Beatles were so big at the time, was the fact that there had been nothing quite like them previously, and consequently caught everyone's attention because of it - but that's about it! You've got four 'odd' looking (ugly?) guys, with perhaps the exception of Lennon who was a slightly better looking chap than the other three, basically fooling around throughout and being silly. I have to confess, I did find the music good though, and this made the movie bearable for me - along with the early appearances of some big names in film and TV which I found interesting.

My advice would be to fast-forward to the seventies for some real talent in the likes of T. Rex, Sparks and ABBA for contrast. This film has not convinced me that The Beatles were bigger/better than ABBA (not that I ever had any doubts on that score) and so this movie would probably only mean anything to someone who was besotted with the group at the time, and as a consequence inspire lots of nostalgia. The closest I ever got to The Beatles was Yoko Ono, who was, and still is an amazing lady!

I give this film two stars for the music only.



A lovely nostalgic ride with the best soundtrack you could find
Review date: 2007-08-31 Rating: 10 out of 10

Richard Lester worked with the Beatles to produce a clever, touching, visually interesting, humourous and well-acted film that makes the most of the fantastic music and the Beatlemania and uses wonderful English character actors circa 1964 to bounce off the boys' Liverpudlian wit.

The film was obviously a showcase for the music and to introduce the boys' personalities. I like the extras: George Martin is such a great guy that you can't help but be entranced by anything he says, and I love seeing Brian Epstein footage because he was sneaky but extremely clever as a pop promoter.

A lovely, nostalgic ride back to when things seemed a touch simpler.


london new wave?
Review date: 2007-03-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

Lester is an underrated director, or perhaps he didn't pull his weight with 'The Beatles', but 'A Hard Days Night' is a stylistic gem with moments that recall Godard and Truffaut. Intercutting grainy hand held tracking-shots-on- the-run, sharp edits, an odd mix of Ealing style British comic style and French New Wave. 1964 predicts 1968, while the fab four escape screaming throngs of beatlemaniacal girls and retire in rooms with a grandfather in tow to discuss class politics in the British 60s, north south divide and all. A heady mix; so if you can tolerate a film that looks a little bit like 'The Monkees' TV series, with its faintly surrealist TV-lite, boasting the charming antics of the boys in an obvious teen marketing ploy; it has other merits as a film. A nod to Cssavetes and Godard; can this be British cinema? The anarchy of Ealing Studios suffused with avant-garde style?
In which case we tolerate the documentary sections with the 'boys' performing every song from their album in realtime in ever ludicrous locations with a zany silly, playtimeTV-style, although the songs are great, but the cameos just don't work. There are gems of dialogue, witty, smart, cutting, and a refreshing look at Britain in the 60s, the politics of a generation of self-proclaimed working-class heroes, pop troubadors, popular intellectuals, a sort of UK experimetal Surrealism of which Lester is a fascinating exemplar, and the film, 40 years later, still resonates with recognisable themes and clear context.

The sound track is mono, the original was stereo
Review date: 2007-01-27 Rating: 2 out of 10

Disapointed, I have seen this movie lately on a VHS video, the soundtrack was true stereo. The soundtrack here is digital restored from a mono source, and it sounds strange - very strange !! Miramax has really messed up this.
The original movie with true stereo is a 5 star thing!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Ringo Starr
Wilfrid Brambell
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
The Beatles

Creators:
The Beatles (Primary Contributor)
Paul McCartney (Primary Contributor)

Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 5017188884938
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Box set, Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2002-09-30
Number of discs: 2
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 89 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1964-08-11
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Subtitled)

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