The Beatles: Eight Days a Week

I heard about this documentary but forgot about it until the film's release. What makes "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week" different from other documentaries about the group is that Oscar-winner director Ron Howard made it with his Oscar-winning colleague Brian Grazer acting as a producer. I have been a huge Beatles fan for years and it was great to watch this film in a theater with other fans. The funny moments in the film all came from the band members themselves and the humor feels so sincere as a result. The drama of the true story is also apparent. Another aspect that makes this different from other Beatles documentary films is that Howard and Grazer only cover the band from 1962-1966 as they tour Europe, America and the world.

The teenagers and many young adults of the world today should watch this film in order that they may come to realize that nothing in their lives comes close to resembling "Beatlemania". I love the moment when Paul McCartney, in footage shot for this film, recalls that once Ringo was added that all of them felt the magic of what they were producing. However, I doubt that they knew how big "The Fab Four" would become. It is mentioned how they thought that they would have to get a foothold in America upon arriving there but soon discovered that they were already more than famous in the States. I already knew some of the legendary incidences covered in this film such as the trip to the Philippines and the problems with the rotating platform in D.C. with Ringo's drums on top. I didn't know however that the Beatles stood up to segregation in Jacksonville. Yet another unique quality about this documentary is that the band's success is played against world events of the time such as the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War. I think that more emphasis should have been given to recapping the Beatles' first appearance on Ed Sullivan. Fifty years later to the hour, an anniversary TV special was held with McCartney, Starr and countless celebrities called "The Night That Changed America". In "Eight Days a Week" however, the film takes more time to talk about other concerts. Shea Stadium was given the attention it deserved at least (it was cool to find out that Whoopi Goldberg went to that concert with her mom). I will never listen to "Help!" the same way again after seeing this documentary. I can't understand why it never occurred to me that the song was John Lennon's honest articulation of what he was feeling.

As mentioned, by watching "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week", a person can comprehend the absurdity of the touring years of the band. The media was wondering when the "bubble" would burst on the Beatles success and if you ask me, fans always tends to make their obsession bigger than it actually is. Such was the case with John, Paul, George and Ringo. I am scared to think of how I would have reacted to "Beatlemania" because these days, I am usually turned off by anything extremely popular. A lot of things tend to get overexagerated and I get tired of seeing and hearing the latest fads everywhere. Maybe I love the Beatles so much because I discovered them long after their break-up. There was no one around to annoy me about them and I could appreciate them as the amazing artists that they were. The way I see it, there is some irony in the "Bigger than Jesus" controversy. John and the rest of the lads had a perspective on the hysteria that no one else had. Fans were acting insane to the point that the impact of the group had no comparison to anything else in the music world. Lennon expressed this personal observation of his quite casually and because people were already obsessed, they overreacted. It was a mistake for Lennon to make the comparison he did but at the same time, if the fans weren't acting like The Beatles were actually bigger than Jesus then maybe John wouldn't have uttered it. I find it funny how people take offensive when they are told how crazy they are acting. The Beatles is a "once in a century" group of entertainers no doubt but they are after all "just a band that made it very, very, big that's all." The documentary has a dramatic narrative structure because the film starts out fun and amazing but towards the end, you feel overwhelmed and sympathetic. All the film does is mirror the true story of the touring years to create this drama and that is noteworthy. Touring was no longer fun and the Beatles felt they weren't reaching their potential as writers or musicians. Some may argue that the studio years of the band in the late 60's proved that The Beatles would be immortal. You could say that fads come and go but something truly "fab" does not. I was impressed by the sound editing at the end of the film as we see the hit album covers that the Beatles released in the late 60's. The most striking part of the climax is the montage edited to the ending of "A Day in the Life". I also like how the climax takes some time to cover the creation of their first studio album: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". This shows that while the band couldn't handle playing live anymore, they didn't stop making albums that would make them the greatest band of the 1960's if not of all time. I guess you can't make a film about the live performances of The Beatles without referencing their last public performance. The surprise rooftop concert played during end credits feels so much like a diminuendo.

During the end credits as I watched this film in the theater, I could hear people singing along to "Eight Days a Week". That was special. I was very impressed by the 30 minutes of restored footage of the Shea Stadium concert that we got to see after the film. I was amazed by how there is very little grain in the footage when converted to 4K. Digital artists also converted “Yellow Submarine” to 4K in 2012 apparently frame-by-frame and not using automated software. I saw that in the theaters as well. I was impressed at how "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week" was able to be fresh and entertaining considering all the other documentaries out there that cover the same story. Because the original band was so much fun to watch, so is this film but you also feel sorry for them by the end of the movie. This is a must-see for any Beatles fan and those unfamiliar with the band's impact should likewise take in this documentary.

4 Stars