Director Ron Howard has made a new documentary about the Fab Four. It's called "The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years." Time Warner Cable News film critic Neil Rosen filed the following review.
Sure there have been other comprehensive docs about these four lads who changed the world. But what Howard has wisely done is concentrate predominately on the Beatles as a live band from 1963 to 1966.
Utilizing archival footage, some of it rare, you see their evolution on stage, from playing small venues, graduating to larger theaters and ultimately playing sports stadiums; how performing live went from being fun at first to ultimately becoming a drag.
What Howard has done is capture the feeling of Beatlemania on film. Having lived through this period as a young kid, it's almost impossible to explain to anyone what the phenomenon was like. But this is the first film that comes close. It accomplishes this by showing you and immersing you in the love and hysteria felt amongst the frenzied fans around the world back then.
Howard combines present day interviews with surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with vintage interviews of John Lennon and George Harrison, to tell you how they felt about their unprecedented fame and adulation. Some of it is very insightful.
There are a lot of performances. Howard re-digitizes the audio and it sounds great. He also colorizes some of the footage to make it look like it was shot yesterday, not 50 years ago. The overall effect is, at times, mesmerizing.
For Beatles fans and as a history lesson for kids, should you take this ticket to ride? I say 'Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!'
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating:
Four Apples