The Beatles are back! And for our generation, they're back for the first time. In the re-release of their 1964 film, A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles star as themselves doing what they do best: singing and running for their lives from swarms of adoring female fans.
The film boasts a fresh new print and a digitally restored soundtrack, but the '60s look and attitude fortunately haven't been touched. Director Richard Lester's masterpiece is left intact to be appreciated yet again by an entirely new generation of impressionable teens - as well as their still-rabid parents.
This Beatles flick is a hilarious take on the "difficult" lives of rock stars. Being hunted by screaming girls from one place to the next, the boys from Britain never get to sit down. Plus they're so busy being interviewed at press conferences they don't even have time to get a beer. And whether they're on a train, in a park, or at the studio, they just can't stop singing.
Making no attempt to spit out some silly story line, A Hard Day's Night gets straight to the good stuff - the boys themselves. The camera adulates their every facial expression and focuses on their every pore. Seriously, more time is focused on the faces of John, Paul, George, and Ringo than on the scenes themselves.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. If there is anything to learn by staring deep into the eyes of these boys, it's that they are adorable, fun-loving, charming gentlemen. It's not hard to see why Mom had such a crush on them back in the day.
The film takes on a rock-and-roll musical format, and the boys sing in different situations with varying backgrounds. Sometimes their music just serves as a background noise during the numerous chase scenes. Many of the Beatles' early hits are accounted for, including "Can't Buy Me Love," "Hard Day's Night," "All My Loving," and "She Loves You."
In between songs, the audience is entertained with skits featuring each of the Beatles. Ringo decides he's unappreciated by his friends and runs away, George is bemused by fashion designers, John is confronted by a lady who convinces herself that he is not John Lennon and looks nothing like him, and Paul is distracted intermittently by his mischievous grandfather who is more trouble than anyone can handle.
It sounds horribly tacky - and it is - but the music delivers and that's the important part. Plus, it paints a wonderful picture of the boys as the best of friends behind the scenes, always goofing off and making mischief.
By the end of the film, with no facial features left un-filmed and no one-liners left unsaid, the camera makes a 180-degree turn and puts the screaming, sweating, crying, and fainting female fans in the spotlight. And all over some goof-off boys with wacky hair - making it sound suspiciously like the modern boy-band phenomenon.
All in all, it's pure Beatles bliss. Listen to their hits, watch them sing and be merry, and feel the excitement. There's more to these guys then mop-head hairdos and black suits. The Beatles were real performers. They knew how to get the audiences dancing.
And cut Mom a break. In 1964, you would have been screaming right alongside her.
