The Beatles: Eight Days a Week

If like me, you were (or are) a fan of the Beatles, this film should be an inspiration. I was growing up at the time of their touring days, yet I was too young to have attended any of those shows. But, by the time the White album came out, I was hooked, and their music was quite iformative, inspiring, and powerful to me at the time. Watching this movie brought back some of that power and charm, and the sense of what an amazing point in history the 1960's were.

The film was a bit sketchy in that it did not reveal much about the men. Could have delved into the characters and craziness of the touring a bit more. But, I sense that Howard was bringing a sense of reverence to the project, and did not feel the need for the sordid details. He have certainly seen enough of that in various other documentaries about rock stars over the years.

I have to say, I found this film uplifting, and very, very enjoyable to watch. Witnessing the evolution of their music (I never really payed much attention to them until Rubber Soul) was great. What a band. What a bunch of great guys. Gentlemen, spokesmen, sincere, brilliant, and creative as they come. Wow.

If, like me, you've been an obsessed Beatle fan all of your life, watching Ron Howard's Eight Days A Week may be a slightly strange experience.

For the casual fan it should, for the most part, be a fun 2 1/4 hours packed with lots of interesting footage and interviews. But for myself, who has virtually every bit of video footage and audio tape that fans can get their hands on, there isn't much that's new and you may be left wondering why Howard would take the brave step of releasing nostalgic stuff like this on the big screen. "Ah, let's see, we can watch Jason Bourne or Suicide Squad...I know, let's watch old footage of the Beatles!" But I cannot deny that the audience that shared my viewing was reasonably large in numbers, and they seemed to appreciate the experience, so I guess its a case of "well done, Ron Howard".

If I had to complain about a few things, it would be the cropped footage converting 4:3 to 16:9, or having BW turned to colour in a lot of cases. I prefer historical things to not be messed with. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the full concert they show at the end of the film was uncropped, and the picture quality was excellent!

So was it worth this very experienced Beatle fan's while to see Eight Days A Week in the cinema and not just wait for the Blu-ray? Yes, it was worthwhile, and I think my lasting memories will be the rest of the audience snickering every time the footage jumped to another hysterical fan screaming out for one of the four. It made the viewing more fun.

I don't usually watch documentaries, but when I heard about this one I was unusually excited. I personally love and idolise The Beatles and particularly John Lennon so much, and the thought of seeing them on the big screen just made me happy.

The documentary is very entertaining and shows us a lot of new Beatles footage that was of course fantastic to see. It had some great contributions from famous people such as Whoopi Goldberg and the surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, which were nice too see but I think a little more variety of celebrities would have been nice.

The film shows a side of The Beatles that nobody usually sees. It shows them as just kids who were out of their depth, which was great because it really brings them down to our level. It was very interesting to see that in a way the fans killed The Beatles and that they thought the music was getting lost in the hysteria.

It only touches on the controversy surrounding them a little, which is a shame because it was very interesting to learn about.

You come out with a new view of them as people and not as a brand. It does a good job at humanising them, which I applaud it for doing as it will inspire others to peruse their dreams.

There's something magical about seeing these people together even on film because the chemistry they have is so strong and the music is phenomenal. Hearing the music again was great. Especially when it's remastered.

There's also a really cool bit involving Sigourney Weaver. It really shows how big The Beatles were.

They reused some of the footage a bit too often and it can get a bit irritating over time.

I would definitely recommend it to a fan of The Beatles, it's good to learn about them. If you aren't a fan then you won't like it. It's well crafted with only a little problem here and there. Overall, it's good and I would recommend it to a Beatles fan.

Even though I regard The Beatles as the greatest musical act of all time, I haven't really delved into the minutiae of their history. So, as someone who has watched the odd documentary about them and listened to stories about them on the radio, I have to say that Ron Howard's documentary here was very good in that it covers much of the band's history and covers some of the landmark incidents that the band is famous (or infamous) for.

That being said, the revelations in this documentary are rather anodyne, compared with the startling revelations of the ABC TV (Australia) documentary "When The Beatles drove us wild", especially with regards to what band members got up to sexually during their tour of Australia in 1964, when the promoter lucked onto signing them for a bargain-basement price (just before they became a worldwide phenomenon). There are no stories of their sexual exploits in Howard's film and you wonder how the band could have survived if their debauchery in Australia (and elsewhere, no doubt), had been covered by the media. The ABC documentary suggested – from memory – that there was a kind of "understanding" between the band and the media in Australia not to cover those kinds of sexual activities.

What you do get in Howard's documentary is lots of photos and film of the band, including their time in previous bands, like The Quarrymen (which featured John Lennon, later joined by Paul McCartney and later still, George Harrison). There are also photos and film of The Beatles' early days in Hamburg and The Cavern. All the band members feature in current interviews or old interviews with those members who have died before the making of this documentary. The significant figures involved with the band are also featured (briefly) in interviews, people like their manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin ("The fifth Beatle").

Throughout the film, there are quite a few songs by the band which get played. Most of the time you don't hear the entire song, but it's long enough to be enjoyable. You also get to hear demo versions of songs or rehearsals or out-takes from recording sessions.

If you're obsessive about The Beatles, there might not be too much that is novel for you in this film but for the uninitiated there are lots of topics which get raised which the studious types can further research at their leisure. Personally speaking, some of the topics raised here I was already familiar with but may have forgotten about, meaning that I enjoyed being reminded about it. For instance, I was vaguely aware of some incident involving Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines when The Beatles toured there. Other topics were new to me, like the protests arising from the band being booked to play at the Budokan stadium in Japan. Sometimes what I thought I knew was challenged. For instance, I thought that The Beatles' concert at Shea Stadium marked the end of their touring career because the crowd noise was so excessive that the band never wanted to have to deal with that again (the bonus feature at the end has reasonable sound quality for that concert). In the documentary, however, it's mentioned that their concert at Candlestick Park in the US was their last ever proper concert.

The landmark controversies do feature in this documentary, including the band's infamous "butcher cover" artwork for their single release "Yesterday and today" as well as John Lennon's notorious "bigger than Jesus" utterance which seemed capable of derailing their success...well, at least in their biggest market, the US.

An interesting aspect to this documentary is the focus on the many firsts that the band achieved, including being the first band to play stadiums (Shea Stadium), John Lennon accidentally inventing the use of backward played tape on albums, The Beatles being the first act to have the top 5 selling songs in the US singles chart and most noteworthy of all (and a surprise to me) was that The Beatles collectively overturned America's apartheid policy in the South to have non-segregated seating for their concerts there.

Lastly (as far as the documentary proper goes), it was interesting to hear that the band weren't always confident that they would be successful...they had their doubts, and John would go through a motivational chant to lift their spirits. Also, maybe it seems obvious, but I wasn't aware how autobiographical (and literal) Lennon's song "Help!" was. No other songs are discussed in this manner. I do have vague memories of a story on FM radio about their song "If I fell" (from memory) being autobiographical too...a song secretly intended to communicate with Lennon's lover, as he contemplated leaving his wife, I believe.

The only "complaint" I have of this documentary is that it would have been good to have revisited some clips from previous documentaries. E.g. there was one which featured Lennon talking to a fan, I believe, who was convinced that The Beatles had written a song about him...Lennon had to explain to him, like Jesus to a child, that that couldn't possibly be true (if I recall). One Australian documentary I saw had footage of one of their Australian concerts (Festival Hall, Melbourne?), where I heard an undiscovered gem of a song "It won't be long". Nothing like that in Howard's documentary. I do remember one "Parkinson" interview, I think, with Paul McCartney where he asked Paul about their songwriting influences. Paul mentioned their education, which was interesting...until Parkinson unfortunately changed the subject.

It was great to be reminded of the wit of the band in their press conferences...some funny comments from them.

Highlight:

A soccer crowd at Anfield spontaneously singing a Beatles song during a game.

Liked/interesting:

Footage of Ringo really hammering the drums enthusiastically.

The band were mostly stoned when shooting their film "Help!".

Their record deal was lousy.

"Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years" (2016 release; 137 min. including bonus feature) is a documentary about the Beatles' touring days from late 1963 to August 1966. As the movie opens, we find the boys singing "She Loves You" in Manchester, November, 1963, and in glorious full color mode, no less. A bit later we get "Twist & Shout" from that same evening. To see it on the big screen is utter and pure delight. Along the way, we hear the Fab Four add their personal perspective on these times. "We were not an overnight sensation", reminds Paul, and we then get a very brief glimpse of their touring days in Liverpool and Hamburg. The movie spends, rightfully, more on 1964 than all the rest combined and it is a true treasure trove of rare and unseen footage, alongside the more familiar footage. Sigourney Weaver tells about attending the first Hollywood Bowl show, and later Whoopi Goldberg talks about being at the Shea Stadium show.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by none other than Ron Howard, with the full cooperation of Paul, Ringo and the Lennon and Harrison estates. Howard and his team must have roamed the earth to come up with all of the fantastic footage, and make some pointed comments along the way (the Beatles had a contractual provision prohibiting segregated shows in the South, a remarkable stand considering the circumstances). The sound quality has been painstakingly remastered as best as possible. As a lifelong Beatles fan who was too young to have seen them in person or fully appreciate what all took place half a century ago, this movie is sheer delight from start to finish. The theater version came with a 30 min. bonus feature immediately after the end titles, namely "The Beatles At Shea Stadium", their entire set from August 15, 1965. It absolutely blows the mind what happened there. And to think that as the headliner, the Beatles played for all of 25 minutes! Watching the crowd is as much fun as it is watching the guys. Here again, the old footage has been restored and remastered.

"Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years" opened this weekend on a single screen for all of Greater Cincinnati, at my local art-house theater. I couldn't wait to see it. The Saturday matinée screening where I saw this at was PACKED to the rafters, to my surprise and delight. On my way out of the theater, there was already a long line waiting for the next screening. It seems this movie is hitting a nerve, and this has the looks to be a solid success on the art-house theater circuit. If you love the Beatles, you do not want to miss this. "Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!