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Greetings again from the darkness. It's been 60 years since 'Beatlemania' hit the United States. As impressive as Taylor Swift's ascendance has been, it pales in comparison to the cultural impact of the Fab Four those many years ago. Documentarian David Tedeschi, working with raw footage shot by brothers and renowned documentary collaborators, Albert Maysles and David Maysles, takes us back to those frenzied 14 days of The Beatles' first U. S. trip, including the infamous appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show".

The footage is fascinating not just because it includes the band performing live on Sullivan, at the Washington Coliseum, and at Carnegie Hall, but rather because it puts us in the Plaza Hotel room where they stayed, and in the backseat of the cars as they are transported. We hear interviews and conversations, and gain some perspective on what these young men went through physically and emotionally and musically on their first trip across the pond. Girls were hyped for this group of four lads who certainly didn't fit the mold of traditional masculinity, while parents were caught off-guard.

What I found most thought-provoking of all was Tedeschi's presentation as history intertwined with one of the most impactful moments in U. S. history. President John F Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The plane carrying The Beatles touched down on February 7, 1964. In plain language, Beatlemania struck as a nation mourned. You may view these as unrelated, but music is known to heal. Perhaps the frenzied young fan reactions to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" that caused the rift with parents and older Americans was just the diversion needed to help a country move forward. That first appearance on the Sullivan show took place on February 9.

Tedeschi supplements the video with a multitude of interviews. We hear from fans, other musicians, and the band members themselves ... even Marshal McLuhan. Surviving members Paul and Ringo were involved in the film's production, as were the estates of John and George. Archival interviews are included here - George from his own lawn, and John on a couple of TV talk shows. Paul is shown at the museum that featured Beatles photography. Yet, the interview that packs the biggest punch is likely that of Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers. He acknowledges the impact of sales when The Beatles recorded "Twist and Shout", and he punctuates this with the fact that it did not lead to an invitation for The Isley Brothers to perform on the Sullivan show.

It's clear how much respect these four young lads had for black musicians and how much their music influenced The Beatles. They were excited to meet with and learn more about the key black musicians such as Little Richard or the Ronettes. Ronnie Spector is interviewed here and offers her recollection of the band, the music, and the times. Tedeschi's (and the Maysles') work offers an inside glance at what was happening at the time, and when we hear the wisecracking and see the raw energy of the boys, it helps to know that George (the youngest) would not turn 21 until the band returned to England. We get the feeling they believed this happened to them, not that they caused it. Perhaps they were at least partially right ... as the times, they were achangin'.

Streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning November 29, 2024.

First, I'm a huge Beatles fan. Always have been and I'm an old guy (62). I've seen most, if not all, The Beatles films and was looking forward to this one. So much so, that I opted in for a month of Disney+ so that I could watch this and also the remastered "Let it Be" film.

While 1964 was a crucial year for The Beatles and important to what they meant to America, especially after the Kennedy assassination, I have to say that I preferred Ron Howard's spin much more as it was much more Beatle-centric to me. Beatles '64 kind of meanders all over the place and there are awkward segues into the psychology of Beatlemania (from later in the 60s) and just the kind of mood of the early 60s. Those segues are ridiculous and just out of place in this film. The clips don't age well and really had ZERO to do with John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

There were fan interviews (new and from 64) and that was ok, but there were other interviews that didn't make much sense to me. Jack Douglas's interview was good, but in the scheme of things, it was more about him and less about The Beatles, so a good interview, but out of place here.

The film has recent interviews with Paul and Ringo. Ringo seemed to add to the conversation with a few things I hadn't heard before. Paul just kind of fell back on his 'same old stories'. I mean, did we NEED to hear Paul give the talk about how the early hits were "From ME to YOU. SHE loves YOU. Please Please ME...". Good God, how many times can he recycle that? I really wish he'd open up a bit more. It was nice to see Ringo drum a bit and talk about the drum riser used on the Sullivan show, etc. Paul... eh, he really didn't add much and his F bomb, to me, was really out of place, especially on the Disney+ channel. Seemed a bit forced, too. The George and John interviews added more than Paul's.

Speaking of the Sullivan stuff- Why they didn't use the pristine video versions that came out about 10 years ago, I'll never know. The clips they used from the Sullivan show in Beatles '64 were much lower quality than what has been otherwise released.

I did enjoy the Ronnie Spector and Smokey Robinson interviews very much. The Beatles definitely beat the drum for the black American groups, so that was cool. Smokey singing 'Yesterday' was good too, but if this was about 1964, it was odd to see that which was at least a year later. Small point. It was cool to see George request "Got My Mind Set On You" on the phone. Prophetic.

I never realized how ANNOYING Murray the K was. He just kind of latched on and it was funny to see George say "we never knew how he got there...".

There was stuff that was later than '64 in the film too, which was kind of weird considering the film's title.

For me, there wasn't much I'd not seen before. The original films came out in the 80s or 90s as "The Beatles First Visit to the US" home video and, for my money, that is MUCH BETTER than this one. You can find it on the Internet Archive. Watch that as it's a much better representation.

It was nice to see how funny they were on the films of the train and in the hotel in New York. I'd forgotten that and Beatle Humor is such a big part of them. George masquerading as a train bartender was funny. I'd forgotten about that. John seemed a bit subdued and Paul, Ringo, and George were really hamming it up.

The NEXT film should be the restored Washington DC concert (which parts are shown here). They really improved the sound in the clips used in this film (though it's odd to see George singing "Roll Over Beethoven" on one mic, then move to another mic right in the middle of the lyric line. The reason he did this was because, in the original film, his mic was dead, so he jumped over to John's mic. Well, in this film, both mics mysteriously are working, so when he moves and you don't know this, you kind of go "Why did he move?". Peter Jackson restored that a bit too much. The dead mic and Ringo's funky drum riser kind of illustrate how UNready the US entertainment industry was for The Beatles as a live act.

All in all, it was 'OK' and worth a watch, but it really adds nothing new to The Beatles mythology.

A better title for this latest Beatles-featured movie would really have been "Beatles in America '64" when you consider that in that same year they elsewhere recorded two albums, an EP, and three singles, one of which which contained a non-album A and B-side. Then of course they made the "A Hard Day's Night" movie, toured the UK, Australia and Europe and made various promotional television appearances besides. Most acts today would struggle to do all that in five years I dare say.

The movie makes extensive use of the vérité footage shot by the Maysles Brothers at the time, interspersed with news bulletins and interview inserts with all four Beatles, naturally of the archive variety with John and George accompanying present-day pieces by Paul and Ringo.

Being the dyed-in-the-wool fan that I am I naturally enjoyed every minute of it, but I wouldn't say I saw anything here which really surprised me or didn't seem familiar in some way. The Beatles all come over strongly as individuals but what is clear is the tight collective unit they had already become, an inner circle if you will, which only a precious few got to really invade, people I suppose like Brian Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and George Martin of course, as well as the wives and girlfriends, although apart from a few fleeting glimpses of Cynthia Lennon, none of these people make much of an appearance, if at all.

There are also a predictable number of "talking head" interviews with contemporary artists, reminiscing and philosophising as is their wont, most strangely including the current incarnation of the artist once known as Terence Trent D'arby plus Leonard Bernstein's daughter and future Lennon producer Jack Douglas who at least has an interesting Beatles-related story of his own to tell.

The music is of course vintage moptop magic as you see and hear them perform their superb early repertoire on TV and live in concert, their playing and singing sharp and on point, before the screamers and jellybean throwers spoiled it for them.

It was nice to see now and then interviews with their predominantly young female fanbase which are contrasted at one point with some input from a bunch of cool, young on-the-street black dudes into Miles and Coltrane who respectfully resist any temptation to diss the new white kids on the block.

There were lots of nice moments but like I said not much fresh insight into the whole Beatlemania phenomenon which I guess may have been the point of the movie. The usual readacross is plied that timing was everything, given the band's arrival Stateside in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. The comment that most caught my ear however was from the young McCartney who, when asked by a prescient interviewer if he thought that there was a wider cultural impact the Beatles were having on society, simply smiles and mocks the question, disarmingly stating that all they were doing was just having a laugh.

How wrong he was.

It wasn't a bad documentary, but I didn't walk away feeling like I learned all that much. I was really looking for something that dove deep into the concert by concert of the 1964 tour. I was hoping to see a little bit of footage from each show and behind the scenes in each location. However, a lot of the focus was on New York and Washington with little to no focus on any other places that the Beatles traveled to. I would've loved to see their time in Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, LA, Canada, the list goes on! It would've been interesting to learn more about the issues with segregation in Jacksonville, Florida, meeting Bob Dylan, and the 1.5 million dollars offered to them to perform an extra show in Kansas City. Instead the documentary is mostly about New York and Washington, featuring full length clips of a woman's fantasies with the Beatles, a man crying about the emotional connection to She Loves You, and a full length clip of Smokey Robinson's band performing a sssslllllooooowwww version of Yesterday. Why do I need to see this? I came here to watch something about the Beatles, and while it's OK to have guest speakers talk, they need to be short and RELEVANT. Martin Scorsese is a weird guy, which is probably why he made this weird documentary with some actually boring clips of the Beatles. There was far too much focus on Beatlemania (including the gory details of people's love affair of the boys), which is something that has been covered, like a million times. I don't think this whole thing is bad, I just wanted a focused and interesting watch, but there's not a ton here that I haven't already heard or seen. What is new is actually a little boring.

And that's coming from someone who loved: Get Back (10/10), Rooftop Concert (10/10), A Hard Days Night, and Help.

It provided a fantastic insight into what was going on during the US visit. The film showcased how the Beatles acted on and off stage, as well as providing information about what happened when they arrived in America and the impact their music had on the people. The quality of the archive footage was excellent. The soundtrack of the movie was outstanding and the interviews were interesting.

What it lacks is narration, but I believe they were trying for a "stock footage" approach and enabling you, the audience, to put it together. There was some storytelling in text form, but it wasn't enough for me, and it felt slightly "missing something".

Overall, the film is an 8 but I gave it a 9 cause I am a fan of the band.

Since this documentary was produced for the Disney streaming channel you should probably assume that it's not for the super hardcore fans who are always grumpy and impossible to please. It's much more for the casual fan. And for young people (under 40 let's say) who know very little about The Beatles.

There are lots of "talking heads" interviews which are okay, but not really all that exciting to watch. Some are more interesting than others.

The old footage of The Beatles performing and not performing is the most enjoyable to watch. I saw quite a bit of footage that I had never seen before and there are some wonderful moments.

There are also some ugly moments, too. There's one moment when a New York City cop threatens to throw two teenage girls down a flight of stairs just because they aren't staying at the hotel. Yikes! Talk about police brutality! The girls were very peaceful and didn't deserve that.

There's also an ugly moment when some random male adult is telling young teenage girls that their love of The Beatles is "psycho-sexual" and that they are "sick". That guy seemed totally perverted! He was the one who was "sick". What a weirdo.

The musical performances sounded really good, especially listening with headphones.

Anyway, overall I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend watching it.

A Disney + documentary from last year about the Fab Four's first trip to the States back in 1964. Proceeding from where the country was in post JFK's assassination the previous year, the Beatles were a welcome balm to the psyche of the nation as their music connected w/the young (while the older set felt their invasion was just that) vaulting them into the stratosphere. What follows is archival footage accompanied by interviews w/the surviving members, Paul McCarthy & Ringo Starr, to color in the lines on what was going on & what they thought about all the hysteria. Definitely a must-see view for all things mop tops which fits in nicely w/Disney's other Beatles specific programming (the restored Let it Be version along w/its outtakes series Get Back) so if the music isn't the thing to lure you in, then this easiest on the eyes history lesson will surely be a boon.

Paul and Ringo were listed on the long list of producers to this documentary, and being the last of the Fab Four, provided some modern commentary. They certainly do not need the money, so its puzzling as to what they thought this added to The Beatles history. And that's what it is, just one year, all be it a milestone one in which they 'conquered America'.

Its a bit of a hotch potch of footage and interviews, both of the times and contemporary. Some of the live music performances were effectively used, the sound was good, and they provided short intervals of interest.

One for die hard Beatles fans only.

Bravo! Director Tedeschi starts right off the bat by answering several questions that have been nagging me for ages: What made girls scream loud and long? I saw the Beatles in concert in Toronto and didn't hear a note...why was this a good thing? Now I get it.

And what was the peculiar magic that made early Beatles songs strike such a personal chord...Paul McCartney explains very clearly.

The lyrical method.

The film does a wonderful job of setting the scene. From the outside we see the usual hubub...But behind closed doors (with film from the legendary Maysles) we see the four boys from a club basement ban in Liverpool dealing with New York media mayhem at its most extreme. They're so street-smart they deal with it all..except for the notoriously hyper-aggressive NYC DJ, Murray the K. He corners them into promoting his station. It's a wild ride and despite the madness, they take it like pros and deliver the sunny, upbeat music that thrilled and came as a visceral relief to so many of us.

If you love the Beatles this is essential.

The lads are seen in excellent form 'monkeying' about & having fun despite the pressures they were under.

It has some great talking heads bits, & some not very great talking head bits.

It has some intriguing cultural comparisons & quite a few tiresome cliches.

It fails to address how much Beatle mania was actually sponsored, & deliberately generated as hype, rather than spontaneous outbursts of female passion, which is milked somewhat (!).

The music sounds vibrant & exciting (despite it being less than 'pristine' sound quality). It really is impressive for what they had & Ringo's input really shows what a under rated drummer he really was.

If you don't love the Beatles its still a worthwhile watch.

If you hate the Beatles it is unlikely you will want to see it, or be reading this review.

I'm a life-long Beatles fan and I really liked this.

It's not easy to reach back, travelling in time back 60 years. Even if you did, you'd find it hard very hard to take in your surroundings. You wouldn't know what was going on if you travelled from 2001 back to 1941. You wouldn't have a clue. The Beatles '64 shows us, today, what America was like in early 1964. That's 61 years ago.

It's quite a journey!

As Paul McCartney tells us late on in this excellent show, The Beatles first trip to the US was just 12 weeks after the assassination of JFK. He said he felt the pain, even as a Brit, and that he thought America "needed a lift".

Imagine also, The Beatles themselves travelling to this fabled land of America - home of Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, Soul and Rock & Roll and Elvis! They'd heard the music - and worshipped it, studied it, loved it, made their lives in music around it. But they'd never been there. How amazing would that be for them!? Well - now we know!

The Beatles '64 shows us, via simple black & white cine filming made by a traveler who went with them, just what their journey was like. It's revealing, engaging and a great watch. We find out a lot about the differences between America & the UK in the mid-60s, and we especially find out about the reactionary conservative nature of America and how change was feared. But The Beatles are talked about by those who grew up with them. Their view is that The Beatles were something new - completely new, but not macho or imposing and not a threat at all. I liked these observations.

Along the way, we hear from The Beatles themselves, and others, about how they came to view this event later on in their lives. Brilliantly, we also see David Lynch (bless you & RIP) tell of his experience of going to a 1964 Beatles gig. It's great stuff!

This piece was masterminded by Martin Scorsese, and it shows. Also deeply involved are Ringo & Paul. The wider families are also involved including Sean Lennon - and that's great because we get a rounded view.

This is like travelling back in time. I thought The Beatles'64 was great!

Beatles '64 might not be the most groundbreaking Beatles documentary, it's not Get Back, where newly unearthed Beatles footage is revealed in all its glory, instead, it serves more as a nostalgic throwback, revisiting an iconic and historic moment in the band's journey, while much of the footage has likely been seen by longtime fans, the upgraded quality offers a fresh perspective, the story that they told about the surrounding vibe and reaction was enough to keep the film going, i wish we could've got more of Paul and Ringo with Scorsese, that said, as a retrospective, it's still a fascinating look at a pivotal moment in Beatles history, as a fan, i thoroughly enjoyed it, though as a documentary, it's not the one that i would revisit nor the the one that i think was the most engaging, i would still much prefer the Eight Days A Week documentary by Ron Howard, but it's still nice to watch.

The Beatles are undoubtedly the greatest band of all time. Having watched Beatles '64, I'm left with mixed feelings. While it offers glimpses of their historic visit, it doesn't truly reflect the depth of the experience. The documentary feels more like a collection of random shots pieced together for attention rather than a cohesive, visionary exploration of the event. There are better youtube videos out there that provide more insight and context. That said, I'll give it 5 stars for the nostalgia it evokes and the inclusion of some fantastic live music moments. You might still find something to appreciate, but for most, I'd recommend you may skip this one.

This really does what its says on the tin. It's The Beatles. In 1964. Their first foray into America, documenting the chaos that ensued. It's mostly all archive, some apparently never before seen, shot by brothers Albert and David Maysles as the band visit, New York, Washington and Miami. America needed an escape. JFK recently shot, a country in mourning, it had no idea what was about to hit it. Candid clips, behind the scenes in hotel rooms, all four of them do what they do best, goof around. This is the stuff that makes this and all Beatles documentaries tick. Add crowd shots and interviews with fans, plus live performances and you've got a solid core. There's a bit of present day interviews too to give some context, mostly with fans reminiscing, which is okay but not revelatory. McCartney features too though, along with Ringo, Ronnie Spector, David Lynch, XXX (Terence Trent Darby) and Martin Scorsese who produced this is and is mostly in the background. Smokey Robinson talks about the power of the music, pulling people of all colours together. As everything slowly moves toward the focus of the trip, the Ed Sullivan show. It's unfathomable today to understand how big a deal this was, but I guess the fact we all know about this TV appearance shows its cultural impact. Even if the young McCartney declares "It's not culture, it's a good laugh". It's not groundbreaking, you won't learn anything new, but still a fun watch for any fan... and that's everyone, right?

In the wake of Peter Jackson's excellent GET BACK we seem to be getting a lot more films dealing with The Beatles; as a fan of the Fab Four that's no bad thing for me and the four new biopics currently in production sound pretty interesting too. BEATLES '64 is, by comparison, fairly straightforward, an ordinary clip compilation of footage assembled from the breakout year for the performers. Obviously with Martin Scorsese producting a lot of this is American-centric, but it all works very nicely and there's plenty of music too which helps. Nice to see Paul and Ringo making appearances too! A reasonable effort.

The year 2024 is not the year 1964. Viewing the events of 60 years ago without grasping the temper of the times does little to make those events as remarkable as they were. Are we more sophisticated now? Cooler? Perhaps. Yet in another 60 years, 2024 may seem woefully unsophisticated and tone deaf.

In that context, I'm waiting for the day when someone somewhere does the work to understand why Murray "the K" Kaufman was so involved with the band in those early days... before maligning him.

When the band arrived in America and in New York, Kaufman was the top-rated DJ in the most important music market in the world. His fans relied on him to present the best music, assemble the best live shows (with lineups of talent that could never be assembled with modern performers today), and be the hip grownup that their own parents were not.

The American girl groups that were opening for the Beatles in the UK alerted Brian Epstein to Murray's influence, and it was Epstein who invited the DJ to be part of the entourage. If the members of the band didn't know this, Epstein wasn't doing his job. The arrangement benefitted the Beatles to be endorsed by the guy his vast audience trusted, and it was to the advantage of both his AM radio station WINS and Murray to increase the number of listeners and, with it, the ad rates the station could charge.

If Murray seemed unaligned with the band members' sensibilities - more accustomed to the likes of Jimmy Savile in the UK - he was perfectly attuned to what his News York listeners expected and wanted. What may have sounded odd to English ears in 1960 and to people in 2024 was exactly what New York's teenagers thrived on. Murray wasn't doing what he did to become, in any real sense, the fifth Beatle. He was doing what he knew that his acne-aged audience would expect.

As Kaufman moved on to other things, he grew to resent the constant association with the band. The fifth Beatle title diminished everything else he'd accomplished, both before the band arrived when he was the top of the mark on radio; staged fully integrated, hit, 9-day long concerts four times a year during school holidays at the height of the civil rights movement; backed and helped boost the careers of Bobby Darin, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, and countless others; brought the Who and Cream to the States for their first US concert appearances; developed a TV special that is, almost inarguably, the first music video (15 years before MTV); was the initial program director and primetime evening DJ for the first commercial FM rock station, WOR-FM; and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

It seems safe, I'm sure, decades after his death, to make snide observations - observations that reveal a lack of insight on the facts and the times.

I'm a big Beatles fan. But this is one of the worst Beatles documentaries I've ever seen. It ranks alongside Beatles songs such as 'What's The New Mary Jane'!

It really struggles to stay focused. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's focused on The Beatles. It starts with a montage of JFK and a cover of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand', then one minute it's 1964 New York hanging out in the Beatles hotel room, next it's Ringo on Michael Aspel in the 80s talking about his clothes, then modern day Ringo going through his outfits from 1968, then a random insertion of 'In My Life' (from Rubber Soul released in December '65), random Little Richard interview with him talking about his song Tutti-frutti, five minutes of Smokey Robinson doing a cover of 'Yesterday' - what does that have to do with The Beatles in 1964? They may as well have included Oasis doing their cover of 'I Am the Walrus' or included five minutes of Wings on tour in the 70s! There is no chronological order at all. It's all over the place! Its only redeeming feature is the extra behind the scenes footage (cleaned up) of the lads being candid in their hotel room.

The best Beatles documentary is still 'The Beatles Anthology' from the '90s. If you want to watch a documentary on The Beatles' first visit to the States just watch 'The First U. S. Visit' (2004).

After experiencing Peter Jackson's Get Back I had high hopes when this documentary was announced and although it's not bad it's not great either. How many current big artists could've given interviews? No big names, a lot of unknown people giving their take on The Beatles' first visit to the U. S. The 2004 documentary "The Beatles: The First U. S Visit" already covered everything this documentary is covering and more.

Maybe this is was just a way to introduce a younger audience to The Beatles. There's nothing really new here for longtime fans. It's a pity, they could have made a brilliant documentary.

All the usual stock footage with some 'new behind the scenes' footage of four young guys wishing the world would just give them some peace.

I fell asleep. Twice.

A significant amount of people fell in love with the band and its music. We've known that for 60 years.

The band was relentlessly pursued by young women (and men but mostly women) the world over. We've known that for 60 years.

The band members have stated that they didn't really understand what was going on with public reaction but all this film really does is make it patently clear that Beatlemania was just about people jumping on a bandwagon.

Of course they never said that because they were the bandwagon.

You can tell the Fab Four - especially Lennon - really just want people to go away and give them a moment to themselves which is exactly what no one does for the duration.

It torturous to watch and completely unnecessary.

This documentary adds only a few unseen clips of the Beatles. It's kind of all over the place and surprisingly doesn't feature a ton of Beatles songs or performances from their initially trip to America in February 1964. I understand the use of older John and George interviews, but there's a lot of an interview Ringo (and George) did from 1988, they use In My Life (which came out in December 1965) and She Said She Said (which is from 1966). They completely gloss over the Miami portion of the trip as well. For a far superior documentary on this trip, I'd suggest "The First US Visit" which includes the Sullivan show performances.

Call me picky but movie restauration by AI can easily produce a fake reality. Look at Ringo's face during the "This Boy" section: either he suffers a ut Cushing's or AI has severely distorted his face.

We have seen wonders with digital restauration of old Hollywood movies in removing dust and scratches, brighten colours and improves sound. Since Ai reigns, and you may see this in Photoshop, the better Image sometimes looses it's connection to the original.

Having said this, most of the footage used for this compilation seems familiar and adds little to the well known Beatles history. I wouldn't walk a mile to see this movie.

Yeah, I don't know what is going on here. I think the director had a clear idea about some of the disruption caused to the Beatles by the hubbub of touring America but with the exception of one lucid moment where Paul describes the US of previously being in mourning following the death of Kennedy there is very little to offer. In the end, we have some great clips of the Beatles, from their time in hotels to travelling by train. There are talking heads in the movie but the perspective chosen for them is old-fashioned and biased toward men. The men, we are led to believe, love the music; the women are left to describe themselves as lusting after the fab four.