John, Paul, George, and Ringo are headed to London to perform on a TV show. Every step of the way they are pursued by throngs of screaming fans infected with Beatlemania. Between keeping Paul’s grandfather out of trouble and being cooped up in a hotel room, the boys want to get some fresh air between practice sessions. Thus begins a series of wanderings, musings, and frantic attempts by the band’s manager to get them all together for the show.
I love the Beatles but this movie does absolutely nothing for me. It’s a cute, fictitious look at two days in the life of the Fab Four but that’s about it. Scenes where the lads are frantically trying to evade their fans are played up for camp but you do have to wonder how close to reality that strikes at times. Being creative powerhouses that can’t even enjoy themselves in public? If anything, those elements of the film make A Hard Day’s Night a harbinger of the paparazzi culture that would explode in later decades.
One thing is very evident in almost every scene: The Beatles made charming music and had great stage presence, but none of them could act. Unless their performances are some form of British humor that was common before Monty Python and Are You Being Served, you will have a hard time convincing me that anything about their deliveries was deliberate. While they occasionally crack a good joke, the vast majority fall flat because the Fab Four have no sense of comedic timing.
Paul’s grandfather at least provides some genuine outlandish humor. Unless you know anything about the actor’s involvement on Steptoe & Son (remade in the US as Sanford and Son), the running gag about him being a “clean old man” makes no sense. It didn’t make sense to me before I looked it up. I can’t fault the film for using a bit of timely humor. Most comedies do it. This one just happens to be 50 years old. The old man and the film’s soundtrack make it worth watching.
In the end, this is a quaint and sometimes funny look at superstars dealing with and taking advantage of their celebrity status. The raging cynic in me believes that this film is only revered the way it inexplicably is because it features The Beatles. Had any other band in that era or any other been the first to make this kind of film, it would have flopped. That, my friends, is the power of exploitation. I respect this film’s place in history but I think Baby Boomers and Beatles fans need to take off their rose-colored glasses and admit that this film really isn’t that great at all.
RATING: 3.25 out of 5
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