A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The Beatles take England by storm as they travel from Liverpool to London so they can do a live performance on a television show. What makes this movie so special and enjoyable is the way it vividly captures the Fab Four when they were still pretty fresh, dynamic, and even fairly innocent; by having the Beatles wisely just be themselves this film manages to astutely nail the charming effervescent quality that made them stand out as a group. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr all display a winningly natural rapport and a tight camaraderie that's a joy to behold. Moreover, they all deliver a slew of sharp snappy one-liners with cheeky aplomb. Wilfrid Brambell nearly steals the whole show as Paul's mischievous grandfather. In addition, there are amusing supporting contributions from Norman Rossington as long-suffering manager Norm, John Junkin as hapless lackey Shake, Victor Spinetti as a pompous TV director, and Kenneth Haigh as a pretentious advertising executive. Alun Owen's sly script pokes wickedly hilarious fun at everything from the media -- the press conference sequence is a riot! -- to television to the Beatles themselves. Directed with tremendous gusto by Richard Lester, exploding with infectiously anarchic energy, and further galvanized by a bunch of wonderful songs, there's a vibrancy and spontaneity evident throughout that's downright impossible to either dislike or resist. A total treat.

What I love about this movie is how authentic it is. I remember reading Roger Ebert's review of it and how interesting it was to learn that he was born on the same day as Paul McCartney! Anyway, what's amazing is how utterly realistic this movie is. It really does seem like a documentary. Most of this movie is just hanging out with the Beatles and them cracking some jokes and being interviewed. We of course get all their greatest songs.You could simply listen to those at day. It's such a relief to watch a good movie after being subjected to all these stupid films I've seen lately. It's funny how they're listed in the credits not as themselves, but as uh, themselves. Anyway, this is a really soft moving film. At first, I thought I would be mad that it was too short but instead the running time made it perfect. I guess you could call me a Beatles fan even if I'm not the biggest one.To a certain extent, this does seem like a really long music video. It does have a steady plot and it makes you feel like you're right there in on the action. It's hard to even believe that these people are acting. Well, they are playing themselves so it's technically not acting. There's tons of quotable dialogue and I especially like, "It's an in-joke!". A must for any music fan or really anyone. ****

Although I do like a lot of their songs, I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of The Beatles. I tend to like other contemporary artists better and in some cases I prefer the careers that McCartney and Lennon had after the group split. Therefore I wasn't particularly fussed about watching this drama-documentary-comedy-musical that follows the fab four around at the height of their fame. It's short in black and white with an on-street vibe by Musketeers director Richard Lester, but what comes across to me is just how unpleasant the group members are. They make constant wisecracks and jokes, but a lot of them seem to be sarcastic and mean-spirited, which I didn't find appealing at all. The songs are great and break up the rest of the tedium, and casting proper actors like Wilfrid Brambell in support was a great idea, but the rest is merely inconsequential - unless you're a fan who can't get enough of them.

...but they were great entertainers, and this film is great entertainment. This is the best of all of the rock and roll films that feature the actual performers. This picture demonstrates The Beatles at the peak of their popularity in the Summer of 1964- wandering about London- with the ultimate soundtrack in the background. A fascinating homage to Beatlemania when viewed now- over half a century later. The inventive boys from Liverpool are displayed at their sarcastic and witty best in this natural setting. A Hard Day's Night is a great example of the early Beatles musical ability, and work product, being that the title tune was written in about 20min between finishing an American tour, a European tour, a plethora of television specials, recording an LP in Paris in German for the Deutschland market, writing and recording the Hard Day's Night LP as well as making this film all within the same year, and before May of that year. After which, they all went on a month long vacation, recorded another album and began work on the next film. These guys were driven workaholics at this time, and their collective creative synergy has never been seen again.There wasn't anywhere The Beatles could go without being mobbed, thus they spent years boxed up in hotel rooms together to the point where they knew each other so well they often finished each others sentences during interviews. As a group of young men going through that type of stress day in and day out, they had to develop coping skills in order to keep it together, it seems they chose humor as their main tool. This movie shows us a little bit of that. Genius casting is evident in Hard Days Night with the inclusion of Irishman Wilfred Brambell as Paul McCartney's incorrigible Grandfather. Brambell was only 52 at the time but looked 82. At the time Brambell was very well known to British audiences due to the popularity of his television character named Albert Steptoe in a show called Steptoe and Son. Brambell's 1960s character Steptoe was the basis for the Fred Sanford character played by Redd Foxx on the 1970s American TV show "Sanford and Son". Look fast for a 13 year old Phil Collins in the audience as a screaming fan and look even faster for 20 year old Pattie Boyd as a schoolgirl on the train ride.