The Beatles are back!
"A Hard Day's Night", their first movie, has been re-released, with a soundtrack re-mastered in state-of-the-art 6-channel digital audio, with outtakes and previously unseen footage included. Long considered one of the greatest of all rock films, it more than deserves its lofty stature. The re-release not only confirms that status, but further elevates it (if that's even possible).
"A Hard Day's Night" exploded onto the scene like a bombshell in 1964, at the height of the initial surge of Beatlemania; not only was it a 'rock & roll film', but it broke so much new ground that it's difficult to realize today what it accomplished, unless we understand what the status quo had been for rock cinema prior to 1964.
Before "A Hard Day's Night", most rock films fit into either of two general categories: 'Alan Freed', and 'Elvis'. Alan Freed was, of course, the Cincinnati/New York DJ who's credited with coining the term 'rock & roll', before he was toppled by the payola scandals at the end of the 1950's. Freed put on his 'Moondog Matinees' in both Cincinnati and New York in the mid-50's; the movies, such as "Don't Knock The Rock", "Mister Rock & Roll", "Rock, Rock, Rock", etc., were conceived as an outgrowth of those shows.
The 'Freed movies' generally had a light, formulaic storyline: 1) kids discover rock & roll; 2) parents hate it; 3) kids win out in the end. The attraction of Freed movies was that most of the popular acts of the day were showcased at their peak; viewed today, their value is mainly historical, and are worth watching, even if they weren't particularly outstanding.
'Elvis films' took Elvis and put him into a fairly light story where he played an 'Elvis'-like character (in the same way that John Wayne almost always played 'John Wayne'), and sang a song every 5 or 10 minutes. Again, the storylines were usually fairly light, and after a while, became formula; most were fairly average, some outstanding ("King Creole" and "Jailhouse Rock"), and a few later ones just plain sucked.
The common factor in both categories, though, was that the movies existed mainly as a vehicle to make money off the rock & roll craze; for the most part, they weren't trying to make a "Citizen Kane".
"A Hard Day's Night" was an almost perfect picture of what a pop/rock band was all about. In 1964, untold thousands of teenagers went into theaters across the country (and the world) and were changed forever by what they saw; the girls screamed, and the boys picked up guitars to make their own music. Anyone who formed a band after seeing the Beatles in their local theater would freely admit that the movie was a major influence in their doing so.
"A Hard Day's Night" should have been just another 'Elvis film'. Legend has it that United Artists didn't want to spend a lot of money on the film, because they thought the Beatles were just a 'fad'. Walter Shenson, the producer, was given a budget of $500,000, and let the Beatles choose both director and writer, a decision that proved exceptionally wise.
Richard Lester was chosen to direct; it was a brilliant choice. Not only was Lester used to working on tight deadlines and low budgets, but in 1959, he had made "The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film", which starred Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan of The Goons (the seminal British comedy troupe whose albums were produced by George Martin; in fact, the association with The Goons was what initially attracted the Beatles to both Martin and Lester), and which pre-dated the "Monty Python's Flying Circus" TV show by a good 10 years.
"The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film" had an enormous influence on "A Hard Day's Night"; a large part of both films' energy comes from Lester's innovative techniques, which flew in the face of the traditional 'Hollywood style' of filmmaking. Directors such as John Cassavetes had already abandoned the tried and true style, opting for gritty realism, using hand-held cameras that gave his films more of a documentary feel. Lester was a part of this new breed; producers like Sam Katzman (maker of a lot of the quick-buck rock & roll flicks) weren't. "A Hard Day's Night" wasn't a film that 'Hollywood' would (or could) have made; it's safe to say that if it had been a 'Hollywood film', it never could have been the classic it turned out to be.
The other brilliant choice was that of the writer. Alun Owen (who passed away last year) was Britain's top playwright of the time. He spent a few days with the Beatles, getting to know them and getting a feel for what they were all about; it was time well spent. Owen's subtly brilliant script, justly nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, gave the group a strong basic framework to build on - a trip to London to appear on a TV show - and allowed them the freedom to improvise around it. Interestingly, the original draft had included a lot of scripted one-liners, 'just in case', then was almost totally rewritten when the Beatles' wit and spontaneity proved more than adequate.
The brilliance of both director and scriptwriter would have been lost if the Beatles themselves hadn't been up to the task; great musicians aren't always great actors. The Fab Four proved much better than had been hoped, though; not only were they all excellent actors, but they played off each other in much the same way as comedy teams like the Marx Brothers (who they were favorably compared to in many reviews) had, which gave them a huge advantage over other movie-making pop stars, including Elvis.
Remember, Elvis always played an Elvis-like character; in "A Hard Day's Night", the Beatles played themselves, and it was the first such rock film, almost a documentary by comparison. Each Beatle had the opportunity to shine as himself, which made all the difference; today, this is not only the way we remember the early Beatles, it's the reason that we remember them the way we do. Paul was the 'cute one', John, the 'smart one', George, the 'quiet one', and Ringo was... well... the drummer.
In rock films, it's all too easy to surround the star(s) with a fairly anonymous supporting cast, so that the star is always the focal point; almost inevitably, the film suffers as a result. By contrast, "A Hard Day's Night's" supporting cast is not only worthy to share the spotlight with the Beatles, but in some scenes, they wind up stealing it! The characters we meet as we spend two days with the Beatles are not only highly colorful, but lovably quirky as well. For example, exasperation is a fairly common emotion among the supporting cast, shared by managers Norm and Shake (Norman Rossington and John Junkin), as well as the incredibly nervous TV director (brilliantly played by Victor Spinetti).
The standout among the supporting cast by far, though, is Paul's grandfather, played by Wilfrid Brambell of the British TV series "Steptoe & Son" (adapted for the USA as Norman Lear's "Sanford & Son"). The rest of the supporting cast is hard-pressed to keep up with the Beatles; by contrast, even the Beatles have problems keeping up with Paul's grandfather!
And then, there's the music...
The Beatles were the greatest and most influential pop/rock band ever; watching "A Hard Day's Night", it's not hard to see why. The first chord of "A Hard Day's Night" (a G4b7, for those musically inclined), played on George Harrison's Rickenbacker electric 12-string guitar, signalled nothing less than a 'shot heard round the world', backed by guitar, bass, drums, and 4-part harmony. This was the peak of Beatlemania in 1964, when the Fab Four were at the top of their form as a pop band. Lennon and McCartney had thoroughly mastered the craft of pop songwriting, and the band was tight and lean; the artistic expansion of Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, etc., was still some time away.
There's not a weak song to be heard in "A Hard Day's Night", either, which signalled another major difference from a lot of rock films (especially some of Elvis's mid-60's movies); typically, they had one or two soundtrack hits, and several other lesser songs added as filler. Every song in "A Hard Day's Night" was written by John and Paul, and all of them are first-rate pop songs, which was another important first in rock films. The energy of the music is absolutely electrifying, even 35 years later.
Beatlemania was a dynamic explosion of positive youthful energy, and "A Hard Day's Night" was at the exact center of that explosion; almost every review ever written about it emphasizes that energy. Earlier rock & roll films were energetic, but "A Hard Day's Night's" energy manifested itself in a distinctly different way. Elvis's films tended towards 'rags-to-riches' storylines, with his characters living hard lives. For example, "King Creole" featured Elvis as a young singer who got mixed up with a gangster, and he did time in prison in "Jailhouse Rock". By comparison, "A Hard Day's Night" gave no hint of hard living; the energy was all positive, and the sheer level of that energy made anything about their backgrounds irrelevant.
Even though the energy was positive, that's not to say that it was totally innocuous by any means. Far from it; "A Hard Day's Night's" energy was subversive, but in a very subtle way. Rebellious attitudes in rock & roll were nothing new, but the Beatles elevated it to a sophisticated art form (and one that liberated an entire generation). The most noticeable example was the scene with the stuffy, pretentious man on the train who objects to Ringo's radio:
Man: Don't take that tone with me young man. I fought the war for your sort.
Ringo: I bet you're sorry you won.
The most important bit of subversion, though, is George's scene with the snooty tastemaker. Not only did the Beatles rebel against the Establishment, but they were willing to trash the pop culture that they themselves were a part of! The scene is an excellent example of the subtle brilliance of Alun Owen's script. Most writers would probably have been content to set up a straw man to knock down, having the tastemaker go through his spiel, with George saying something like, "Well, I'm a Beatle, don't you know", wherein the tastemaker would immediately start kissing George's ass.
It wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective that way, though.
What makes that particular scene so effective is that George doesn't reveal that he's a Beatle. Keep in mind that the tastemaker is supposed to have his finger on the pulse of pop culture. Not recognizing George is a telling point; not only does he not recognize George as a Beatle, but his attitude is clearly contemptuous and condescending towards the teen culture in general. So much so, in fact, that he fails to notice that George is nonchalantly taking him apart bit by bit as they speak. Only at the very end, as he comes totally unglued, does he realize the damage that George has done. Nobody had ever dared to trash the plasticity of pop culture so thoroughly in a rock & roll film, and especially in such a carefree, effortless manner.
It would be a mistake to call "A Hard Day's Night" a subversive film, though; it's merely a part of the overall whole. Other scenes, particularly John's, have a surreal quality. In his backstage conversation, for example, we never find out just who John and the lady are talking about, nor do we need to; it's more effective with that little bit of mystery unresolved. Paul didn't get a big star turn; a scene was filmed, but didn't fit well into the storyline, and got cut.
Ringo's big sequence, on the other hand, gave the best indication of what the Beatles' lives were like at that point. In his 1980 Playboy interview, John mentioned that the song "Help!" was a reaction to being trapped by their fame, but we see hints of this already in "A Hard Day's Night", and Ringo's scene was the strongest.
The scene starts when Paul's grandfather plays on Ringo's dissatisfaction with his situation; Ringo winds up going off on his own, searching for some semblance of a normal life. He dons a trench coat and fisherman's hat to disguise himself, wanders about aimlessly, has a conversation with a young boy he meets, and winds up getting arrested as a vagabond! Ringo's sequence poignantly illustrates the Beatles' desire for anonymity in the face of overwhelming fame, and is both humorous and touching at the same time; of the Fab Four, only Ringo was right for that scene. Interestingly, Ringo came in the morning of shooting with a hangover; his awkwardness wasn't just genuine, it was about 100 proof, as well.
With the Beatles already being hemmed in by the effects of their massive fame, it comes as no surprise that a scene like Ringo's would be included in "A Hard Day's Night", nor is it an accident that the most energetic and playful scene starts with the band exclaiming "We're free!!" as they slip out a side door. "Can't Buy Me Love" shows the Beatles un-self-consciously playing in a field; nothing in any previous rock film had even come close to the sense of total abandon in that particular sequence.
The vast differences between "A Hard Day's Night" and earlier rock films could be seen as a generational shift. Assuming 16 as a typical screaming rock & roll girl's age, Elvis's fans in 1957 were born around 1941 (late Depression/WW II), and the Beatles' fans in 1964 were born around 1948 (early baby boom). The 'hard times' mindset of the Depression had been replaced by the unbridled optimism of the post-war boom, and the differences between "A Hard Day's Night" and earlier rock & roll films reflected the differences in the coming of age of each generation.
Comparisons can be drawn between "A Hard Day's Night" and later rock/rock-oriented films, as well. Compare and contrast, for example, D.A. Pennebaker's classic Bob Dylan documentary, "Don't Look Back", made during Dylan's 1965 tour of England; "A Hard Day's Night" very clearly anticipates the Dylan documentary. Another good comparison can be made with George Lucas's "American Graffiti", set a couple years earlier, in Modesto, California. The film is a bittersweet reverie of coming of age, set at the last moment of innocence before the 60's exploded, filtered through the experiences of 10 or more turbulent years.
"A Hard Day's Night", by comparison, chronicles that explosion from ground zero, in real time, as it's happening. Looking back at "A Hard Day's Night" from a 1999 perspective, we can infer some of the same foreshadowing that "American Graffiti" showed in retrospect, but the Beatles' film was prescient; what was yet to come in the 60's (a great deal of which was directly inspired by the Beatles) was still a great unknown as their helicopter flew off into the sky, and into history, in the same way that movie cowboys always 'rode off into the sunset'.
The future that "A Hard Day's Night" presaged also had a flip side, one that mirrored the social upheaval that would dominate the rest of the decade; "Let It Be" shows the Beatles at the end of their time together, after the internal tensions had all but torn them apart. The liberating freedom that the optimistic energy of youth in 1964 engendered came crashing down in "Easy Riders"; Captain America and Billy had their freedom, and searched in vain for a foundation to build on, finding turmoil and rejection at every turn. The ultimate crash and burn of the 60's, though, was the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", the documentary of the Altamont disaster that closed the decade.
In 1964, that was all years in the future, though; "A Hard Day's Night" in 1999 is still as fresh, exuberant, joyful and optimistic as it was when it was made. Even if it's set in 1964 and filmed in black & white, "A Hard Day's Night" isn't the least bit dated; it has the quality of being able to simultaneously define its particular moment in time and yet be utterly timeless, as well.
For 35 years, pop and rock bands have tried to recapture the magic of the Beatles' first movie. Only a precious few have come anywhere near close; none have been able to recreate the Fab Four's vital essence. The Spice Girls tried most recently (and failed miserably) with "Spiceworld", which was concocted as a knock-off of "A Hard Day's Night's" storyline; they (and the vast majority of today's pop/rock stars) simply don't have either the charisma or the talent to pull it off. The climactic TV performance, with hundreds of girls crying and screaming, will probably never be equalled!
In 1999, with the music scene fragmented into ever-smaller niches, it's hard to believe that any one band could have had such an overwhelming effect; even the biggest mega-marketed stars today don't have anywhere near the impact that the Beatles had in 1964 alone! Garth Bucks (the Bill Gates/Microsoft Windows of the music world) might be close to surpassing the Beatles' total album sales, but will he ever be their equal? Hell no! Let Garth (or anyone else, for that matter) crank out as many 'guaranteed crowd-pleasers' as he wants; the real thing kicks his lily ass every time!
Does "A Hard Day's Night" still matter in 1999, though? Absolutely! It lets the viewer experience one of the defining moments in pop culture, rather than just watching it, which makes all the difference. Indeed, the legacy of the Beatles still pervades the popular idiom, likely more than we may realize; it'll probably live forever!
Will it? It will; yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAH!
-Bob "Skippy" Blechinger