Product Details

• Actors: Hours & Times
• Directors: Christopher Munch
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Choices Inc
• DVD Release Date: October 29, 2002
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000766F7
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,040 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best American indie in many, many years." --Village Voice

"An impressive display...highly polished." --Los Angeles Times

"A sharp, concise, evocative film." --The New York Times

Product Description

In 1963, just months before Beatlemania swept the world, John Lennon and the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, took a four day vacation together in Barcelona. They were there to relax after a grueling series of concerts, but the trip remained charged with an unspoken tension. Those four emotional days are embodied in The Hours and Times, a flight of imagination that evokes the complex relationship between Lennon and Epstein. Candid, intelligent, and loaded with backstage conjecture, the movie captures masterfully the fleeting moments of their intense friendship before celebrity washed over intimacy.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars eavesdropping, February 6, 2003

By 

Clare Quilty (a little pad in hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hours and Times (DVD)

Short, sharp, and crispy imagined and photographed, "The Hours and Times" presents a casual-to-the-point-of-verite look at John Lennon, and the Beatles manager and worshiper, Brian Epstein as they spend a weekend in Spain after the detonation of Beatlemania, but before the explosion.

It's pretty common knowledge that Epstein was in love with Lennon; common knowledge also that Lennon had issues with his own sexuality and curiousity, that he was equally in awe of and disgusted by Epstein. This movie offers a hypothetical treatment of two days in their relationship.

Many people will complain that this movie moves slowly, that not a lot happens. I found that to be one of its virtues, because the performances seem (to me, anyway) to be so dead-on, and the script is so careful not to show off, that at times it does feel like we're watching documentary footage of the two famous, troubled geniuses. Unlike most movies, this film says exactly what it has to say in just about an hour... and then ends. I both admired the movie's restraint and was sorry to see it end.

So many details seem right, too: hotel lobbies and suites in Barcelona; the interior of a 727 (of which we only really see two seats); Lennon sketching in pajamas, being casually cruel to his wife, Cynthia; Epstein listening to the radio and gently crying.

One particular scene, in which John squares off against a shrewd stewardess and they resolve the drama by twisting to a new Little Richard single, contains enough truth and beauty and sadness to fill an entire, full-length movie.

If you've ever poured over a book of Beatle photographs and marveled as much at the famous faces as at the little details in the background -- Coke bottles, packs of Marlboros, rings and board games, transistor radios, suits and shirts and ties -- you really should see this movie.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing..., March 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hours & Times [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Despite the description, this film is not at all sensationalistic or exploitive. It's very sensitive and arty and very in-keeping with both Lennon's and Epstein's personalities. You really feel both characters' frustration: Lennon's at being at a confusing crossroad of oncoming fame and unwanted fatherhood and Epstein's at desparately wanting someone he can never have. It's more a dual character study than anything else. Lennon was fascinating in his angry young man stage and Epstein was hopelessly, pitifully attracted to people and circumstances that could only bring him pain. Lennon was not gay (in fact by all accounts he was downright homophobic at that age) but his empathy for Epstein's plight was so strong. He was torn between his heterosexuality and wanting to ease Epstein's suffering. A relationship would have been completely impossible and they both knew it. This film was quite realistic in not tacking on some kind of would-be happy ending or any ending at all, because with this type of situation, nothing is resolved, nothing ends -- it can't be any other way. If you're a Lennon fan, you really should see this.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing much really happens but......, July 26, 2005

By 

JJ "JJ" (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hours and Times (DVD)

I loved this movie. Not very much happens as far as the plot goes but the character study is intriguing. The cinematography is great and the black and white cinematography creates a moving work of art.

I also lived in Barcelona so it was great to see the director's sweeping panoramic shots of the city.