Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music!, June 6, 2003
My Beatles education began here! Malcolm McDowell narrates this two hour documentary which came out two years after John Lennon's death. This became Beatles 101 for me, and when I first saw it in 1987 while studying calculus at a friend's house, I knew I had to get more of their stuff instead of just their greatest hits. There's lots of musical footage from their shows, the Hard Day's Night and Let It Be movie, press conferences, photo stills, and more than enough Beatles tunes played over the video.The documentary goes into a brief history of rock, and how the skiffle craze hit the UK. All teenagers, including the Beatles got into it, including John, frontman of the Quarrymen, and Paul and George, who later joined him. It's a wonder they survived the indifferent clubs and six hour sets in Hamburg's red-light district, and I suffered along with them, but lo and behold, when "Please Please Me" became a hit, I cheered along--yes, you got it made! It's more or less in two parts--from their birth to Rubber Soul, and their creative time from Revolver to Abbey Road. If anything, George Martin is given prominence here, as he played a vital role in turning them from mop-top pretty boys to artists unafraid to experiment with new sounds. He tells how he recorded a string quartet around Paul's "Yesterday," how he got the LSO piccolo trumpet player to play on "Penny Lane" after Paul saw a concert with the instrument, and the swirling organ sound in "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite." My favourite bit was how "Strawberry Fields Forever" became the tune it was, and I've appreciated that song ever since. He sheds so much light on the Beatles and the recording process, it's incredible! Incidentally, "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" became the first Beatles song to be accompanied by "promotional film." And this a full fifteen years before MTV. Wow! Sgt Peppers is given its proper due here, as "attitude, graphic design, fashion, language and the recording business itself changed" as a result. It's when the subject turns to the Let It Be sessions that it becomes painful. The bickering that had begun from the White Album sessions had heightened and even Billy Preston couldn't salvage it. Abbey Road was the final redemption that the Beatles could still rock and roll, even though it was very polished. As Lenny Kaye put it, "it's all four of them working together as a band as if they knew it was to be their last hurrah." It was. When Paul sings "Let It Be" from the movie, it's intercut with scenes from their earlier days. As George Martin put it, "they were of their time, their timing was right,... and they left their mark in history because of it." Nicholas Schaffner, author of The Beatles Forever, and guitarist Lenny Kaye add useful commentary to the programme. This was Beatles 101 for me and a great place for those who want to be clued in on why they are a universally-loved group. I can watch this over and over again and feel elated, entranced, and ultimately sad, but I come out of feeling glad I got to love their music so much. For John and George. And for the living, Sir Paul, Ringo, and George Martin.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH..., June 5, 2002
This is a marvelous documentary of the rock band that literally rocked the world, The Beatles. This film, which features both black and white as well as color segments, is a tribute to the Fab Four. It details their rise from their humble origins in the grim, port city of Liverpool, England to the unparalleled heights of international fame.
The film takes the viewer on a trip down memory lane, showing how The Beatles first started, and where it all began. It grounds their inauspicious beginnings in the context of the music world of the time. It shows the influence of American music on the youth of England, who, in turn, would end up influencing the youth of the United States in ways that could not have been foreseen. The Beatles were to be the catalyst for the rising success of British pop stars who would dominate the music industry years to come.
There is some very early footage of The Beatles in their earliest incarnations as the Quarrymen and the Silver Beetles. There is also footage of Stuart Sutcliffe, a former band member and friend, who died early in the band's career. There is also footage of their original drummer, hunky Pete Best. The film details the reason for the change in drummers, as well as the role each member played in the group.
From Liverpool to Germany to the United States for their record shattering debut on the Ed Sullivan variety show, this film captures it all. The film also showa the musical development of the group, as well as the forces that were to later drive them apart. It expertly details the beginning and the end of the greatest and most inflential rock band to ever grace the music world.
The viewer can expect to be treated to a rock and roll exposition with film clips of early Cliff Richards, Billy Preston, and Tony Sheridan, among others. An older Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers fame (Ferry 'Cross the Mersey) expertly expounds on the influence of American music on the early British pop scene and the rise of the skiffle bands. There are also clips from those who had worked with The Beatles early on in their career, as well as those who worked with them long term, such as George Martin.
Best of all, there is the music and lots of it. The film is a veritable cornucopia of sound and a treasure trove of information about a musical past that still influences us today. All in all, this is an outstanding documentary that should appeal to those who are fond of this genre, as well as those who are fans of The Beatles, music lovers everywhere, and those who simply love a good film. Bravo!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Can't Believe This Isn't on DVD, October 3, 2005
Back in the middle 1980s, if you were a Beatles fan this was one of your few choices in full-length home video. The misleadingly titled 'Compleat Beatles' was one of the first direct-to-video rockumentaries to later be broadcast on PBS and cable TV, and it was accompanied by a two-volume set of books containing sheet music. (The books were available separately.)
Nostalgia aside, there isn't much here that isn't covered in more depth in 'The Beatles Anthology.' Evidentally, the film makers couldn't acquire the rights to use actual film footage from either 'Magical Mystery Tour' or 'Help!' and so these films are represented by movie stills. Very little concert footage remains, and most of that consists of audience reaction shots. It's maddening how, after Ed Sullivan introduces the Beatles we are shown only reaction shots and hear a remixed studio recording of 'All My Loving' instead of the live version. There are no interviews with the Beatles themselves, save for old footage taped during the group's heyday. And few, if any songs appear without narration or some other intrusion.
On the positive side (and perhaps I am being generous here) are some first-rate interviews with the Beatles' original manager, George Martin, Gerry from Gerry and the Pacemakers, Marianne Faithful, and Billy Preston (among others). To my knowledge, these interviews were originally intended for 'The Long And Winding Road,' which would have been a rockumentary similar to 'Anthology' except completed in the late 1970s. Indeed, it seems that 'The Compleat Beatles' was made solely to salvage the hard work already done on 'The Long and Winding Road.'
I would like to see this film issued on DVD anyway, because there's a chance that more of these exclusive interviews might make their way onto the disc as extras. 'The Compleat Beatles' may not be as memorable a rockumentary as 'Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!' but it doesn't deserve its out-of-print status either.
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