![]() ![]() One thing you can’t get around: This film starts the end of the Beatles. But seeing it again recently, and then a couple more times after that so as to make sure I hadn’t lost my own plot in terms of critical thinking, I couldn’t help but think this film is actually pretty damn ballsy - pretty flawed, but there is real cinematic worthiness here. I had some early screenings of the film, having been indoctrinated in the standard commentary about it, and that was enough for me. I would venture that there are many critics who consider it the worst thing they ever did, and by a decent margin at that.įor a while, I didn’t watch it. If you read any Beatles history that covers their entire career, you will encounter much condemnation of this film. Give it another try sometime - it has aged well.īut then we have that first post-Epstein movie venture, " Magical Mystery Tour ," the Boxing Day would-be treat that went way, way wrong. Their first two cinematic forays, " A Hard Day’s Night" (1964) and " Help!" (1965) were largely steered by others, with the former managing to meld itself into a glorious piece of top-end, artful cinema, the other being far patchier and flawed, but esoteric and esoterically watchable. ![]() Lacking their rudder, in a sense, at least insofar as outside-of-the-studio decisions went, the band attempted to regroup by making a film on their terms. " Later in that summer, manager Brian Epstein died. The year had begun with their release of the finest single we have, in “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever,” then reached a zeitgeist-bending high water mark in the early summer with "Sgt. It was into that market that the Beatles wished to step as their once glorious 1967 campaign drew to a close. It’s a big shopping day, a big post-Christmas sit-around-and-bask day, and an ideal day for some light television entertainment. In England, this is what is known as Boxing Day, when the postman and others in the service industries, however broadly defined, can expect to receive a present in a box - or they once could, anyway. The consensual first misstep in the Beatles’ career occurred the day after Christmas, 1967. ![]()
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